Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (17 page)

1)
Preliminaries

1 cup
mirepoix
(equal parts finely diced onions, carrots, and celery)

1½ Tb butter

A heavy, 3-quart stainless or enameled saucepan with cover

1½ cups chopped, fresh tomato pulp (3 to 4 medium tomatoes peeled, seeded, and juiced)

The chest parts with the shells and the legs from 3 or 4 fresh, raw, 1¼- to 1½-lb. lobsters

Cook the
mirepoix
slowly in the butter, in the saucepan, for 6 to 8 minutes, or until vegetables are tender but not browned. Meanwhile, prepare the tomatoes. Cut lobster chests in half lengthwise. (
See illustrated directions
for cutting lobster.)

2)
Sautéing the lobster

2 or more Tb olive oil or cooking oil

A heavy, 10- to 12-inch no-stick or enameled casserole (or chicken fryer or deep frying pan)

Cooking tongs

Film the bottom of the casserole with
¹
⁄
₁₆
inch of oil; set over moderately high heat until oil is very hot but not smoking. Add the lobster chests cut side down and the legs. Do not crowd pan: sauté in 2 batches if all will not fit easily in one layer. Toss and turn frequently until shells are a deep red (4 to 5 minutes in all). Color is important here, as it is the shells that tint the soup.

3)
Simmering the lobster and removing the meat

Salt and pepper

⅓ cup Cognac

Either
1½ cups dry white wine;

Or
1 cup dry white vermouth

2 Tb fresh tarragon or 1 Tb dried tarragon

1 bay leaf

The
mirepoix
and tomatoes from Step 1

1 clove mashed garlic

Large pinch of cayenne pepper

A cover for the casserole

When the lobster is sautéed, lower heat slightly, salt and pepper the lobster, and pour on the Cognac. Ignite by shaking pan vigorously or tilting it into heat source, or use a lighted match. When flames have died down, pour on the wine, mix in the tarragon, and add the bay leaf and other ingredients. Cover casserole, and simmer slowly for 20 minutes.

(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE
: May be simmered a day in advance; let cool uncovered, then cover and refrigerate (or freeze).

2 medium-sized bowls

A food mill with medium disk, or a sieve and a wooden spoon

An electric blender

(Before proceeding, you may wish to start the rice in the next step, so that it will be done by the time you are through here.) Remove the pieces of
lobster from their cooking sauce and extract the meat from the shells following
illustrated directions
. You will have about 1 cup; place in one of the bowls. Purée the cooking sauce through food mill or sieve into the other bowl, and scrape into jar of blender; reserve for Step 5. Chop shells into ½-inch pieces and reserve in a bowl for Step 6.

4)
Simmering the rice

3 cups fish stock or canned clam juice

2 cups beef stock or canned beef bouillon

The saucepan from Step 1, in which the
mirepoix
cooked

¼ cup plain, raw, white rice

Bring the fish stock or clam juice and the beef stock or bouillon to a boil in the saucepan; sprinkle in the rice. Stir up once, and simmer for 20 minutes. Set aside for Step 5.

5)
Puréeing rice and lobster meat

The saucepan of boiled rice

A large, fine-meshed sieve set over a 2½- to 3-quart bowl

A rubber spatula

The blender jar containing the puréed lobster-cooking sauce

Half the lobster meat

Drain rice through sieve, reserving its cooking liquid in the bowl. Scrape rice and the half portion of lobster meat into the blender. Purée, adding a little of the rice-cooking liquid if mixture is too thick for easy blending in the machine. Scrape the purée out of the blender and into the rice-cooking saucepan.

6)
Shellfish butter for final enrichment—lobster butter

6 Tb butter

The casserole in which the lobster cooked

The bowl of chopped lobster shells

The electric blender

The sieve from Step 5

A wooden spoon

A rubber spatula

A small bowl to hold the butter

Heat butter to bubbling in casserole, stir in the chest and leg shells, and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, tossing and turning, to heat thoroughly. Immediately scrape into blender and purée, flicking switch on and off and scraping shells down into blades as necessary. Scrape purée into sieve, and mash vigorously with spoon to extract as much butter as possible. Scrape all butter off
bottom of sieve with rubber spatula and pack into bowl. Set aside for Steps 7 and 8.

The bowl of rice-cooking liquid from Step 5

The saucepan containing the puréed rice and lobster from Step 5

To extract all remaining flavor from blender jar, shells, and sieve, pour rice-cooking liquid into the casserole in which you just sautéed the shells. Heat to the simmer and pour liquid into blender to rinse it, then pour liquid back into casserole. Scrape shell debris from sieve into casserole, and swish sieve about in the hot rice-cooking liquid to dislodge all debris. Simmer 3 to 4 minutes; strain liquid through the sieve and into the saucepan of puréed rice and lobster.