I spent the day retouching images for a corporate gig I had a few days ago and my memory card had a little surprise on it: a lobster from way back in August. I think we had this feast apropos of nothing, it was just a lazy, hazy Sunday afternoon, and we went to the fish store and ate a pair of lobsters after a simple steaming.

But tomorrow it is going to snow, and I am in the mood for stew. I’ve been using my crockpot a whole lot lately, and I’d love to break out of the lentil and black bean rut I’m in. So I’m doing stew with lobster. But not with the crockpot, it’s not respectful enough.

I found this recipe in The Times I’m going to try out. But I’ll make it with fewer lobsters, I think. And more tomalley croutons. Tomalley croutons!!

Chunky Lobster Stew With Tomalley Croutons

Ingredients

* 5 1-pound live lobsters
* Salt to taste, if desired
* 2 cups coarsely chopped onion
* 4 bay leaves
* 1 large tomato, about 1 pound, peeled
* 20 sprigs fresh chervil, optional
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 12 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
* 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
* 2 cups coarsely chopped white part of leeks
* 1 cup carrot rounds, sliced as thinly as possible
* Freshly ground black pepper to taste
* 1 loaf French bread, cut into 1/4-inch slices

Preparation

1. Bring enough water to the boil to cover the lobsters when they are added. Add salt and the lobsters and cook exactly four minutes after the water has returned to boiling.
2. Drain the lobsters immediately. Make a small half-inch crack in the solid shell that covers the head of each lobster. Make the crack slightly below the eyes of each lobster. Place the lobsters tail-side up, heads down, so that the liquid drains from the heads.
3. When the lobsters are cool enough to handle, tear off the tails and claws of each. Let the tomalley -the inner soft portion of the bodies-empty into a mixing bowl. Put the shells in a kettle.
4. Place the lobster tails on a flat surface and cut lengthwise with a sharp knife or cleaver. Pull away and discard the intestinal tract of each tail. Remove the tail meat and put the shells into the kettle.
5. Crack the claws and remove the meat. Put the claw shells into the kettle. Cut the claws and tail meat into bite-size pieces. There should be about three cups. Set aside.
6. To the lobster shells in the kettle add 10 cups of water, the two cups of coarsely chopped onion and the bay leaves. Bring to the boil.
7. Meanwhile, cut away and reserve the firm outer flesh of the peeled tomato. Set aside. Chop the inner portion of the tomato and add it to the kettle. Cut the reserved portion of the tomato into half-inch cubes. Set aside.
8. Pull away the leaves of the chervil. Set the leaves aside. Toss the remaining sprigs into the kettle. Cook the lobster broth about one hour, then add the heavy cream. Let simmer briefly.
9. To prepare the garnish for the stew, put four tablespoons of the butter into a saucepan. Add the garlic and finely chopped onion to the butter and cook about three minutes, stirring. Add this to the reserved tomalley and beat thoroughly to blend. Refrigerate.
10. Meanwhile, heat the remaining eight tablespoons of butter in a heavy saucepan and add the leeks and carrots. Cook about five minutes, stirring occasionally without browning. Add the cubed lobster meat, the tomato cubes and cook, stirring briefly, until heated through.
11. Strain the liquid from the kettle, discarding the solids. There should be about six cups. Pour this into the saucepan containing the lobster meat. Bring to the simmer and add salt and a generous grind of black pepper. Finely chop the chervil leaves and add them.
12. Meanwhile, preheat the broiler and toast the French bread slices on both sides. Spread one side of each with a thin layer of the tomalley mixture. Run briefly under the broiler until the tomalley mixture starts to bubble. Serve the hot soup with the pieces of tomalley toast on the side.

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I’ll let you know how it goes.

AOL has a bit of lobster info in its health section today:

In addition to offering a good, low-fat source of protein (key for healthy hair growth), shellfish contains high amounts of zinc, a mineral which may help prevent acne and boost your immune function, says N.Y.C. nutritionist Keri Glassman, author of The O2 Diet. Shellfish also has pantothenic acid, a B vitamin that makes hair look shinier.

I knew there was a reason why we were so damn attractive.

“WE’RE DOING LOBSTERS, EATING AND COOKING!!!”

It took a while, but I was able, with a little help from Cousin Jill and Stepdad Ken, to get Julia Child from my TV onto the interweb.

There are two parts to this video to come, but they are currently without sound. In any case, this should be a good start.

Bon Appétit!

Interesting bit of info we noticed on the Lobster Wikipedia page:

“Recent research has led scientists to believe that lobsters may be one of a small number of species which do not die of aging. Lobsters do not slow down, weaken, or lose fertility with age. In fact, older lobsters are more fertile than younger lobsters. The reason for this indefinite longevity is said to be due to telomerase, an enzyme that repairs DNA sequences. … In fact, lobsters may exhibit negligible senescence, in that they effectively live indefinitely, barring injury, disease, capture, etc.“

Hi Friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We did not eat lobster, but we ate our weight in lox, so all is well.

One of the things we’ll be discussing here from time to time is lobster “gear”, or lobster design. A quick assessment of our apartment reveals lobster accouterments of nearly every sort, so we’ll have to roll these out slowly.

And we’ll start with a golden, sequined, lobster pillow, from my dear friend Kara Canal. Kara is an artist, but did not make this pillow.

this is an orginal 1956 herman miller eames chair i love it more than any lobster thing, i must confess.

pillow also feels quite at home on a wassily chair.

Kara spied the pillow brilliantly, at Z Gallerie, where at THIS VERY MOMENT it is half price. Don’t tell me I never did anything for you.

Sequined pillow sometimes sits about with handmade pillow, which was given to me by yet another brilliantartistfriend, Cory Treadway.

