Get to grips with a pincer movement
By Rowley Leigh
Published: June 5 2010 01:40 | Last updated: June 5 2010 01:40
There are a lot of ways to cook a lobster. The classical repertoire is extensive, with preparations such as Thermidor, Newburg and à l’Americaine now rarely seen, being a bit elaborate and rather heavy for the modern taste.
The combination of lobster and cheese sauce that is Thermidor should be an abomination but is in fact beguiling, although a small portion might be appropriate.
The recipe for Newburg (invented by a shy chef called Wenburg), however, really goes over the top: it calls for six tablespoons of butter, half a pint of sherry, half a pint of velouté sauce, two-thirds of a pint of cream and another quarter pound of butter to finish it, and perhaps, the diner off, (although, to be fair, the recipe is for two).
Of this trinity, à l’Americaine may be just as rare on modern menus but its influence is more pervasive. The technique of flaming the shells in brandy, stewing them, with or without meat attached, in white wine, tomatoes, herbs and finishing them with cream is the same basic principle as for a lobster bisque and for any sauce that depends on getting its flavour from the lobster shell. If homard à l’Americaine is a bit old hat, sauce Americaine is alive and kicking.
These ruminations are prompted by my promise that during our “shellfish fortnight” at the restaurant we will assess a different lobster dish every day. There are plenty of simpler treatments of lobster that will also fit the bill, of course. It is a while since “les demoiselles de Cherbourg à la mode de Caen” got an airing and I look forward to poaching lobsters in a fragrant Thai broth.
The home cook is very welcome to give some of them a go too but, frankly, it is not strictly necessary. Should you have two, three or four live lobsters – and why shouldn’t you? – the best thing to do is probably fill a very large pot with water and salt, bring it to the boil and drop in the lobsters.
Eat them 10 minutes after they are cooked with a wedge of lemon, a bowl of melted butter, some useful implements for cracking the claws and picking the meat and a napkin tucked into the collar to act as a bib. It may be simple but it is efficacious.
It has another merit that other treatments may not have: there is a second bite of the cherry in the form of a bisque, a dish that combines suave luxury with an admirable sense of economy.
Rowley Leigh is the chef at Le Café Anglais
More columns at www.ft.com/leigh
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Lobster bisque
Any crustacean shells can go into a bisque: a handful of frozen prawns can also be added to a lobster bisque for additional body. Any left over lobster meat should be diced and put into the bisque at the end. Serves six.
Ingredients
1 onion
1 carrot
2 ribs of celery
½ fennel bulb
2 cloves garlic
1 chilli
The shells from at least two lobsters
1 tbs brandy or whisky
1 glass dry white wine
5 overripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped, or a tin of chopped plum tomatoes
2 bay leaves
500ml fish stock, if available
1 tbs rice
2 tbs double cream
2 egg yolks
Method
● Peel and chop all the vegetables into small dice. Heat a large saucepan with a tablespoon of olive oil and add the vegetables, letting them colour on a lively heat for five minutes. Add the lobster shells, pounding them with a heavy object such as a pestle or the end of a rolling pin.
Stew the shells together with the vegetables for a few minutes until they become too dry and start to stick. At this point, pour in the brandy or whisky and set it alight. When the flames subside, add the white wine, tomatoes, rice, bay leaves and fish stock (use water if you do not have any). Bring gently to the boil and then reduce the heat to a very light simmer and cook for 45 minutes.
● Remove the bay leaves from the soup and put the remainder in the liquidiser or food processor and pulse the mixture. Prolonged action will damage the machine and it is not the intention to actually purée the shells but to break them up. Just as good, pass the soup through the medium mesh of the mouli-legumes. In any case, the soup now has to be passed through a fine sieve: this may seem laborious but is absolutely essential because a bisque must have a smooth, velvety texture. You should now be left with at least a litre of slightly thin but very delicious soup. Put it back in a clean pan and bring it gently to the boil. Taste the soup for seasoning and flavour: it will probably need a pinch of salt, a little pepper or cayenne and perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice to sharpen proceedings.
● Whisk together the cream and egg yolks in a large mixing bowl. Pour the boiling soup gradually into this mixture, whisking constantly. Once half has been added, pour the contents of the bowl back into the pan, return for a minute, literally, to the stove, taking great care not to let it boil and stirring it constantly. Serve immediately.
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