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Christmas Eve I spent the entire day cooking.  This is more a testament to how I have slowed down as essentially I was making soup and sandwich.  The Oyster bisque I have in my blog at least twice.  Just go to date and tap May 8, 2016 for one of them.  I also want to foods and plugged in oysters.  This is a great bisque as it is not as Grandma used to make with 4 quarts of heavy cream.  The soup part is mostly clam juice, oyster juice, leeks, onion and celery with  1/2 C heavy cream.  

With the bisque we had Lobster Rolls.  These are by Geoffrey Zakarian from The Kitchen.  

Ingredients:

4 steamed lobsters, meat removed (leave the meat whole.)

1/4 C plus 2 T melted butter

2 t chopped shallots

2 t chopped fresh tarragon

4 split-top buns or brioche hot dog buns, edges squared off

8 Bibb lettuce leaves

2 T EVOO

1 T redline vinegar

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

1/2 C spicy Mayonnaise, recipe follows

1 T finely minced chives

8 lemon wedges

Spicy Mayonnaise:

2 C mayonnaise

1/4 C Dijon Mustard

2 t mustard powder

1 t lemon jice

1 t seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay

Sriracha hot sauce, as needed

Directions:

1. Toss the lobster meat with 2 T melted butter, the shallots and tarragon in a medium bowl.
2. Brush the cut sides of the buns with the remaining 1/4 C melted butter.  Grill the buns, cut side down, until golden brown, about 3 minutes.  
3. Dress the lettuce leaves with the oil na vinegar, salt and pepper.
4. Place the dressed lettuce in the toasted buns and add the lobster meat.  Drizzle with the spicy Mayonnaise and garnish with the chives. 
5. Serve with lemon wedges.
6. Spicy Mayonnaise: combine mayo, mustard, mustard powder, lemon juice, seafood seasoning and 1 t water in a bowl.  Season with Sriracha and salt.  (I made 1/4 of the amount and it is plenty for 4 sandwiches.  

Christmas Eve dinner was delicious.  Best of all we have plenty of leftovers.  

Tonight was Zoom cooking with Chef Paulette.  The agenda was Baked Lobster Tails with Garlicky Breadcrumbs and Butter

Crab Cakes with Homemade Cocktail Sauce

Spaghetti with Spicy Shrimp Tomato Sauce

I did not and will not make her crab cakes.  She puts too much filling (Panko Crumbs) in her recipe.  We bought the crab that I usually buy at Costco.  It is Philips brand and it is really good.  I decided to make my Maryland Crab Cakes for NYE which we will be spending alone just like every other holiday, anniversary, birthday, etc. in 2020.

I made both the lobster and the shrimp tomato sauce during the class.  We dined on the lobster tonight.  Tomorrow, I will cook the pasta and we will have the shrimp sauce.  I split all the recipes in half.

Ingredients:

4 lobster tails (5-7 oz. each)

1/2 C Panko Crumbs

4 garlic cloves

5-6 sprigs fresh Italian parsley

3-4 T dry white wine

EVOO for drizzling

salt to taste

2-3 T butter

Directions:

1. Under the chefs direction we first chopped all the garlic and parsley needed for the lobster and sauce.  and placed them in small bowls.  
2. Next we warmed up our oven to 400 degrees F.
3. We then prepared the breadcrumb mixture for the lobsters by combining in a bowl the Panko, garlic, parsley and salt.  Next we add enough oil to to make a loose paste.
4. The chef then demonstrated 2 ways to cut the lobster tails.  The first is to use kitchen shears and cut the shell on both sides down the middle.  Then, using your knife, cut the meat in half laying them on an aluminum foil lined sheet pan for baking them.  The second method was fancier and if company was coming, I would do it this way.  Cut the shell on the top side all the way down the middle.  At the end of the shell cut across the fin left and right, forming a T.  Using your fingers and a small knife loosen all the lobster meat from the shell and drag it on top of the shell.  This made a pretty presentation.  As you can see from the photo, I cut mine in half.  
5. Season the meat with a little salt.  With the cutting finished you then press the Panko mixture into the meat.  Top the mixture with dots of butter and sprinkle the wine in the pan to steam as they cook.  
6. She recommends cooking to 140-145 degrees for approximately 15 minutes, 2 minutes per ounce.  Actually I would cook to about 135 and cover with foil to 5 minutes to accommodate the residual cooking.  

I found them a little dry and felt they were a tad over cooked.  We pulled them out at 140 degrees F.  At 10 minutes I checked and they were 135.  

So I served them tonight with baked sweet potato and par-boiled asparagus.  It was a very nice meal.  I was dead tired from the cooking class.  

