February 11, 2012
On my way to pick up my daily newspaper at the local Safeway, I noticed signs plastered all over the store promoting their frozen Maine lobster tail sale (@$5.00 per tail), and Lobster Thermidor suddenly popped into my mind. It has been years since I had savored that outrageously cholesterol-rich dish, and memories of my father asking my grandmother if she wanted to have ”Lobster Cuspidor” for dinner washed over me.
In between Julia Child’s two and half page recipe and the terse Epicurious one, I
found my “Goldilocks” recipe in Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cook Book and went to work. While the lobster tails were cooking in boiling water for seven minutes, I diced and sauteed mushrooms in three tablespoons of butter. At Robin’s suggestion, I used one of my favorites, a Corningware double boiler, to heat the sauce, a cup of heavy cream, one-half cup of Amontillado sherry, two egg yolks (which had been gently beaten into some of the cream), a dash of Worcestershire and salt and pepper to taste.
When the lobster was ready, I took the tail meat from the shell which I preserved, cut up the tail meat and added it to the mixture in the double boiler. After five minutes, I filled each lobster tail shell with the mixture from the double boiler, topped with dots of butter and parmesan cheese, and baked the ensemble in the oven for twelve minutes at 350 degrees.
The dish was served with extra sauce over rice, accompanied by a delicious un-oaked 2009 Catena chardonnay, our favorite Argentine vineyard.
I was able to visualize the preparation and outcome of the lobster thermador...but if you continue to write about food like this, I may not be able to read much. Way too tempting! ;-)
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