Maine Lobster Rolls

While the first documented lobster roll may have been served at a restaurant in Milford, Connecticut, there is no doubt that the lobster roll is an icon of Maine cuisine. Anyone who takes a vacation in Maine -- from Kennebunkport to Lubec -- will inevitably have the opportunity to try a roll. And, there are many places across the State to get one. 

However, there are a lot of stories behind this sandwich. It is the stories about the lobsters and those who catch them that need to be told more. 

One of those stories is presently unfolding in the Gulf of Maine. Climate change is clearly making its presence known. The waters in the western part of the Gulf of Maine - such as Casco Bay (near Portland, Maine) - are beginning to get warmer. As anyone who has cooked a lobster will tell you, lobsters don't like warm water. As the waters of Casco Bay get warmer, the lobsters move north and east. As one fisher told Norah Hogan, a journalist with WMTW, "[w]hen I started [about 30 years ago], almost half of the lobsters in the state of Maine were landed in this part of the state - Casco Bay region." He added, "[w]e're not in the ballpark anymore." 

Lobsters thrive in waters that are between 54 degrees and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The waters in the western portions of the Gulf of Maine exceed 68 degrees from time to time. This means that the lobsters will migrate to where it is cooler, which is toward the northeastern shore of the State and into Canadian waters. It also pushes the lobsters further offshore, to cooler, deeper waters. 

This means that, as the waters warm, there will be less lobsters around the shores of Maine. Less lobsters mean that the already high prices for lobster rolls will only go higher (as long as the demand is there). In fact, I was quite surprised that the cost of a lobster roll could be from $28 to $38 for each roll. If both my beautiful Angel and I had a lobster roll, we would be looking at paying $56 to $76 for a meal (and that is without any beer or anything else). 

As it turns out, I had brought my trusty steam pot to Maine for our vacation. As I noted in my post about Steamed Lobsters, I was able to find a seafood market that sold whole lobsters for anywhere from $8.00 to $12.00 per pound, depending upon the lobster. The market only had soft shelled lobsters (that is, those who had recently molted). Soft shelled lobsters come with a lot of water since they have not fully regrown into their new shells. So, part of what one is paying for with that $8.00 to $12.00 per pound is water. I knew this fact when I bought them, but I could buy 4 soft-shelled lobsters for the price of 2 lobster rolls. 

With those lobsters, I proceeded to make my own lobster rolls. I found a recipe, which is set forth below, and tried to follow it as best I could. I also decided that I would do the "presentation piece" and have a whole lobster claw served on the top of the sandwich. However, I think in the future that I perhaps do a rough chop of the claw into pieces. I think that would be better than a whole claw.

MAINE LOBSTER ROLLS

Recipe from Food & Wine

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons fresh chervil or tarragon
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup minced celery
• 1 pound cooked, shucked and chopped lobster meat (from knuckles and 6 pincer claws)
• 6 top split (New England style) hot dog buns, separated
• 2 tablespoons salted (or unsalted butter), softened
• 1 tablespoon fresh chives, plus more for garnish
• 6 butter lettuce leaves

Directions:

1. Prepare the lobster. Whisk together mayonnaise, lemon juice and chervil. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Stir in celery and fold in chopped lobster meat. Cover and chill up to 4 hours.

2. Prepare the buns.  Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Butter the sides of buns and toast in skillet until golden and heated through, about 2 minutes. 

3. Finish the dish. Fold chives into lobster salad. Place a lettuce leaf inside each bun. Divide lobster salad evenly among buns. Sprinkle with chives. Serve immediately. 

ENJOY!

Oysters Rockefeller

A few years back, I was in New Orleans for work. After a long day, I joined some friends and colleagues for dinner. They had chosen the restaurant. It was, of course, the legendary Antoine's, deep in the heart of the French Quarter. Antoine's just happens to be the birthplace of the dish, Oysters Rockefeller.  

Antoine Alciatore opened Antoine's in 1840.  By 1850, Antoine had invented a dish called Escargot (Snails) Bourgigon. In 1899, Anotine passed the restaurant to his son, Jules.  As it turns out, that same year, there was a shortag eof escargot.  Jules decided to turn to the local  oysters from the nearby Gulf of Mexico.  He topped those oysters with a green mixture and bread crumbs.  It is difficult to say exactly what was in that mixture because the recipe is a closely guarded secret. Antoine's has never published or revealed anything about the recipe, except for a few hints of what is not in it.  For example, the green color of the mixture does not come from the use of spinach. That claim was confirmed when someone took some of the mixture to a lab for testing.  Sure enough, there was no spinach. Instead, there was parsley, celery, scallions or chives, capers and olive oil.  There was also most likely some alcohol, perhaps pernod. The mixture was so rich, that Jules called it Oyster Rockefeller, a nod to John Rockefeller, who was the richest person in America at the time.  Once it is ready, the dish is put under the broiler or baked until it begins to brown slightly and the oysters begin to curl around their edges. 

