Butternut Lobster

I love seafood. Crab, lobster, mussels, shrimp, all of it. But sometimes it seems like a real hassle to prepare. Maybe I'm a bit lazy? When it comes to lobster and crab prefer just buying cooked meat in local seafood markets. I am fortunate to have several options close to me and when I recently saw fresh cooked lobster meat immediately knew I wanted to make a soup. Seafood soup is just pure joy for me. And what better way to enjoy it now with sweet, creamy pumpkin?

Most seafood soup recipes use cream and it definitely can be used in this recipe, but I think the pureed pumpkin is thick enough that you can get away with using half and half or regular milk creamy and still have that rich, silky texture one expects in a cream soup.

The recipe also calls for stocks, which I realize might be a pain for some of you who do not like to make homemade stocks. I found a local butcher shop near me that carries homemade fish stock, but it's really not hard to do. For this recipe you can use fish stock, shrimp or lobster stock to stock. And if all this sounds complicated and troublesome for you, use chicken broth. The soup itself does not have the same flavor of seafood, but it will still be delicious and will work well with lobster meat.

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 leeks, pale green and white parts only
1 medium shallot, minced (approximately ½ cup)
3 ribs celery, diced
4 cups butternut squash, cubed
⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon cognac
1½ cups fish stock
1 sprig thyme
1 cup half and half (or 50% whole milk and 50% heavy cream)
½ teaspoon sea salt or to taste
black pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup fresh lobster meat, chopped

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven or large heavy-bottom saucepan over low heat. Add the leeks, shallot and celery with a pinch of salt. Allow the vegetables to sweat for several minutes, stirring periodically, until softened. Add the butternut squash and cook for several more minutes, stirring.

2. Turn the heat up to medium and allow a brown glaze to slowly build on the bottom of the pan by stirring less often. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. Use a spatula to scrape up and incorporate the brown bits a few times. After several minutes, add ⅓ cup cognac to deglaze the pan and loosen the rest of the brown bits. Allow to alcohol to reduce down to almost nothing, stirring the vegetables frequently, and then add the fish stock and thyme leaves.

3. Bring the liquid to a boil and then cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Allow the soup to simmer for 45 minutes.

4. Carefully transfer the soup to a blender and puree until very smooth. Wipe down the dutch oven and return the soup to the pot. Stir in the half and half, 1 tablespoon cognac, and the salt, pepper and cayenne. Add the lobster meat, optionally reserving some for garnish. Serve hot. To reheat the soup, strain out the lobster meat first to avoid overcooking it. Add it back in once the soup is hot.

Grilled lobster with herbs and mayo

INGREDIENTS
4 live lobsters

HERB OIL
1/3 cup (75 ml) olive oil
2 tbsps (30 ml) chopped fresh basil
2 tbsps (30 ml) chopped fresh chives
1 tbsp (15 ml) chopped fennel foliage
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

HERB MAYO
1/4 cup (60 ml) mayonnaise
2 tbsps (30 ml) lemon juice
2 tbsps (30 ml) chopped fresh basil
2 tbsps (30 ml) chopped fresh chives
1 tbsp (15 ml) chopped fennel foliage
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 lemons, halved

DIRECTIONS
1. For every lobster, put the tip of a knife on the cross at the base of the head and slice into equal parts to murder it. Cut the tail fifty-fifty longwise. Uproot the guts and greenish parts (tomalley). Toss. Uproot the rock pocket at the highest point of the head. Dispose of. Rehash with the remaining lobsters.

2. Preheat the flame broil, setting the burners to medium. Oil the mesh.

3. In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Baste the lobster with half the herb oil.

5. Place the lobsters on the grill, cut side up. Close the lid and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Crack the lobster claws with lobster pliers. Baste the lobsters with the remaining oil. Grill the lemon halves, cut side down.

6. In the interim, in a vessel, join all the add-ins. Serve the lobster with the herb mayonnaise and the flame broiled lemons.

Grilled lobster tail with butter

INGREDIENTS
6 lobster tails
butter, melted

DIRECTIONS
1. To prepare lobster tails for grilling: Using kitchen shears, cut the top membrane off the lobster tails and discard. Partially loosen the meat from the shell, leaving the end of the tail attached. Gently lift the loosened tail meat up and rest just on top of the shell. Brush tails with melted butter. When the grill is ready, arrange the tails shell side down 3-4 inches from the heat and cook 8-10 minutes. Brush with butter again, and turn tails over so the meat side is on the grill. Continue to cook 2-4 minutes until the meat is cooked through. Serve with melted butter.

BBQ mussels

INGREDIENTS
26 g Butter
1 clove garlic crushed
Juice of half a lemon
1 Tbsp of chopped flat leaf parsley

DIRECTIONS
1. Melt butter then add the crushed garlic, lemon juice and parsley – give it a good mix and it’s ready.

