Happy New Year! Welcome to 2015 – make it the best year ever! I promised a detox to kick off the new year and I haven’t forgotten. We are going to celebrate New Year’s first. I asked quite a few people how they celebrate New Year’s, and no two people answered the same way. I love it! Very unlike Thanksgiving, right? Feel free to share what you like to cook for either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.
I usually make either lobster thermidor or rack of lamb on New Year’s Day, depending on what I made for Christmas. My son and I went to our local fish market, Lighthouse Seafood, yesterday to pick up the lobster tails and it was jam-packed. Everyone was preparing for their dinner parties. The guy in front of me picked up 12 pounds of steamed crab legs – with Old Bay seasoning, of course.
This recipe idea came from my first Better Homes and Gardens book and the first time I made it I couldn’t believe how well it turned out. It’s my ultimate celebration (or impressing people when I can afford it) dinner. Sometimes I mark in my cookbook the date I make a dish and a comment about how it turned out. For this recipe I wrote, “Made the week of 5/2/11 to celebrate the disposal of Bin Laden – 5 stars.” But I usually only make it on New Year’s – it helps to have the day off work and not be rushed.
To remove the meat from the lobster tail, carefully cut up each side of the bottom of the shell and peel it back. You can usually get your fingers between the hard shell and the lobster meat and carefully grasp and peel it out of the shell. Some types of lobster will have a thin membrane between the shell and the meat; I peel that off and discard it so that the shell is clean and there isn’t anything tough mixed in with the meat.
Lobster Thermidor
8 small lobster tails (<1/2 lb)
1/4 C chopped onion
3-4 oz chopped mushrooms
2 T butter
2 T flour
1/4 t sea salt
1/4 t paprika
1/8 t fresh ground pepper
3/4 C half and half or cream
3/4 C organic low-sodium chicken broth
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 beaten egg yolk
2 T white wine or sherry
1/4 C bread crumbs
2 T shredded Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 450. Boil a large pot of water. Add lobster tails and bring water back to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain. When cool enough to handle, carefully remove the meat and separate it into small pieces; set aside.
Arrange the empty lobster tail shells in a 9×13 baking pan.
After you put the lobster tails in the boiling water, you can start to cook and stir the onion, mushrooms, salt, paprika, and pepper until onion is tender (5-6 minutes). Add flour and stir until combined. Stir cream, broth, and Worcestershire sauce into onion mixture. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Add a large scoop of the mixture to a small bowl with the beaten egg yolk and mix. Return the egg mixture back to the pan. Stir in the wine and lobster meat; mix thoroughly and heat through.
Fill the shells with the lobster mixture. Mix the bread crumbs and cheese; sprinkle over the lobster. Bake for 8 minutes.
