Three products associated in three dishes :
Lobster, Artichoke, Yellow Beet
For Valentine’s day at the Billey’s Bistrot, I prepared a dinner focused
on three products: the lobster, the artichoke and the yellow beet, associating
those three products in three different dishes, a soup, a starter and an entrée.
Although I took inspirations here and there, those three dishes are mostly
personal creations, sometimes a bit risky in terms of concept or association, the
artichoke leaf crisp in the bisque, the lobster with a dice of roasted foie
gras, the yellow beet risotto with turmeric and saffron… but those all work very
well, and ever better than I expected it.
ef
Soup
Lobster bisque, artichoke stem croutons, artichoke leaf chips
ef
Starter
Napoleon of lobster claws poached in an artichoke leaf broth,
seared foie gras dices, yellow beet slices roasted in the foie gras fat, topped
with an artichoke heart chip, and lobster bisque as a sauce
ef
Entree
Yellow beet risotto, cooked in an artichoke broth, turmeric and
saffron, lobster tail medallions, poached in an artichoke leaf broth poached
and rapidly seared in olive oil, artichoke heart chip, and lobster bisque as a
sauce
ef
To be noted also that:
§ Those three dishes cross-fertilize each other: the artichoke leaves are the base of a stock in which I cook the lobster, then this artichoke/lobster stock is the base of the bisque and the broth used for the risotto,
§ Consequently, because of this interconnection, I used every single part of each of those products, including the lobster shells and the artichoke leaves and stem… with the exception of the choke!
I am happy to share those recipes.
Level of difficulty
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Cost
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Preparation time
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Cooking time
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n
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$$$$
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~90 minutes
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~120 minutes
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Ingredients
- 2 servings
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Instructions
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§ 2 medium size
lobster (~2 lb)
§ 2 artichokes
§ 2 yellow beets (if
you don’t like the beet earthy taste, you can use butternut squash for
instance)
§ 1 dozen of small
foie gras cubes or trims, cold
§ 2 tbsp of turmeric
§ 1 dozen of saffron
pistils
§ 1/2 onion, finely
chopped
§ 1 shallot clove,
finely chopped
§ 3 oz of butter (2
for the bisque and 1 for the risotto)
§ Olive oil
§ 1 shot of Cognac
§ 1/2 glass of white
wine
§ 2 tbsp of crème fraiche
§ 1 oz of grated Grana
Padano
§ Bay leaves
§ Thyme
§ Salt
§ Cayenne or
Espelette
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1 Preparation
of the artichokes
§
Start by preparing the artichokes. Remove all the leaves (fold
and twist), or the petals to be exact. Separate the green (outside) and yellow (center) leaves on one side, and the
“purplish” (inside) leaves on the other side. Cut the stem. Remove the hairy
choke, probably the only part that won’t be used, and keep the cleaned hearts
and the stems in lemon water. Fill a big pot (big enough to contain a lobster
later) with water and put all the green and yellow leaves into it. Cover and
put this stock to boil for a minimum of 15-20 minutes.
§
With a knife and/or a vegetable peeler, peel the stems to remove
the stringiest part, and cut it in small 3-4 mm thick discs. Keep them in the
lemon water, and throw all the trims in the boiling water.
§
Trim the heart in order to remove all the green tough part, then,
with a mandolin, cut the hearts in a dozen of thin slices, keep them in the
lemon water, and throw all the trims in the boiling water.
§
Sauté the artichoke stem discs in olive oil with garlic, S&P
and set aside those croutons for the bisque.
§
Deep fry a dozen of small purple artichoke leaves, and set aside
those chips for the bisque.
§
Deep fry the artichoke heart slices to make chips for the napoleon
and the risotto.
2 Preparation of the lobsters
§
Plunge a lobster into the boiling artichoke stock, head and claws
first, holding firmly its tail folded. Although it is killed immediately,
maintain it like that for around 30 seconds to avoid erratic spasms of the
tail. Put the lid on, remove the pot from the burner and leave it like that
for 8 minutes (adjust depending on the lobster sizes). Take it out of the
water and cool it down in iced water. Put the water back to boil, and renew
the same process with the second lobster.
§
During all the following process, collect and keep preciously all
the tomalley, liquids, organs, roe in the lobsters or that may leak out from
the lobsters. Keep also all the empty shells and carapaces. For each lobster,
twist the claws, the small legs, and the head out, Remove the gills and the
stomach (the tough translucent pocket) inside the heads, and crush them
roughly. With a pastry rolling pin, extract the meat inside the little walking
legs and reserve it. Take the tail,
pinch it on all its length with your hand, in order to break each shell ring,
and remove progressively the shell, one ring at a time. With a small knife,
make a little incision on the tail back, around at the center, and grab the
dark intestine with your fingers and remove it delicately. Cut the tail in 4
medallions and keep those between 2 parchment paper sheet with olive oil, a
tiny bit of fleur de sel and Cayenne or Espelette.
§
Take the claws, separate the first articulations from the claw itself.