2. De-beard the mussels whilst your BBQ heats up. Place the mussels over the flames and let them cook until they open.

3. Once they open spoon some of the butter mix into each mussel so that it cooks in all those lovely flavours, You may need to assist your mussels to open wide enough which is fine but do not force any open that remain tightly shut, Keep an eye on the heat you want your mussels to open but sometimes it can get too hot and burn the shell and not open, Also if your mussels are really fresh they will still have sea water in them.

4. This will do two things- a. provide enough salt so you do not need to add salt to the butter mix and b. steam the mussel inside before it opens, Be careful when taking the mussels off the BBQ as you don’t want to spill all of the delicious juice your mussel has been cooked in.

5. Best way to eat them is to carefully pry off one side of the mussel shell and then using the shell with the mussel sitting in it like a spoon.

Braised ginger fish

INGREDIENTS
500 g whole barracuda (can be substitued for king fish), in this case I used whole scaled and guts cod
key lime/lime/calamansi (I used calamansi) for removing the fishy smell
a small amount of salt
5 shallots (use 3 if you have the bigger size of shallot), thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 centimeter ginger root, scrapped and julienned
3 tsps soy sauce
2 tsps fermented soy beans (tauco)
1 tsp ground white pepper
2 red cayenne peppers, roughly chopped
1 tsp raw canesugar
2 tsps salt (if you need it)
2-3 tbsps cooking oil
200 mL water

DIRECTIONS
1. Rinse off your scaled and guts fish. Pat dry. Squeeze key lime/lime/calamansi over the fish. Rub a small amount of salt on fish.

2. Deep fry the fish until light brown not overly dry. Removed and drained. Lay fried fish on a piece brown paper to absorb the oil.

3. Heat up a wok at medium high. Add cooking oil. Stir fry shallot, garlic and ginger until yellowish or you can smell the aroma in the air.

4. Add tauco and kecap manis. Keep stirring and cook until kecap manis mixture is caramelizing and bubbling.

5. Add water, ground white pepper. Stir. Taste the sauce. Season with sugar and salt if you need it. Bring to a boil. Add fish and chilies.

6. Remove from heat. Plate the fish and sauce.

Shrimp with Sweet Corn Relish

INGREDIENTS:
3 ½ tsps sugar, divided
2 tsps chili powder
1 tsp ancho chile powder
1/4 tsp chipotle chile powder
1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 ½ pounds peeled and deveined large shrimp
5 tsps olive oil, divided
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped red bell pepper
2 tsps bottled minced garlic
2 tsps bottled minced ginger
1 (10-ounce) package frozen whole-kernel corn
1 ½ tsps cider vinegar
½ cup chopped green onions

DIRECTIONS:
1. Combine 2 tsps sugar, chili powder, chile powders, and ¼ teaspoon salt in a shallow dish. Add shrimp to spice mixture; toss well to coat.

2. Heat 1 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1½ cup onion, bell pepper, garlic, and ginger to pan; sauté 3 minutes. Add remaining 1 ½ tsps sugar and corn to pan; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in vinegar; cook 30 seconds. Transfer corn mixture to a bowl; stir in remaining ¼ tsp salt and ½ cup green onions.

3. Wipe pan with a paper towel. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add shrimp to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until done, turning once. Serve with corn mixture.

Spicy tomato mussels

INGREDIENTS:
6 qt. crockpot
2 1/2 (ish) lbs. mussels
3 Tbsps olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 shallot cloves, diced
8 oz. mushrooms, diced
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
2 Tbsps oregano
1/2 Tsp basil
1/2 Tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp paprika
dash red chili flakes
3/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large saute pan, heat up olive oil.  Cook garlic, shallots and mushrooms for 2-3 minutes, until garlic is just a bit brown and fragrant.  Scrape entire contents of the pan into your crockpot.

2. Add all remaining ingredients to your slow cooker except your mussels.  Cook on LOW for 4-5 hours, or on HIGH for 2-3 hours.  You're cooking until your mushrooms are fork tender and until the flavors meld together.

3. Tackle those mussels just like the video above shows you how.  Not sure if it's alive or not?  If you're on the fence, toss it.  It's not worth getting sick over.  I bought 2 3/4 lbs originally, and ended up tossing 4 mussels total, leaving me with right at 2 1/2 lbs.  You should budget a bit of wiggle room and plan to throw out a few.

4. Once your mushrooms are cooked and your sauce is done, crank the crockpot up to HIGH.  Add cleaned mussels to the pot and secure lid tightly.  Cook for 30 more minutes.

5. Ladle your mussels into bowls with plenty of broth.  If any mussels didn't open up during cooking, toss those as well.  You don't want whatever is in there. 

6. Traditionally, you'd serve a dish like this with crusty bread to sop up the broth... but I just dig out all of the mussels, stir it into the broth and then eat it like a soup.