Heaven and Shells

Once again, we ROCKED the lobster (not to be mistaken with ROCK LOBSTER!!). In fact we did a great job on the lobster, mussels, and scallops. Seafood, oddly enough, is easy to screw up, but easier to get right. If you think you've cooked it too long, you probably have, and if you think its undercooked, then its probably perfect.

The recipes we transcribed at home did not actually suggest we were going to make whole lobsters, so when the chef whipped out some live lobsters, it was a pleasant surprise. More importantly, we made a lobster sauce (Sauce Americaine/Amoricaine - there are two ideas where the sauce came from, but ultimately its the same game, different name) We had some already hollowed out lobster shells, and we cleaned and crushed them, then sauteed and boiled them in water. Some recipes call for boiling them in fish broth, but many people don't want the taste of fish, but instead just lobster. Can't blame them. That sauce was phenomenal, and we served it with the lobster. It smelled great too.

Those lobsters were feisty. They did not want to meet their boiling death. but it had to be done. However, not before the little S.O.B. sliced me wit its sharp tail shells. I didn't feel bad for boiling it. Nor tearing it apart.

We slightly undercooked our lobster, which was PERFECT, because the dish called for the lobster meat being finished in a sauce pan with the sauce, so it would finish cooking perfectly. (took about 8 minutes in the boiling water). I've always hated whole lobster because of the painstaking process of cracking and eating it. I found it to be messy and classless. Though in fact it is perhaps one of the classiest foods. Go figure. But Chef showed us the method of cracking the shells, which although it was messy, it was pretty easy. Needless to say, I brought the lobster to my girlfriend who loved every bit of it.

That's all I have to say about the lobster. Pretty simple. Not so intimidating anymore. And I can make it for some romantic occasion or something.

We also made Scallops. Scallops are different from most of the other shelled mollusks we eat because the flesh that we eat is the muscle that opens and closes the shells. Most of the time, we discard this muscle and eat the rest of the flesh. But for some reason, we eat this part of the scallop, and its quite delightful. Again, this was really simple. Sprinkle with a touch of salt, saute in some oil on high eat until a beautiful crust forms, flip, finish. Done. We made a beautiful coulis sauce for these. That is, we took a reduction (I don't remember exactly what it was) and blended in a blender a bunch of parsley leaves. The leaves were first blanched in simmering water until a deep green formed, then shocked in an ice bath to prevent further coloration and cooking. The coulis was a beautiful bright green. A little bitter due to the nature of parsley, but complimented the scallops well. Again, they were perfect.

During dinner/lunch, we had a few clams and oyster that we were practicing opening. The oyster was pretty damn easy. You slip the tip of the knife into the joint and pop it open. The clams gave me a little more difficulty. I blame the fact that the chef told me to use the wrong side of the knife (not on purpose). As I was using the wrong side of the knife, he was saying, come on, use your hand, push harder. And I pushed harder into the "sharp" edge of the knife. (quotations because it wasn't necessarily sharp, just sharper than the blunt edge). And I was saying... hmmm, feels like I'm cutting my fingers. I turned the knife around and did it one two three. Just goes to show you that you need to be aware of little things like this. I also tried the raw oysters with a little cocktail sauce. I was skeptical at first because I never liked raw oysters before, but I loved them. They were so fresh.

After a job well done, I was feeling pretty good. Until clean-up time. Everything was going well, washed my knives, my station, etc. Then as I was drying my brand new vegetable peeler with a paper towel, I manged to peel into my nail. My finger was welling up with blood, and it didn't feel so hot. In short, my new peeler is the ish. I now wear a rubber finger condom over a band-aid to prevent anything from getting in it when I cook. It does the job. It was an awful way to end a good day of cooking. But I'm sure it gets worse.