Lobster Mac and Cheese

For my friend's birthday potluck, I wanted to make her something special. I remembered she loved lobster mac and cheese (ala Purple Resaurant), and wanted to make it for her. However, never having had lobster mac or visited Purple, I didn't know where to begin. So I began with the internet.

And found this recipe (in a roundabout way-- I was searching for images!): Macaroni and Cheese with Lobster, from The Passionate Cook (blog).

I also found a Classic Macaroni and Cheese recipe on America's Test Kitchen website (they make you pay the price of membership to see it).

Originally, I used the same proportions as on the Test Kitchen recipe (8 people) and came out with enough to fill a 8x12 baking dish and a ~8x8 shallow casserole dish. I bought it to 2 parties! I think the recipe was relatively successful, especially the 2nd time, for which I made extra cheese sauce and dumped it on top of the bread.

I merged the two together and came up with this (thank goodness for electronic scales).


Lobster Macaroni and Cheese, with or without lobster (Swiss/Parmesan varietal)
For 4-6 people.

Ingredients
2 lobster tails (though honestly, the more the better. It's cost prohibitive)
50 g (1.76 oz, or 0.11 lbs) emmental cheese (grated)
50 g gruyère (grated)
50 g parmesan (grated)
3 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp flour
~1 cup milk
Small onion finely diced
2-3 cloves minced garlic (no recipe called for it, but I like it)
A few shakes of cayenne
Pasta of choice for 4-6 people
Bread crumbs or croutons (I used 1 inch cubes of bread. Sourdough sounds good)

Recipe

1. Boil pasta until done.
2. If you want lobster, shell and rinse. Boil for 15 minutes or until done. Keep it warm.
   
3. In medium pot on medium high, melt the butter and saute the onions and garlic until caramelized. It will eventually start bubbling. Add your flour to make roux and whisk to get the clumps out. Add some cayenne if you want. Slowly add the milk and whisk to prevent clumps. Whisk frequently until boiling (careful not to burn; should be like thick cream). Take it off the heat and slowly whisk in the grated cheese. Taste and season to your likings (salt?).
   
4. Combine pasta and cheese sauce. Put into baking dish. Top with pieces of lobster. Top with bread crumbs or croutons. Bake or broil to brown the crumbs and serve.
5. If your bread didn't turn out, you can make more cheese sauce and pour it on top of everything. That always helps. Decorate as you want! Cayenne looks nice on white sauce, and I think it adds an interesting/fun kick to otherwise normal mac and cheese. Other people garnish with green onion or parsley.
   
   

I can imagine using barbeque or honey glazed chicken on this dish, too.

I hope I get to enjoy this again, soon.

Japanese Curry

It's been a long time since I've posted. If it's knitting, it's because I haven't wanted to dress up to take a picture of my knitted object. If it's gardening, it's because it's been dead most of the year. If it's food, then there's no excuse.

Here comes a string of updates!

Here's beef curry that I made with a friend one day:

Basic vegetables to cut up: potatoes, carrots, onion (not pictured), and garlic.


Ingredients we bought at Uwajimaya and an Indian grocery store: garam masala, beef bouillon. We found "instant" Indian curry and cardamom for cheap at the grocery store, too (at normal grocery stores, cardamom sells for like $14 for a small bottle!).


We tackled browning the beef, sauteing the vegetables, and making the sauce in separate steps. Here's everything in one pot.


Pretty amazing beef curry! Tasted awesome, too.


We combined these recipes together (somehow) to make the curry above:
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/curry/r/curryroux.htm
http://www.grouprecipes.com/2942/japanese-curry.html


It might have looked something like this (no guarantees):

Japanese Beef Curry

Ingredients:
1-1.5 lbs beef chuck roast (or something similar)
4 medium sized red or yellow potatoes
3-4 carrots
1 onion
3-4 cloves of garlic (you can't have enough, IMO)
3-4 tsp grated ginger

Roux:
4 cups water + 2 beef bouillon cubes (although consider 2.5 or 3; need a stronger flavor when all the ingredients and rice are added)
4-6 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour (might need more than that)
4-8 tbsp curry powder (like S&B)
1 tsp garam masala
Chili powder to taste
Ground ginger to taste

1. Brown/cook the beef until it is mostly cooked, then set aside.
2. Add some oil and saute the onion and garlic until the onion is somewhat translucent. Add the carrots and potatoes, saute until 1/2 cooked. Add the water and the bouillon, and simmer for 15-20 minutes (I wasn't counting).
   
3. Roux: This part is tricky, because you don't know how it'll taste until you combine it with the broth from the previous step.
   
   Put the butter in another pot, and when it's "boiling," add the flour and blend. Keep stirring. Add the curry powder, mix well. Add a shake or two of chili powder (this is the "kick" and it starts adding up fast, so be conservative. You can always add more later), mix well. Add some ground ginger if you want. The roux will look crummy and dry.
   
   Take the vegetable pot off the burner. Take some broth from the vegetable pot and put it in the roux, and combine until the curry sauce emerges. I think eventually, you want most of the broth from the vegetable pot in the roux. You'll see how thick it is and how strongly it tastes. Add salt if needed.
   
4. Optional step (the mistake step): Make another roux and add the amount of flour, curry powder, chili powder, etc. you need to thicken the curry and/or add flavor. Consider making more concentrated bouillon broth if you want stronger "medium" flavors. Add some of the curry to the roux, then add it back to the curry pot when it's a similar texture, little by little, to avoid unintentional "dumplings" from unmixed flour :p Add the garam masala.
   
5. Add the curry to the vegetables and beef and simmer for another 20-30 minutes, stirring intermittently. When the things are cooked and it tastes the way you want, you're done. Serve hot on rice.