Lobster Soup

I had an indulgent lobster dinner the night before, but sadly (and shockingly) I couldn't finish it all. As I was brainstorming about what to do with the pile of shells and claws that were left, soup popped into my head. I'd never made a seafood soup before, but I figured it couldn't be that difficult. The soup stock consisted of the basics - onion, celery, carrot, peppercorns, and a bay leaf - as well as the leftover lobster shells and bodies with the gills and most of the tomalley and roe removed. The stock was excellent, not fishy at all, and the perfect base for my "leftover" meal. I threw in some seafood, potatoes, and saffron and served it with some crusty bread and butter. I'm definitely making this again, especially when I go to Maine and there are more lobster shells and bodies than I could possibly ever use.


HOW TO:

Boil the above stock ingredients for a few hours, until the broth is richly flavored.

Soak a pinch of saffron threads for 20 minutes. Strain stock into a separate pot, add the saffron water, and boil halved yukon gold potatoes until just tender. Add the lobster claw and any additional seafood (I used scallops, rock shrimp, and cod). Cook until everything is just done, in this case 3 minutes or so. Garnish with parsley and serve hot with bread for dipping.

Cajun Shrimp with Polenta

I'm not great at making seafood, but this dish was SO easy to make and really enjoyable to eat. I realize that I probably should have made grits instead of polenta, but they're basically the same and more importantly polenta and parmesan was what I had in the fridge.


HOW TO:

Devein, rinse, and dry the shrimp. Toss with chopped garlic, finely diced red bell pepper, cajun seasoning, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Sauté in a little olive oil and butter until just cooked through. Finish with parsley and lemon. Serve with polenta.

Pork Belly Adobo

I went through a chicken adobo phase immediately after the New York Times came out with this article. That was almost two years ago, so the dish had inevitably fallen out of my cooking rotation and was forgotten. My primary dining companion, aka my boyfriend, suggested adobo when I was scraping the bottom of my mental barrel for dinner ideas. Since I have been meh about chicken recently, I thought I'd upgrade the dish with pork. A trip to Whole Foods later, I had four pounds of locally raised pork belly ready for marinating. I made a slightly different marinade than what was written in the Times article (pasted below), basically a little more soy, a little raw sugar, and no coconut milk. I added organic coconut cream at the end of cooking to thicken the sauce instead. It turned out much better than I expected, and I expected delicious. With pork belly and coconut, I thought the dish would be oily and heavy, but the vinegar balanced it all. The flavor was an unique combination of porky, spicy, and sour.


HOW TO:

Cut the pork belly into 1-2 inch size cubes.

 Marinate with soy, rice vinegar, garlic, chilies, bay leaves, and lots of pepper for at least 4 hours.

Simmer everything together with a cup or so of water for an hour to an hour and a half or until the pork is tender. Add creamed coconut toward the end. Remove the pieces to a sheet pan and broil until browned and slight crispy. Meanwhile, reduce the remaining sauce until thickened. Serve all together with rice.



TIP:

Use Mizkan's brown rice vinegar. It makes for a much smoother vinegar flavor.

Chicken Adobo

By SAM SIFTON

1 cup coconut milk

¼ cup soy sauce

1½ cup rice vinegar

12 garlic cloves, peeled

3 whole bird’s-eye chilies or other fiery chili

3 bay leaves

1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

3 to 4 pounds chicken thighs.

1. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large, nonreactive bowl or resealable plastic freezer bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.

2. Place chicken and marinade in a large lidded pot or Dutch oven over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, around 30 minutes.

3. Heat broiler. Transfer chicken pieces to a large bowl, raise heat under the pot to medium-high, and reduce the sauce until it achieves almost the consistency of cream, about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and chilies.

4. Place chicken pieces on a roasting pan and place under broiler for 5 to 7 minutes, until they begin to caramelize. Remove, turn chicken, baste with sauce and repeat, 3 to 5 minutes more. Return chicken to sauce and cook for a few minutes more, then place on a platter and drizzle heavily with sauce. Serves four. Adapted from Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, Purple Yam restaurant, Brooklyn.