Break the articulations with a nutcracker, extract the meat and put aside. Hit
the claws at different parts with the back of a butcher knife. If the claws
are not overcooked, which should be the case here, the meat, including the
red “fingers” inside each jaw, will get out quite easily. Just proceed
delicately. Cut the claw meat in two, thick-wise, which will allow you to remove
the inside cartilage if it doesn’t get out naturally, and keep those between
2 parchment paper sheet with olive oil, a tiny bit of fleur de sel and Cayenne
or Espelette.
3 Preparation of the foie gras
Easier than the
lobsters! Just place them in the freezer ½ hour before cooking them.
4 Preparation of the beets
§
Peel the yellow beets.
§
With a mandolin slicer, cut 6 ~3 mm thick slices in the first
beet, and with a cookie cutter, shape 6 discs of a diameter of 1.5" to
2" approximately. No problem if they are of different sizes as this will
create a pyramid effect to the lobster napoleon.
§
Using the julienne blade of your mandolin slicer, cut in long
sticks (julienne) the second beet and the remaining part of the first one.
Align these sticks together and cut them in segments of ~5 mm (somewhat, the
length of a cook rice seed). Keep this yellow beet “rice” in a bowl, with
olive oil, salt and 1 tsp of turmeric, and reserve.
5 The Bisque
§ Put the butter in
a pan, big enough to contain all the shells and carapaces (although they are
empty, it represents quite a volume), and heat it on medium high. When
melted, add the onion, the bay leaves, thyme stems… and let the onion become
translucent and the herbs infuse in the butter. Add the lobster heads and all
the empty shells and carapaces (except the tail fan that you will keep as a
decoration), stir them up so that they are coated with butter. Add the Cognac
and flambé it (you can add a glass of wine instead and let the alcohol
evaporate). Add 5 ladles of the artichoke stock and let simmer. After 15
minutes, withdraw a quantity equivalent to 2 ladles and keep it warm (you
will use it for your yellow beet risotto). Let reduce for another 15 minutes.
Strain this broth, squeezing all those shells to extract the maximum of juice
and flavors. The shells are now good to pitch. Add the meat extracted from
the walking legs and the claw first articulations. Add the tomalley, liquids,
organs, roe previously reserved. Put the whole to boil, then simmer and let
reduce for around 15/20 minutes. Adjust the seasoning. Put the whole in a
high speed mixer and mix it, increasing progressively the speed, for around 1
minute. Pour it in a bowl, add the crème fraîche and whisk it gently. Serve
the bisque with the artichoke stem croutons and the artichoke leaf chips.
Just keep the equivalent of 4 tbsp to use as a sauce for the napoleon.
6 The Napoleon
§
Take the foie gras cubes out of the freezer and sear them in a
hot pan. Reserve and keep the rendered fat in the pan to roast the beet
slices.
§
Roast the yellow beet slices in the foie gras rendered, on medium-high
first, till the outside takes a nice golden brown color, then simmer them, on
medium-low, for around 15 minutes till the inside becomes tender.
§
If need be, warm up the claw meat in their parchment paper,
without cooking them.
§
Assemble the napoleon, for instance: The widest beet slice on the
bottom, then the 2 halves of a smaller (cutting) claw with a cube of foie
gras, a smallest beet slice, the half of a big (crushing) claw and a cube of
foie gras, a smallest beet slice, the 2nd half of a big (crushing)
claw and a cube of foie gras, an artichoke heart chip.
§
Spread 2 tbsp of bisque around as a sauce.
7 The Risotto
§
Except that the rice is made of yellow beets, it is cooked
exactly like a risotto. Just the quantity of broth used is different. Heat 1
tbsp of olive oil in a pan, on medium. When hot, add the shallot. When the
shallot is translucent, add the beet rice and stir it so that it is coated by
the olive oil. Add the wine and let it boil to evaporate the alcohol. Then,
add 1/2 ladle of the reserved lobster/artichoke and simmer on low-medium.
Complete regularly with a 1/2 ladle of broth till you obtaining the expected
texture, al dente, like for a “normal
risotto”, and like for a “normal risotto”, it should take around 20 minutes.
Add 1 tsp of turmeric and the saffron, stir up, add 1 tbsp of butter, stir
up, and add the grated Grana Padano (I chose the latter that I find subtler,
less powerful than classic Parmesan, so that it doesn’t prevail on the
lobster, the beet, the saffron…), stir up.
§
Rapidly roast in the oven the lobster medallions in olive oil to
warm it up, with a tiny bit of turmeric and saffron.
§
Shape the risotto like a rectangle, place the lobster medallions and
the artichoke heart chips on top of it, alternating lobster and artichoke, so
that it looks a bit like a lobster tail with its shell, and reinforce this
effect by placing the tail fan at one end… Spread some turmeric around…
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Gallery
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| Lobster bisque, artichoke stem croutons, artichoke leaf chips |
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| Napoleon of lobster claws poached in an artichoke leaf broth, seared foie gras dices, yellow beet slices roasted in the foie gras fat, topped with an artichoke heart chip, and lobster bisque as a sauce |
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| Yellow beet risotto, cooked in an artichoke broth, turmeric and saffron, lobster tail medallions, poached in an artichoke leaf broth poached and rapidly seared in olive oil, artichoke heart chip, and lobster bisque as a sauce |
Wonderful!
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