LOBSTER AND PASTA with Mango, Avocado, and Chardonnay Butter
The presence of vanilla bean in a savory sauce may surprise you at first, but it works marvelously as it restates the vanilla flavor of the Chardonnay.
Serves 4 as an appetizer
SAUCE
6 tablespoons Chardonnay
3 tablespoons Champagne or Chardonnay
wine vinegar % cup finely chopped shallots 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper 1 bay leaf
Ч2 cup heavy cream '/4 vanilla bean, split in half 1 pound butter, cut into small pieces and kept cold Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound lobster meat, cut into 4 equal portions, seasoned with fine sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 pound fresh fettuccine (see page 206 if you want to make your own)
2 ripe mangos, peeled and cut into thin sections
1 ripe avocado, peeled and cut into thin sections
1. Begin by making the sauce. Put the Chardonnay, the vinegar, shallots, cracked pepper, and bay leaf in a heavy nonreactive saucepan, and reduce on medium heat until only a few tablespoons remain. Add the cream and vanilla bean and reduce until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
2. Now, whisking constantly, beat the butter into the cream, piece by piece, with the pan still on medium heat.
3. When all of the butter is incorporated, season to taste and then strain the sauce into a clean, warm, stainless steel container and keep warm while preparing the rest of the dish.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a pan large enough to accommodate the lobster without crowding, heat the olive oil and butter on medium heat. When the butter is just melted, lay the seasoned lobster in the pan and saute on all sides.
5. Carefully spoon off any extra butter or oil and put the lobster in the oven for a few minutes (the length of time is determined by the thickness of the lobster). When it is just cooked through, remove the lobster meat to a cutting board.
6. Cook the pasta in plenty of rapidly boiling water until just al dente.
7. Ladle the warm sauce onto the plates. Arrange a nest of drained pasta in the middle of the sauce. Arrange sections of mango and avocado around the pasta. Cut the lobster into sections and nestle them around the pasta. Serve.
LOBSTER FRITTERS with Conch Tartar Sauce
Conch fritters are one of the signature dishes of the Florida Keys. From mom and pop roadside stands to the pleasure palace hotels, cooks have prof erred their versions of the tasty batter-dipped mollusk. Too often you get more batter than seafood, but that won't be the case in this version that employs another delicious crustacean native to our waters- lobster.
Makes 10 to 12 appetizer portions
2 small eggs, lightly beaten
3A cup milk l'/г cups sifted flour 2¥г tablespoons baking powder
3A teaspoon salt l'A tablespoons minced red onion
1 jalapeho, seed and stem removed, minced
TARTAR SAUCE (see Note)
2 cups Conch Chowder (page 22), potatoes discarded
l'A cups Basic Homemade Mayonnaise (page 232) 'A cup capers, rinsed and chopped small
l'A tablespoons minced yellow pepper 1 'A tablespoons minced red pepper 6 tablespoons beer
Tabasco sauce to taste l'A pounds lobster meat, minced
Oil for deep-frying
Lemon and lime wedges, for garnish
'A cup cornichons, rinsed and chopped small
Spanish sherry vinegar or lemon juice to taste Tabasco sauce to taste
1. Beat the eggs in a large bowl and add the milk. Now add the flour, baking powder, salt, vegetables, beer, and a few drops of Tabasco and whisk thoroughly. Fold in the lobster and hold in the refrigerator, covered.
2. Make the sauce: Strain the vegetables and conch from chowder and reserve them. Reduce the strained liquid to XA cup, stirring often. Chill this, then combine with the reserved conch and vegetables and fold it into the mayonnaise. Add the capers, cornichons, vinegar or lemon juice, and Tabasco sauce to taste. Reserve.
3. Heat oil in a deep-fry kettle to 350 degrees.
4. Using two soup spoons, scoop up a small ball of lobster fritter batter with one of the spoons and scrape it carefully into the hot fat with the other. (You may fry a number
of these at a time, depending on the capacity of your fryer.) As fritters are cooking, turn them over from time to time and then remove to paper toweling to drain.
5. Serve with a small container of the tartar sauce on the side, and garnish with lemon or lime wedges.
Note: Of course, you may substitute plain tartar sauce for the conch tartar sauce, or try adding some tomato concasse to plain tartar sauce.
with Smoked Capon and Chutney, Port Mustard Cream
As you read my recipes, you may notice that many of the appetizers are decidedly intense. I feel that the first course often requites extra intensity because at that point the diners hunger and his need for flavors are most critical. After these desires are satisfied, we would naturally incline toward more lightness and subtlety.
Serves 8 to 10