Bisque du Homard, cont.

[serinde]

After the traumatic lobster butchery and subsequent time-out, I resumed operations on le bisque. The next stages went very well, and setting brandy on fire & dumping it into a pot of dismembered crustaceans did much to restore my spirits. However, I hit another stumbling block when it came time to take the meat out of the shells. I didn't think it would be that big a whoop--I'm quite fond of crab, and I'm well-accustomed to extracting meat from it, and I presumed this wouldn't be much different. HA HA HA

I broke my good kitchen shears, the nutcracker was insufficient, small bits of shell flew everywhere; finally elibalin brought forth a ballpeen hammer. This was the correct implement, clearly. Still a bit tedious, but far less frustrating. (The recipe also called for crushing the de-meated shells & putting them into the broth. I just dumped 'em in entire because I was Sick Of This Shit.) The shell drama also meant that the milk got somewhat scorched, but this I fixed. Also, had light cream instead of heavy cream; did not seem to matter.

I'm pretty pleased with the end result. I don't see how it serves twelve as an appetizer, maybe if you are serving it in demitasses, but they do also say you can thin it out a bit with more broth--elibalin and I are eating it more as a stewlike thingy. Still don't know if it's going to be too much of a PITA to do as the opening salvo of a three-remove dinner, but we'll see. (I do note that a lot of the work could be done in advance.)

Comments

[lillilah]

That sounds fairly traumatic. I'm glad you had Eli there for backup.

[msg1138.livejournal.com]

>NOT INSTAKILL OHGODOHGOD

Fool! Proper lobster execution involves at least .45 caliber, or chainsaw if your locale is unfortunate enough to be ruled by gun-control fascists. (...for NOW)

>However, I hit another stumbling block when it came time >to take the meat out of the shells. I didn't think it >would be that big a whoop--

Again - fool! No, srsly, this isn't intuitive, although I am surprised that so many people have never eaten lobster. I didn't until college (growing up, I would personally murder the butler every time he brought me lobster; after the fifth such incident, Mummsy and Dadsy just let me eat PB&J when the Queen came to visit). I thought I was a late bloomer, but apparently not.

Hey. That gives me a party idea. Lobster bake for people who have never eaten lobster! Hilarity will ensue.

Also, I shouldn't make fun too much (NOT THAT THIS EVER STOPS ME) - I've only extracted lobster meat in restaurants, presumably it's different when prepping for soup or something.

Also also - throw the SHELL in the soup? Eh? I would not have guessed. Did it dissolve, or soften, or what? For those of you who've never eaten lobster, you are not supposed to eat the shell part.

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's wanting to learn how to cook, and although this isn't it he helps me in the kitchen when he's around to pick sk1llz by osmosis.

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

If you shot a pistol at these bastards, THE BULLET WOULD BOUNCE OFF. I'm convinced of it.

I know that when lobster's served in restaurants, a) they have specific kinds of crackers to use which are designed for this particular kind of armor-piercing and b) the shell is pre-split in a couple places. What I don't know is whether the particular breed of lobster makes a difference. (I worked a year at Red Lobster as a high-school McJob, so I never wanted to eat whole lobster, cos I saw the back-end procedures. I do like the taste of lobster meat in other stuff, though.)

I was kind of surprised that the lobster torso has little to no actual meat on it. 'S all in the claws and tails. Why bother with the whole lobster at all, one wonders?

You put the shell back into the broth to extract color & flavor as it slow-cooks for an hour and a half; when the liquid is Ready, you strain it (which removes not only the shell but also the veg and herbs), add back in the meat, and serve.

[lillilah]

Cool! I haven't run across too many people interested in learning to cook.

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

Was that you who posted to p.* a while back to ask about armor piercing ammunition for a Call of Cthulhu campaign being run (what with the chitinous armored horrors), or was that someone else?

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes it was. (Though that was because Dr. Nick, powergamer that he is, was specifically choosing those rounds from a supplement, and Steve's GM-sense went off, 'cos he thought Nick's desire to be uber was overriding his usually-good yen for historical accuracy.)