Of course, we ordered Oysters Rockefeller at Antoine's that night and, sure enough, it lived up to the hype.  The oysters were perfectedly cooked, and, the mixture was delicious.  I was determined to make it on my own.  It may take a few years, but it would happen.

Fast forward to 2020. It's been a helluva year. But, it was the year that I finally made Oysters Rockefeller.  I had ordered some very special oysters from the Chesapeake Bay, some Chincoteague Salts and Misty Points from Cherrystone Aqua Farms. I had decided to use an equal amount of each of the two types of oysters to make Oysters Rockefeller.  

As for the recipe, I found one online that followed what could be the original recipe, with its use of parsley, scallions, and celery.  The one thing it did not call for was the pernod, which was okay because I did not have any.  (The next time I make this dish I am going to buy some and try it in the recipe, to get closer to the authentic dish.)  From what I can remember of the original dish, my first attempt was a good effort, but not quite there.  It needs a little refinement, but, that comes with future efforts to make the dish.  Hopefully, it won't take me three years to make Oysters Rockefeller again.

OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER

Recipe adapted from Saveur

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 dozen oysters, shucked but kept in cup (bottom part)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

6 scallions, minced

2 ribs celery, minced

2 sprigs tarragon, stemmed and minced

1 bunch of parsley, stemmed and minced, plus sprigs to garnish

Kosher salt

Freshly ground white pepper, to taste

3 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Prepare the oysters. Shuck oysters over a bowl to catch their liquor (you should have about 1/2 cup), discarding the flat top shells.  Loosen oysters from bottom shells with a knife.

2. Prepare the topping. Melt butter in a 2 quart saucepan over medium heat.  Add flour, cook until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Add oyster liquo, cook until thickened to a paste, about 2 minutes.  Stir in cayenne, scallions, celery, tarragon, parsley and salt and pepper.  Reduce heat to medium low; cook until soft, about 1 hour.  Transfer to a food processor, add bread crumbs and process into a smooth paste, about 2 minutes.  

3. Complete the dish. Heat broiler to high.  Place paste in a pasty bag fitted with a 1/2 inch fluted tip.  Pipe paste completely over oysters.  (If you don't have a pastry bag, use a spoon.)  Broil until paste begins to brown and oysters are just cooked through, about 5-7 minutes.  Garnish each dish with parsley sprigs, if desired. 

ENJOY!

Steak Marchand de Vin

French cooks believe that good meat deserves a sauce.  These words were written by Anne Willan, the author of one of my favorite French cookbooks, The Country Cooking of France.  Anne Willan is a member of the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame.  She received that honor for her cookbooks, which have focused on French Cuisine.  She wrote those books with the goal of helping home cooks, like myself, learn the techniques and recipes used by French cooks and chefs.

One of these recipes is called "Steak Marchand de Vin," also known as "Winemaker's Steak."  A "Marchand de Vin," is a quick jus or sauce made with wine and fresh herbs.  In this case, the sauce is made after pan frying a steak.  Willan says that any cut of steak can be used in this recipe, from a filet to T-bone or entrecote.  With all of the fond in the pan, a cook uses wine to deglaze the pan and incorporate those flavors into what becomes the sauce.   As the wine reduces, with the alcohol evaporating, along with some of the liquid, the pan is removed from the heat and fresh herbs are added.  The end result is a very simple sauce that is full of flavor.

One last note, as any chef or cook will tell you, you cook with a wine you want to drink.  For this recipe, I used a Saumur Champigny, a wine from the Loire region of France.  The wine worked very well with this recipe, because of its ripe cherry and cranberry elements.  If you can't find that wine, look for a Côtes du Rhône or another red wine from France, especially if you want to keep with the French inspiration.   If you are looking for other inspirations, many consider a Carmenere from Chile.  Those wines often have a spice or pepper element to them that could provide another layer of flavor to the sauce.

