Lobster Poached in Prosecco Butter

Are you still looking for something special to serve to your Valentine this week?  This Lobster Poached in Prosecco Butter is absolutely delicious!  I made this wonderful dish during the holidays and we just loved it!  It was so simple to make too.  

I found a package of small lobster tails at Costco where I also found a large package of frozen lobster claws. 

We did a Surf and Turf combination but this would be wonderful on it's own.  Pasta would be a wonderful combination with the buttery lobster.  

Here is a photo of our lobster and steak combination holiday dinner.  

After seeing a mouth-water photo of lobster poached in butter on Instagram, I started researching recipes.  This one is mainly adapted from Unami Girl's recipe here with the Prosecco (or Champagne) idea coming from Kit's Kitchen here.  

Here is a wonderful video of how to quickly remove lobster tail meat from the shells, which is the exact  method I used the the one I found that was the best, in my opinion.

If you use lobster claws, those are a little bit trickier to remove but the lobster claw is my absolute favorite part.  You can find a good video for that process by clicking here. 

Lobster Poached in Prosecco Butter

Printable Recipe

Notes: 

If you don’t have prosecco, you could use Champagne, white wine or plain water.  It’s a good idea to plan on two small lobster tails per person, unless you do a surf and turf combination. 

TOTAL TIME 40 minutes

8 4-ounce (113-gram) lobster tails

2 tablespoons (30 ml) prosecco, champagne, white wine or plain water

16 tablespoons (224 grams) butter, cut into 16 pieces

4 garlic cloves, chopped

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

2-3 bay leaves

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Remove the tails from their shells: I like this video for a tutorial on removing the tails. 

Make the poaching liquid, which is called a beurre monté.  Set a 10-inch skillet over medium-low heat. You don’t want the skillet to be too hot.  Pour in the prosecco or liquid of your choice,  and let it heat up a bit. Add one piece of butter and whisk into the water until melted. Then whisk in the second piece. 

Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and bay leave and whisk to incorporate.

Whisk in the remaining pieces of butter, one by one, and wait for each one to melt before adding the next. If you have an instant read thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature of the butter. You'll need to keep it about 180 degrees, if possible.

When all butter is incorporated, add lobster tails in a single, snug layer.

Poach until opaque throughout, turning every 1-2 minutes, for a total of about 6 minutes.

If serving straight from the pan with crusty bread, sprinkle on the lemon juice, pepper, and parsley, and serve.

If you’d like to serve the lobster over pasta, remove the lobster meat to a platter and discard the bay leaves. Add lemon juice, pepper, and parsley to the pan with the poaching liquid and stir to incorporate. Add cooked pasta and toss to coat. Place some pasta on each plate, top with two lobster tails, and serve.

Enjoy! 

Sandy's Browned Butter Applesauce

This delicious, Browned Butter Applesauce is a recipe I had saved from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel food column of Sandy (Sanford) D'Amato, a James Beard Award-winning chef and former owner of famed Sanford Restaurant in Milwaukee. He sold his restaurant to his talented chef-de-cuisine and moved to New England with his wife to write his cookbook and memoirs, Good Stock, and has recently opened a cooking school in Massachusetts called Cook Stock Farm Cooking School. With autumn and apple season in full throttle, I made his recipe this past week.

Speaking of New England, I was the VERY fortunate winner of a seafood giveaway from Fresh New England recently!  El lives in and promotes New England through her gorgeous photography and amazing baking skills. The giveaway was her way to celebrate the recent launch of her new website, Fresh New England Eats which, with her team, promotes the New England food community.  Not only did I win 2 beautiful, live, New England lobsters...

 

...but an entire clambake for two including mussels, steamers and clam chowder direct from Ipswich Shellfish Market in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  They were a pleasure to contact and very helpful with tips on how to store the shellfish until time to cook them. The shellfish came beautifully chilled and packaged this past Friday, arriving early the very next morning after it was shipped, which just happened to be National Lobster Day!

Two very dear friends, who have many years of lobster boils under their belts, were invited to share our bounty, cooked over our back yard fire pit.  We supplemented with Gulf shrimp, Littleneck clams, Wisconsin corn-on-the-cob, locally made sourdough bread and my garden tomatoes. A delicious collaboration of East meets Midwest, and, what a feast! Warm clam juice, melted butter, and seafood sauce were supplied for copious dipping of the shellfish.  FYI, I had never eaten New England Steamers before and they are unlike any other clam I've eaten. Thankfully, our friends had and were able to teach us how it's done. They are delicious!

The clams, mussels and shrimp were wrapped and tied in cheesecloth 'bags' for the boil and were our first course followed by the lobsters, corn and tomatoes for the main course. Here is an easy method for an Indoor, Stove-top Clambake from Ina Garten if you'd like to try one at home! Ours was kept simple with no other additions to the water for the boil.

