Boiled Lobster Tails

From Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add some salt.  Add the lobsters/lobster tails.
• When the water returns to a boil, set a timer.  For one pound of lobster, cook it for about 8 minutes.  Add 3-4 minutes for each additional pound.  You can also use a meat thermometer to check doneness; it will be done at 140 degrees.
• Drain the lobster, and let it cool for a few minutes before serving.

Notes:

• Because we had to postpone our lobster cooking, we had frozen our lobsters in a sealed freezer bag the day we bought them and transferred them to the refrigerator the day before cooking so that they could slowly thaw out.
• While the lobster was boiling I melted some ghee to use for dipping.  You could clarify your own butter, but since I had a jar of ghee I thought I’d save myself the work.

Thankfully the meat streak has ended, and vegetables have made a triumphant return to my plate.  I’ve eaten this salad for the last two nights and will probably be eating more of it tonight, although without the salmon since I polished all of that off yesterday.  There’s no real recipe for this salad; it’s basically just a bunch of veggies that work well together, some quickly marinated salmon, and a peanut dressing to top it all off.  You can change the ingredients based on your personal tastes, what looks good at the grocery store, or what you already have in your kitchen.

For the most part I didn’t list ingredient amounts below, both because I wasn’t keeping track as I added stuff and because it’s easy enough to play around with the ingredients until they taste good to you.  I thought about using tofu instead of salmon, but in the end I stuck with what I’m more comfortable cooking.  I do have some freebie tofu to use up, so maybe I’ll try it out on the leftover salad now that I’m out of salmon.  I was also thinking that some crunchy ramen noodles or rice noodles would be a nice addition.  See?  There’s a lot of room to improvise.

Salmon marinade: tamari, rice wine vinegar, juice of 1/2 lime, 1 glove garlic, small piece of chopped ginger, and a tiny bit of sugar.  I more or less used the same marinade that I used when I made fried rice with soy-ginger salmon, so you can check out that post if you want precise measurements.  Mix all the marinade ingredients, throw them in a bowl with the salmon, and refrigerate it while you get the salad ingredients ready.

The salad: 1/2 head savoy cabbage, a couple handfuls of watercress (which I would replace with spinach or romaine  or just leave out next time), 1 shredded carrot, a few handfuls of bean sprouts, 1/2 cucumber, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 serrano pepper.

The dressing: a few spoonfuls of peanut butter, 1/2 sliced serrano pepper, honey, soy sauce, lime juice, and canola oil.  I stuck this in the microwave for 30 seconds or so to make the peanut butter easier to work with.  This dressing was pretty good but kind of intense, so if you’re looking for something a little lighter I would use a vinaigrette.

Cook the salmon in a pan with little oil over medium-high heat, flipping once, until done to your liking.  Drizzle a little dressing over a plate of greens, and top with a piece of salmon.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Now on to the food.  Every meal we ate while in ATL was great.  My friend Sarah and I both got in around the same time Friday afternoon and after we dropped our bags off at our friend Katherine’s we headed to Octane Coffee, recently named in Bon Appetit as one of the ten best boutique coffee shops.  Two thumbs up.

Following our caffeine jolt we headed back to Katherine’s to make seafood paella so we could feel like we were back in Toledo.   It’s been six years since our semester in Spain, and although I’ve had paella a handful of times since then this was my first time (participating in) making it.  I always thought paella was something that took hours and hours to make, probably because so many restaurants warn you of an increased wait time for ordering it, but the recipe in Katherine’s Spanish cookbook made it seem far easier.  It makes sense, considering my host mother would make paella every Sunday, if not more often.  After a successful first attempt I think all three of us will be making this more often.

Seafood Paella

From Culinaria Spain, with a few adjustments

A couple fillets of any mild, white fish (tilapia, grouper, halibut)

12-15 large, uncooked shrimp

1-2 dozen mussels, scrubbed

2 tomatoes

2 cups long-grain white rice

4 cups seafood stock

1 cup chicken stock

Pinch of saffron

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

While we cooked and sipped champagne we snacked on assorted olives…

…as well as crusty bread and mahon.

Sarah started by dicing the tomatoes into little pieces.

Katherine partially cooked the shrimp in a little oil in a big skillet.  When they’re about halfway done you take them out of the skillet and set them aside.  They’ll finish cooking later when everything gets thrown together.

We cut a couple tilapia fillets into about 1″ pieces, partially cooked them in the hot skillet, and then set them aside with the shrimp.

Add the rice, tomatoes, garlic and seafood stock to the skillet.  In a separate bowl combine the chicken stock with a large pinch of saffron, stir to combine, then add the mixture to the skillet.*  Bring the mixture to a boil, and cook for about 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat and cook for about 10 more minutes or until the most of the liquid is absorbed.

*We skipped this step thinking it was completely unnecessary and later realized that it’s there to make sure the saffron kind of dissolves into the liquid and spreads its flavor around.

Add the mussels, the shrimp, and the fish and cook for just a couple more minutes.  Season with salt.  We stuck the skillet under the broiler for a couple minutes at the very end, but it’s probably not entirely necessary.  Serve with red wine and crusty bread to sop up any juices.  ¡Buen provecho!

The paella on Friday night set the bar pretty high for food for the weekend, but the remainder of our meals did not disappoint.

Katherine, Sarah, and I, along with Katherine’s roommate Shailika, went to Murphy’s for brunch on Saturday where they garnish Bloody Marys with pickled okra.  I love the South!  The Bloody Mary both revived me and helped wash down my crab cake benedict with jalapeno hollandaise.

Sarah and Shailika.

Me and Katherine.

I didn’t take many more pictures, but I can’t write about my ATL trip without mentioning Saturday night’s dinner at The BookHouse Pub.   The four of us started with smoked trout mac & cheese and collard green egg rolls to share, and I had a juicy burger with blue cheese for my meal.  As much as I loved the burger, the smoked trout mac & cheese was the most unforgettable part of the meal.  Either that or the company.