Yields: 4-6 servings
There are no pipia, actually-scuttling around in the swampy marshes of the wetlands or along the bottoms of the ocean floor on Earth, so substitute lobster instead and you’ll be more than pleased with the result. You can prepare it en casserole just the way the inventor, the great field general Emperor Napoleon, who called it Lobster Thermadour liked it. Here’s how:
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 2-pound live, fully clawed lobsters
- ¾ cup (1½ stick) of butter, melted
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock (made form instant packages or bouillon cubes
- ¼ cup all-purpose sifted flour
- 1 cup crackling dry white wine (Frascati or Verdicchio)
- 2 cups bread crumbs or unflavored stuffing mix
- 1 cup grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese
- 2 cups minced celery leaves
- sea salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard
- freshly ground black peppercorns to taste
- 1 or 2 drops of McLihenny’s Tabasco sauce or Louisiana-style hot sauce
- cayenne pepper or pakrika to taste
DIRECTIONS:
First, kill all the lobsters. Do this by plunging their wriggling, squirming, snapping bodies deep into heavily salted boiling water in a stew pot, you should add two handfuls of salt to the water. Even better, if you live near an ocean, fill your pot with seawater and boil it straight-seaweed and all. Keep the lobsters on a high boil for at least 15 minutes. Now they’re done. Remove them, uncurl them, snap off the claws, but leave the heads on and the eyes open.
While the lobsters are still hot, split them into halves, scoop out the soft white meat, and cut it into small bite-sized chunks. In a saucepan, mix ½ cup melted butter with flour until the two become soft and smooth and thoroughly blended, and then add the lobster meat. To the lobster meat, butter, and flour, add the cream and stock and blend. Heat this mixture over low heat for about 15 minutes of cooking time, add all of the spices, seasonings, and half of the cheese. Now preheat the broiler, and add to the lobster meat your wine, remaining ¼ cup melted butter, and stuffing or bread crumbs. Cook this mixture for another 5 minutes.
Because you will cook the lobster meat in the shells, rinse the shells until they are clean. Place them in a boiling pan and fill them with the lobster meat. Top with the remaining cheddar cheese. Broil 5 to 7 minutes until they are brown, and just before serving, arrange the lobster claws, upright and pried open, in the shells. You can sprinkle cayenne pepper or another dose of paprika over the finished dish, and garnish with arugula around the claws. If you have to, you can prop the claws up with bits of lobster shell, because pipius claw is all in the presentation. You can also add more bread crumbs or stuffing to the mixture to help support the claws upright. Serves four to six.
recipe:
Responses