STEAK MARCHAND DE VIN (WINEMAKER'S STEAK)

Recipe from Anne Willan, The Country Cooking of France, p. 135

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 steaks, cut 3/4 inch thick (about 1 1/2 pounds)

Salt

Pepper

4 tablespoons of butter

2 shallots, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 cup of full bodied red wine

Leaves from 3 to 4 sprigs of fresh tarragon, chopped

3 to 4 fresh chives blades, chopped

3 or 4 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

1.  Brown the steaks.  Season the steaks on both sides with salt and pepper.  Melt half of the butter in a frying pan over high heat until it stops foaming.  Add the steaks and fry until well browned 2 to 3 minutes.  Turn them, lower the heat slightly, and continue frying until brown and cooked to your taste, 2 to 3 minutes for rare steak, 3 to 5 minutes if you prefer it more done.  Lift out the steaks and set on warmed plates, keep warm.

2.  Make the wine sauce.  Pour all of 1 tablespoon of the fat from the pan and return to high heat.  Add the shallots and garlic and saute until soft, about 2 minutes.  Add the wine and boil rapidly until reduced by half.  Take from the heat and whisk in the remaining butter in small pieces.  Stir in the herbs, taste, and adjust the heat.  Spoon the sauce over the steaks and serve at once.

ENJOY!

Smoked Mullet Spread

Striped mullet fish, or Mugil Cephalus, can be found along the coastlines around the world.   In the United States, various species of mullet (such as white mullet and striped mullet) are most prevalent in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic.  The biggest fisheries in the U.S. can be found in Louisiana, east of the Mississippi River, and in southwest Florida. 

Mullet school in large populations, and fishermen use cast nets, strike nets or beach seines, fishermen are able to harvest the fish in a manner that results in little bycatch.  These fishing methods have led some, like the Monterrey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch, to rate Striped Mullet as not only a sustainable option, but a "best choice."  Cooks often use the oily flesh of the mullet, as well as the roe, in dishes.  The mullet also has an economic importance because, when not being incorporated into local dishes, fishermen use the mullet as bait to catch larger species of fish, such as billfish.

Mullet are rather intriguing fish themselves. Although the most noticeable feature of the mullet is its relatively large eyes, it is the rounded head, inconspicuous teeth and thin lips are more noteworthy.  The teeth and the lips are a gateway to a stomach that has a gizzard like structure.  I say all of this because the teeth and lips are perfect for a fish with a diet that consists of zooplankton, dead plant matter and detritus.  Striped mullets will feed along the top layer of sediment, sucking it in, along with micro-algae and detritrus, using the gravel it consumes in its gizzard to digest its food.

During a recent trip to Eastern Market with Clare's parents, we came across whole Striped Mullets at Southern Maryland Seafood.  While we were principally there to buy some sockeye salmon for smoking, we decided we would experiment with a mullet as well.  We purchased a mullet, which averages between two or three pounds, and were on our way.    

When it came to smoking, I only had three woods available: mesquite, hickory or apple.  Mesquite and hickory would not work with this fish (or, for that matter, any fish).  This left the apple wood.  I had purchased the apple wood when I made the Big Bob Gibson's Eight Time World Championship Pork Shoulder for the Savage Boleks' Second Annual BBQ.  I decided to use apple juice in the liquid bowl to help add a sweetness to the oily flesh of the mullet. 

Clare's father did some research on the Internet and came across some recipes for a smoked mullet spread.  The recipes could be broken down into two categories.  First, there are recipes that call for the use of cream cheese.  Second, there are recipes that are based upon sour cream.  We decided to go with the first category, cream cheese.  We added some fresh herbs, such as chives and tarragon, along with a healthy number of splashes of Tabasco sauce.

SMOKED MULLET SPREAD

A Chef Bolek Collaboration with Frank Savage

Serves many

Ingredients (for the Brine):
1 fresh whole mullet (about 2 pounds), cleaned and gutted
     with head and backbone removed
4 cups water
3/4 cup of Kosher Salt
1/2 cup of light brown sugar

Ingredients (for the Spread):
8 ounces of cream cheese
1/4 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon of fresh chives, chopped finely
1 tablespoon of fresh tarragon, chopped finely
Salt, to taste
Ground black pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon of Tabasco 
 

Directions:

1.   Brine the mullet.  Combine the water, salt and brown sugar to create the brine.  Add the mullet to the brine and allow the fish to rest for about forty-five minutes. After forty-five minutes, remove the fish and set it out to air-dry.  