Not only were the fresh shellfish delicious and a special treat in itself, but we were lucky enough to enjoy a gorgeous, early fall evening with the almost-full Supermoon overhead! It was a magical night!

If all this weren't bounty-enough to shout about, I also received this charming, vintage-replica basket loaded with New England goodies from El! A variety of crackers, preserves, raspberry and hibiscus jam (oh my), New England honey and maple syrup, country ketchup, and a bottle of craft made, pure cranberry soda mixer. The basket also included Food Rules - an eaters manual by Michael Pollan, which is wonderfully well written, humorous and beautifully illustrated.  I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to live a healthier life by eating good, natural food.

Thank you very much to El, Fresh New England and Fresh New England Eats for this amazing, delicious, bountiful, fresh, New England prize!!

Sandy's Browned Butter Applesauce

Adapted from Chef Sanford D'Amato

Printable Recipe

Use this wonderful applesauce to top pancakes for breakfast, add to cottage cheese for lunch or serve with pork chops or roasted pork for dinner. Even the apple peels are put to use. It is loaded with the rich flavors of cardamom, butter, vanilla extract and a touch of bourbon.

Makes approximately 1 quart

My Note:  Instead of mace, cardamom and cinnamon, I used Penzey's Baking Spice mix which contains all three.

2 tablespoons salted butter
4 pounds Gala, or another tart apples (about 6 large), peeled (reserve peels), cored and cut in half, each half cut into 8 pieces
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon ground mace
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, cassia preferably
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Cider peel liquid:

1 tablespoon butter
Reserved apple peels
¼ cup bourbon
1 ½ cups unsweetened apple cider

Place a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. When hot, add the butter, let it melt and turn golden brown. Immediately add the apples and stir. Add bay leaves, mace, cardamom, cassia cinnamon and salt.  Cook, covered and stirring regularly, so that the apples evenly turn a light golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

To make the cider peel liquid, place a large sauté pan medium-high heat. Add the butter and, when hot, add the peels and sauté, stirring, for 4-6 minutes, until golden. Remove from heat and add bourbon and cider. Place back over the heat and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Puree this mixture in a blender, then strain through a medium strainer while pressing on the solids — this should yield 1¼ cups.

Add the cider peel liquid, vanilla and lemon juice to the cooked apples and cook for an additional 5 minutes, stirring, over low heat. Remove bay leaves and puree coarsely by pulsing in a food processor. Adjust seasoning with salt and refrigerate until needed.

Fresh applesauce will keep for about 10 days refrigerated or, up to a year in the freezer.

Tarragon Lobster Salad

It was a busy holiday weekend here!  Not only did I host a dinner party for my youngest daughter's birthday (she was actually born on LABOR Day!), but we also had one of our gourmet group events. 

The host and hostess of last weekend's gourmet dinner put on a lobster boil for one of their gourmet dinners years ago and none of the couples have allowed them to change menus for OBVIOUS reasons!  They've been doing this dinner for so many years that they even have purchased their own equipment, that they used to rent - a huge pot with a liner on it's own stand.

The first course is always clams, mussels and shrimp - Lots of them!


Then the lobster are cooked and served along with a huge platter of farmers' market fresh corn on the cob and heirloom tomato caprese salad. Did you know that the months ending in 'ber are the best months to enjoy shellfish? Our friends always schedule their lobster boil in September so that the weather here in Wisconsin is still warm enough to dine outdoors because this is a messy meal!

After indulging to too many clams, mussels and shrimp, I was only able to finish my lobster claws so this little gem came home with me that night. 

What to do with a beautiful lobster tail? Make Lobster Salad!

I found this wonderful recipe at Epicurious and it is excellent! I made a couple of small changes to the recipe and was delighted with the result. The original recipe called for four whole lobsters and I only had one small lobster tail so I adapted it along with a couple of other minor tweaks to suit my taste.

If you have the opportunity to find some fresh lobster meat, this is a delicious salad.  The price of lobster is quite reasonable right now and I've seen whole, 1 to 1-1/4 pound lobsters for $10.00 to $13.00.



Tarragon Lobster Salad
Adapted from Gourmet, July 2001
Printable Recipe

Serves 1 (which was Moi - so adjust ingredients accordingly)

Your can either cook your own lobster if you are brave enough or have your seafood purveyor steam it for you.

3/4 cup cooked lobster meat, cut into large dice
1 teaspoon finely chopped shallot
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellmans' Light)
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh tarragon
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine shallot, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt in a bowl and let stand at room temperature for 15-20 minutes while you are preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Whisk mayonnaise, tarragon, and black pepper to taste into the shallot mixture. Add lobster meat and celery and toss gently to coat.

Serve on a bed of lettuce with fresh avocado and tomato or, you can also put this on a fresh, toasted bun to make a tasty lobster roll.