Last night's dinner should have been fabulous .  It was ruined as we had extreme difficulty getting the lobster out of the tails.  So here we were struggling with the meat and being assaulted by the sharp shell.  I used a recipe from the Food Network Kitchen.  

Ingredients:

4 (5-6 oz) frozen lobster tails, thawed (we had 2)

1 stick (8 T) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 T  chopped fresh parsley

1 T minced shallot

1 t lemon zest

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Mix together the butter, parsley, shallot, lemon zest, 1/2 t salt and a few grinds of pepper in a small bowl until well combined.
2. Preheat the broiler.  Place a wire cooling rack inside a rimmed baking sheet.  
3. Cut the top shell of the lobster tails lengthwise down the middle with kitchen  shears.  Then, using a knife, cut all the way through the tails to split into 2 pieces.  Place them flesh-side up on the prepared baking sheet.  
4. Mix together the butter, parsley, shallot, lemon zest, 1/2 t salt and a few grinds of pepper in a small bowl until well combined.
5. Spread 2 t of the compound butter of the flesh of each lobster tail half.  Broil until shells turn a bright orange and the flesh is opaque and cooked through and the tails begin to curl, about 4 minutes.  
6. Transfer the tails to a serving platter and top each half with another t of the compound butter.  

I roasted asparagus and we we had frozen French fries in the air fryer.  

As it takes me hours to do the most mundane things in the kitchen, we decided Monday and Tuesday had to be easy.  Monday we had the last of the freezer tortellini with pesto and langoustine.  Tuesday was equally as busy so we had Costco salmon burgers with Gail’s leftover soup.  

For some reason on Wednesday as I had nothing scheduled I decided to make a meal using both the Instant Pot and the Air-fryer.  

The Instant pot was a soup from the Food Network Kitchen.  It was to yield 4-6 servings.  It was 2 bowls.  

Ingredients:

2 T butter

1 C chopped shallot

1 C chopped peeled potato

1 medium glove garlic, minced

1 sprig fresh thyme

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 1/2 C chicken broth

1 C firmly packed chopped watercress

1/4 to 1/2 C heavy cream

Directions:

1. Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook, stirring, until tender, 3-5 minutes.  
2. Add the potato, garlic, thyme, 1/2 t salt and a few grinds of pepper and coo, stirring, until the potatoes are well coated, 2-3 minutes more.  
3. Pour in the broth and bring to a simmer.  
4. Simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes, adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a simmer.  
5. Stir in the watercress and cook 5 minutes ore.  
6. Carefully puree until smooth with a hand immersion blender or in 2-3 batches in a blender.
7. Stir in the cream and reheat the soup if necessary, adjusting the consistency and seasoning with additional water, salt and pepper.
8. Serve hot sprinkled with almonds and chives.  

Well, I will have to do a complete do over with this soup.  I was having so much trouble with the Paula Dean recipe, I really screwed this up.  I really think this is not a Instant-Pot recipe.  

Does the picture look appetizing to you?  I was not a happy camper with this recipe.  It took forever and the spring roll wrappers that Jim bought at Publix were too small.  I cut the recipe in half and used twice as many spring rolls.  Rolling and dipping produced a mess.  I am doing nothing again that has to be breaded.  

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 shallot cider

2 T butter

2 # crawfish tails

1 T Cajun seasoning

2 C raw spinach

1 1/2 C shredded white Cheddar cheese

1 C sweet corn

1 C black beans

1 C cornstarch

1 egg

8 spring roll wrappers

oil for spraying

Directions:

1. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, sauté garlic, bell pepper, and shallot in butter.  Add crawfish tails and Cajun seasoning and stir until blended.  Cook until tails turn pink and become opaque/  Remove from heat and place in a bowl to cool.  After crawfish mixture cools, add spinach, white Cheddar cheese , corn and black beans.  
2. Place cornstarch in a shallow dish.  In another shallow dish, beat egg.  Place 2 oz of crawfish mixture in middle of each spring roll wrapper , wash edges with beaten egg and seal.  Dredge rolls in cornstarch.  
3. Working in batches of 4, spray each egg roll with oil and place in air fryer bake in a single layer.  Do not over crowd. 
4. Set temperature to 400 degrees, and air fry for 4 minutes.  Turn rolls, spray with oil and air fry for 4 minutes, or until golden brown.  Serve warm.  

Today was painting day and I finished the above painting today.  Tonight’s dinner is another no brainer.  We have from Costco their Lobster Bisque.  I bought the little langoustine and I add them to the bisque.  I made a salad to go with it.  

I thought it was finished but the left arm was too high.  I fixed it on Thursday.