Birthday Celebration and Other Divine Rituals of Pain
I celebrated my 38th birthday a few weeks back, and to mitigate the pain I cooked a dinner for both me and Nayan. Her birthday is two weeks after mine and I won't go into details of her longevity, although she has stuck it out much longer than I have.
So, I figured a stuffed pork loin and lobster would cure our fear of impending doom. We took a break from choosing cemetery plots to stop by Whole Foods and (ignoring their guilt ridden marketing ploys) picked out a slender tenderloin, and several random ingredients for dinner, including a couple of frozen Australian lobster tails.
Usually, I'm a purist when I come to stabbing a lobster and throwing the half dead victim into a boiling pot of water. This time, I grabbed a 2-Pac of Lobster, which is already, well, chopped off the body, but otherwise unadulterated.
So. Lobster is a cop out, right? It's easy. So easy in fact, it can be cooked by the most criminally retarded among us. The way I prepare is easy, but a two step process, and I didn't do it right!.
First, you par-boil the lobster, then you grill it the rest of the way. If you were to fully cook the lobster, then grill the pieces, it would get tough and charred and the quality would burned away. So you only partially steam it in the water, then throw the remains on the grill. If you undercook it like I did, all the meat will stick to the shell and you'll have to scrape it out with your fingertip.
Scraping lobster from its dead carcass at the dinner table is hardly a regal way to enjoy this luxury item, so make sure you cook it well.
The centerpiece (really!) of the evening was a butterflied, stuffed pork loin. I sliced it spirally, unraveling a sheet of delicate pork with my adept carving hand. I chopped up finely a trio of mushrooms: porcini, crimini and portabello. Then, I sauteed them until nice and brownish.
But I didn't stop there. I spread the mushrooms through the sheet of pork and overlaid it all with a heaping mound of bleu cheese, roquefort in fact. I rolled it back up like a cigar (or a pork joint, if you will).
Instead of tying it with simple butcher's twine, I bound it with bacon. We will all surely die from this. I spirally blanketed the cylinder with a generous shroud of bacon, tied up with butcher's twine.
Serve with a bib. Shave truffles. Garnish with gold flake. Live it up.
So, I figured a stuffed pork loin and lobster would cure our fear of impending doom. We took a break from choosing cemetery plots to stop by Whole Foods and (ignoring their guilt ridden marketing ploys) picked out a slender tenderloin, and several random ingredients for dinner, including a couple of frozen Australian lobster tails.
Usually, I'm a purist when I come to stabbing a lobster and throwing the half dead victim into a boiling pot of water. This time, I grabbed a 2-Pac of Lobster, which is already, well, chopped off the body, but otherwise unadulterated.
So. Lobster is a cop out, right? It's easy. So easy in fact, it can be cooked by the most criminally retarded among us. The way I prepare is easy, but a two step process, and I didn't do it right!.
First, you par-boil the lobster, then you grill it the rest of the way. If you were to fully cook the lobster, then grill the pieces, it would get tough and charred and the quality would burned away. So you only partially steam it in the water, then throw the remains on the grill. If you undercook it like I did, all the meat will stick to the shell and you'll have to scrape it out with your fingertip.
Scraping lobster from its dead carcass at the dinner table is hardly a regal way to enjoy this luxury item, so make sure you cook it well.
The centerpiece (really!) of the evening was a butterflied, stuffed pork loin. I sliced it spirally, unraveling a sheet of delicate pork with my adept carving hand. I chopped up finely a trio of mushrooms: porcini, crimini and portabello. Then, I sauteed them until nice and brownish.
But I didn't stop there. I spread the mushrooms through the sheet of pork and overlaid it all with a heaping mound of bleu cheese, roquefort in fact. I rolled it back up like a cigar (or a pork joint, if you will).
Instead of tying it with simple butcher's twine, I bound it with bacon. We will all surely die from this. I spirally blanketed the cylinder with a generous shroud of bacon, tied up with butcher's twine.
Serve with a bib. Shave truffles. Garnish with gold flake. Live it up.
5 Comments:
Steve -
I have had some luck grilling the lobster tails without any steaming. I split them lengthwise and start them off face down on the grill after basting with a little garlic, cilantro, and lemon butter mixture, then I crank the heat to low and flip them over and cook until almost done. I think this may not work for a larger tail because the shell may burn, but small tails work great
By
Jeff, at 12:10 PM
Steve, you know, there are many ways to kill yourself, but this one tops the list of suicidal methods. i can't imagine how good it tasted. happy birthday to you and i'm sorry i couldn't meet up w/ you for your last week at work. work is killer. we're not strangers, only a call away!
By
eatdrinknbmerry, at 7:43 PM
*droool*
I'm imagining putting the lobster scrapings from the tail inside the pork loin. Yes, yes, the cheese was a strong one. But I think the lobster could have taken it. The loin sounds lush, but stuff it with the lobster meat... I think I just entered my happy place.
- Chubbypanda
By
Anonymous, at 11:03 PM
Jeff - That sounds great! I think I may not have par boiled it long enough. In retrospect, you could probably cook them most all the way, and char just for a second or two on the grill so they don't become tough.
EDnBM: Hey Man, what's going on? Same here with work, it was a nightmare at the old place, and now a whole new set of work at the new. We'll get it together...we should shoot for Echigo one evening. I'll email you...
ChubbP - totally! Now I'm going to steal your idea and make millions: Pork stuffed with lobster and bleu cheese! What a way to go!
By
Steve Wasser, at 11:41 AM
Steve, first, Happy Birthday to you and to your lovely wife - 36, you're just a kid, don't worry it gets worse - wait till you pass the 40 mark, then you really start to fall apart - so enjoy now !
Re: the pork - wow, that looks amazing ! Please 'splain how you cooked it - did you first brown it in a skillet and then finish it in the oven ? Any other details you can tanatalize us with ?
Best, Mike G aka mikester
By
Anonymous, at 9:39 AM
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home