2.  Prepare the smoker.  Start the fire in the smoker.  Once the fire is set, add some pieces of apple wood to start the smoke.   the smoker is ready when the temperature is between 200 and 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

3.  Smoke the mullet.  Add the mullet and smoke it for about one hour.  The internal temperature should reach about 140 degrees Fahrenheit and the meat of the fish should be easy to flake. 

4.  Create the spread.  Remove the fish. Using a fork, pull the flesh off of the skin.  Once you have removed all of the flesh, break it into small pieces.  Combine the fish, cream cheese, tarragon, chives, Tabasco, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.

This is a great recipe.  The mullet contributes to this dish, not by adding a heavy smoke flavor to the cream cheese, but by adding texture.  The one thing I would note as a word of caution is to be conservative in the use of tarragon, because it has a strong flavor that could overshadow the fish if too much is added.

ENJOY!

For more about Striped Mullet, check out the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Iron Chef Night: CORN!

Every once in a while, I like to do an "Iron Chef" night, when I pick an ingredient and try to make two or three dishes featuring that ingredient.  For the latest Iron Chef Night, the secret ingredient was ... CORN.  I skimmed the Internet for recipes, which I use for ideas as to what dishes I could make.  After a quick review, I decided on three dishes: Chilled Corn Soup with Tarragon and Sun-Dried Tomatoes; Blue Crab and Corn Salad; and Grilled Black Sea Bass with a Roasted Corn Salsa.  Each of these dishes was made on the spot, from ideas in my head.  I tried to keep it as simple as possible.  I used recipes only as guides, not really following them.  The measurements are sketchy and even if I made these again, they would probably come out different.  Still, it is an exercise in creativity.

CHILLED CORN SOUP WITH TARRAGON AND SUN DRIED TOMATOES
Serves 4

This is a great chilled soup for the summer.  The key is the colder the soup, the better.  So let it rest in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before serving it.

Ingredients: 
3 cups of corn (about four ears of corn)
4 green onions (white part only), diced
1 small red chile, seeded and diced
Juice from half a lemon
2-3 teaspoons of tarragon, chopped finely
3 cups of milk
1 cup of yogurt
Sun-dried tomatoes for garnish
A few tarragon leaves for garnish

Directions:
1.  Using a serrated knife, carefully cut the kernels off of the cobs and put into a bowl.  In the food processor, add about 1/2 of the corn, the chopped tarragon and the onions.  Blend until smooth.  Add lemon juice and continue blending.

2.  In a separate bowl, add the milk and yogurt, and whisk until smooth.  Add one cup of the blended milk and yogurt to the corn mixture in the food processor, while the processor is running.  Pour the mixture into a clean bowl.  Whisk in the remaining milk and yogurt mixture.  Add the red peppers.  Chill the soup for a couple of hours.  Garnish with sun-dried tomatoes and a few tarragon leaves.

BLUE CRAB AND CORN SALAD
Serves 4

Ingredients:
16 ounces of jumbo lump crab (pasteurized only)
4 ears of corn
Juice from 1 lemon
4 leaves of basil, chopped finely
A handful of sun-dried tomatoes
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions:
1.  Rub the corn with butter, salt and pepper.  You may also add some red pepper flake.  Wrap the corn in foil with two pads of butter.  Heat grill on high.  Placed the wrapped corn on the grill for 5 minutes and turn.  Cook for another two to three minutes.  Remove and let cool.  Using a serrated knife, remove the kernels from the cobs.

2.  Mix the corn, crab, chile, basil, sun dried tomatoes, and lemon juice.  Salt and pepper to taste.

GRILLED CORN-TOMATO SALSA
Serves 4


Ingredients:
4 ears of corn
1 red chile, seeded and diced finely
Juice from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lime
1 small red onion, diced
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 avocado, pitted and diced
1 small bunch of cilantro, diced
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions: 
1.  Rub the corn with butter, salt and pepper.  You may also add some red pepper flake.  Wrap the corn in foil with two pads of butter.  Heat grill on high.  Placed the wrapped corn on the grill for 5 minutes and turn.  Cook for another two to three minutes.  Remove and let cool.  Using a serrated knife, remove the kernels from the cobs.


2.  Mix the corn, chile, tomato, onion, cilantro, avocado, lemon juice and lime juice.  Salt and pepper to taste.

I served this with grilled black sea bass.

ENJOY!