I think they make a nice pair.

Today’s it’s-a-blizzard-outside-and-we-wish-were-eating-lobster-on-a-pier Picture of the Day is a portrait of Robert Pattinson, taken by Bruce Weber for Vanity Fair.

We shall dub it “Rob Lobster”, to match the B-52s.

Perhaps we’ll develop a whole section devoted to celebrities and their crustaceans. That seems like a good use of time.

It’s an especially snowy day in Brooklyn, and we’re tempted not to leave the apartment at all. Seems like a good day for a nonsense 80’s dance song that’s sort of about lobsters.

So, yeah, I thought it would be fun to make lobster dip for the Super Bowl. Or, really, I thought we’d have a Super Bowl party Sunday so that I could try to make lobster dip. I’d seen a couple of recipes, and it seemed like a fairly easy maneuver — the kind of thing I could do without a proper recipe.

Rachel was away for the weekend, eating oysters (pic below), and so I headed over to Fish Tales on Court Street, which had given us really excellent lobsters in the past. They’re on the pricey side, but usually very fresh. This time, not so much. The guy I got barely moved at all when I put him out on the kitchen table. A vague twitching of antennae was the only indication he would give. I don’t know why, but it seems sadder to cook a lobster that hasn’t just been vigorously moving around in the kitchen a few moments before — I guess a lot of people would say the opposite.

Anyhow, after he was cooked and shucked, I started combining ingredients in the blender. Like I often do, I basically approximated what I remembered of the recipes I’d seen online, not really paying as much attention to amounts of things. Take the lobster meat, add a little cayenne pepper, some light cream cheese, artichoke hearts, scallions, and Worcestershire sauce, press blend, and hope for the best.

In this case, I didn’t quite get the best. The dip wasn’t bad, objectively, but my other ingredients had completely obliterated the taste of the lobster — leaving me with a ton of dip that tasted pretty much the same as the can of Utz I could have bought for $3.

Susan from the Red Hook Lobster Pound (whose lobsters we’ve not yet tried, but will in the very near future) writes that my problem was probably lack of lobster concentration: “You would really need to make a very reduced lobster stock to add in order to make any cream base taste like lobster.”

Anyhow, here’s Rachel and her oysters. She seemed to have better luck with her project than I did with mine.

photo by Grant Cornett

SO I spent the weekend eating oysters, which was very exhausting. But I did have time to chat on the emails with the lovely Alison over at Fine Lobster, who not only loves lobster as much as we do, but is also engaged and allowed me to to freak out ask questions about how to plan a wedding.

Alison’s blog has some wonderful lobster content, and we’re gonna reprint a piece about WEST COAST lobster. This flavor lobster is completely foreign to us, sadly, so it’s good to get the 411.

Check it out!

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California’s Channel Island Lobstering

It is hard to convince a New Englander there is a bug that a lobsterman can catch in warmer waters that rivals the Maine lobster. Many debates take place between foodies and fishermen alike, and in “Maine vs. Pacific Lobster,” we learn that some believe oversea demand drives up cost and diminishes supplies closer to home. Others think the best West Coast lobster comes out of Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, and often refer to it as ‘Crack Town’ for the lobster addict.

The truth is that spiny lobster is generally very similar to Maine lobster except they are from warmer waters such as California, Brazil and the Caribbean, have no claws, only the tail meat can be eaten and their shells have a different pattern. Many say the taste is much sweeter while others say they would never touch it, but strong opinions are held by all.

An ideal location to harvest spiny lobster is California, off the southern coast among the famous Channel Islands. While the northern most parts of the chain belong to the Channel Island National Park and are protected from commercial fishing, a few seasoned hunters who know this is a hot spot didn’t waste time getting out there to dive and hunt for their favorite crustacean.

For this year’s season opener, Foul Hole Divers certainly avoided the foul holes! In fact, it seems they hit a gold mine of huge bugs between 4 and 5 pounds a piece off San Miguel, one of the northern-most islands and the alleged final resting place for famous explorer Juan Cabrillo.

Beyond a hobby, Ted Fukumoto of Foul Hole is refining an art, the art of hunting combined with his love of the ocean. He organizes regular trips for small groups of less than 20, utilizing Santa Barbara’s Truth Aquaticsfleet and crew. Diving for lobster is quite different from what the lobstermen of New England are used to. No tools or equipment are allowed so one has to grab them by hand—a much safer endeavor since they do not have claws like their east coast cousins!

For the tourists, the most popular of all the islands in the chain is Santa Catalina, and this island’s land and water are famous for more than spiny lobster. The memories of one Catalina natives and regulars include the lobster season, as well as other critters that live on and around the island. The flying fish are not the only hazard to above-deck boaters because once on land one must also know how to avoid the wild boars!

For those seeking a new adventure and a new lobster, there are many diving companies that offer excursions throughout the spiny lobster season. However, don’t forget your gloves, booties and dry wet suit! While many think the waters off California are warm you might change your mind knowing the average temperatures top at 59 F for the season opener.

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About Fine Lobster:

Food Curated had a post a couple of days ago about Ben Sargent, a Boston transplant living in Brooklyn who claims New Yorkers don’t know how to make a “true” version of the Northeast lobster roll.  He’s evidently running a “questionably legal” lobster roll shack in in his basement apartment called The Underground Lobster Pound, where friends and strangers can taste what he’s talking about.

First of all, Ben: Go Yankees! World Champions! Sox a distant second!

Second: When can we come over?

Here’s a great video where he talks about his new project and explains his method for creating a proper lobster roll:

UPDATE: The Daily News has picked up Sargent’s story, so it can’t be long before someone looks into the “questionable” legality of his operation…