Valentine’s Dinner

Instead of going out for Valentine’s Day, Jed and I decided to make a recipe from our new French Laundry cookbook.  We opted for “Macaroni & Cheese”, or Butter-Poached Lobster with Creamy Lobster Broth and Mascarpone-enriched Orzo.

Overall, it was a great recipe and a wonderful afternoon.  We stocked up ahead of time on the equipment we’d need and I had quite a bit of fun wandering around Denton’s in Clapham looking at all the shiny kitchen tools.  We now have a china cap, chinois and (my staple for a kitchen) Silpat for future recipes.

Dinner took about 5 hours from start to finish, mostly due to the amount of time required to reduce about 6 cups of broth down to 1 cup.

We had to steep the lobsters in a boiling water-vinegar solution for 2-3 minutes.  I’m never cooking lobsters in a pot of water again – this method (pour the boiling water over the lobsters and let sit for 2-3 minutes, then remove and put claws back in for another 5 minutes) is absolutely amazing!

I’ve never been able to remove meat so easily from all parts of the lobster.  The tail slid out without problem and even the knuckle meat was coming out without really breaking the shell.

The meat isn’t cooked when it comes out – it’s just cooked enough on the outside to facilitate removal, but the flesh on the inside is still raw enough that you can finish it however you like.

The broth begins with the lobster bodies in quarters being sauteed and then veg, tarragon, and water are added and left to simmer for an hour.

The broth itself required quite a bit of skimming, which I found quite calming.

Since reducing broth doesn’t make for good photos, I’ll just skip to the poaching.  You can see how cleanly the meat came out of the shell – all the claws remained intact, although the colour isn’t as vibrant as when it’s fully cooked.

The lobster poached in beurre monte (left) and the broth, reduced to one cup, was then mixed with 2 cups heavy cream and then reduced to 1 cup again.  We couldn’t find orzo at our usual markets, so substituted troiffe, a twisted pasta that was thin, though longer than orzo, but made from the same hard durum semolina.  I think it was a good substitute given we didn’t have time to scrounge around the finer markets during the week.

As the lobster poached, we combined the troiffe with the creamy lobster broth, then added the two tablespoons of mascarpone and chives.  To plate, the troiffe went first, then half a tail and a claw, topped with a crisp.  We didn’t have any coral from the lobsters, so couldn’t make the coral oil to garnish the plate, but I’m very happy with the outcome.

The final pics aren’t uploading properly, so check out my flickr site for more.

We ended up with quite a lot of leftover lobster, but I didn’t want to run the risk of reducing the recipe and mucking up the numbers, so I guess we’ll just have to eat lobster again soon.  Shucks.

For drinks, we started with some pink champagne and drank a Visintini pinot bianco during the meal.  Visintini is one of my favourite vineyards and they offer a gorgeous copper-coloured pinot grigio, my favourite for a special meal.  I went with the slightly lighter pinot bianco for this one, as the dish itself is very, very rich.