TIP OF THE DAY: Deconstructed Lobster
|
We love this idea from Chef Ric Tramonto and John Folse of Restaurant R’evolution in New Orleans (photo #1).
The photo shows Restaurant R’evolution’s Lobster With Sheep’s Milk Gnocchi. Rather than toss the lobster heads and tails*, they plated them with a dish of lobster gnocchi. Instead of gnocchi, we made Lobster Newburg, one of our favorite special-occasion dishes (in a cream sauce with sherry, brandy and a touch of nutmeg—and the heads and tails as decoration. Here’s the Lobster Newburg recipe). It’s beautiful (photo #1), and the most fun we’ve seen since Chef David Burke’s Angry Lobster On A Bed Of Nails (photo #2). But there’s much more to place between the heads and tails. Just a few ideas: Just set the head and tail flat on the plate. And keep recycling: At the end of the meal, you can wash the heads and tails and stick them in the freezer. |
|
|
|
_________________ *After the meat has been removed for the recipe, of course. |
||
 [3] Can’t wait to dig in? We’re ready to eat both (photo © Lobster From Maine)† |
NEW SHELL LOBSTER: THE BEST LOBSTER YOU CAN HAVE Between June and November, lobsters in the cold, clean waters of Maine shed their old shells and grow new shells. The result is known as Maine New Shell Lobster, also called soft shell lobster. It’s the sweetest, most tender lobster meat. The superior taste and texture is a result of the pure Gulf of Maine seawater that fills the newly formed shell. It naturally “marinates” the meat, creating a more intense lobster flavor and added moisture. A thinner shell also means that you can crack and eat the lobster by hand—no nutcracker necessary. New Shells are prized by locals as a seasonal delicacy. But they are the best-kept secret in seafood. Even professional chefs don’t know about them, and both hard shell lobsters and New Shells are available in Maine throughout summer and fall. Now that you’re in the know, now that you have to ask for your New Shells by name. |
|
|
Like all Maine Lobsters, New Shells are caught the old-fashioned way: by hand, without modern technology, one trap at a time. Because the soft shells are fragile, New Shells don’t travel as well as their hard shell counterparts. But thanks to advances in packaging and handling techniques, Maine New Shell Lobster, once only available in Maine, can also be shipped to you. Check Bayley’s Lobster Pound. We recently attended an event to taste the New Shells, and met several chefs and lobstermen. We asked if they find a difference between Maine lobsters and the Canadian lobsters caught farther north in the Atlantic. Their consensus is that, since the waters off of Maine are fed by the Labrador current which also flows past New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the lobsters are very similar. They opined that local differences such as diet, water temperature and water quality—which easily cause differences in oysters—are not significant. So buy American, but if someone offers you a Canadian lobster, eat it!
|
||
