The other night, The Boss and I had a Garlic Butter Festival. Most people call it Surf and Turf, but considering how much butter and garlic I melted, and how much we love our garlic butter (on Shrimp Scampi as well), I thought it might be appropriate to temporarily rename the dish.
It started out as something simple - I had purchased some unfavorable steaks from a national warehouse retailer and needed something to help out and prevent them from ruining a weekend meal. My initial thought was salmon. It's a fish that's easy to grill and pretty hard to screw up. But a few days previously I had watched a few some videos, including a couple that showed how easy it was to grill lobster tail.
I've never cooked lobster tail before, mostly because of the expense in relation to the size of the cut - seems like a lot of money for something that, at least locally, is usually available in sizes about the same as crawfish. This time, though, since I've been making an effort to expand my cooking abilities, I decided to purchase some bigger lobster tails I had seen and surprise the woman of the household with her favorite shellfish. So I bit the bullet on expense and laid out the extra cash.
Once home, which just that unique touch of trepidation that comes with stretching your comfort zone, I fired up the grill and followed the steps I had spent thirty minutes on YouTube researching.
The aluminum-wrapped corn on the cob went on the grill first for a few minutes, followed by the steaks, and just moments later, I gently placed the lobster tail on the hot metal with a small prayer to the cooking gods ("Please don't let me royally screw these up.")
I kept a careful eye on the timer while I minced the garlic and melted the butter (an entire stick of butter and three garlic gloves). I pulled everything off the heat exactly when I was supposed to, and in the end, we had a meal that was absolutely worth every penny and the small effort to make. maybe the lobster could have remained on another minute, maybe two, but the meal was absolutely wonderful and well worth the money and effort. Later, when I did the math, I calculated I had spent on the entire meal
for two people what I would have spent on one meal at Joe's Crab Shack
or Red Lobster. (Note: the lobster could have arguably stayed on for one more minute, seems The Boss's piece was still just a hair rubbery in one small part, but I'll need to further research if the cause is due to the length of time on the grill, or placement, etc.)
I don't see myself cooking lobster anytime in the immediate future, but I'm definitely over any confidence issues I had, and assuredly will be making lobster again (and again).
Until Next Time...
Here's a video from Lighthouse Seafood and Deli on the simplicity of grilling lobster tail.
Butterly Yours,
Michael
The goal was to make a tasty gluten free dinner, and despite what many would have us to believe, it wasn't that difficult.
I tend to use garlic in a lot of my recipes, which is good for the heart, but can become rather boring on the palate if used too often. I wanted more of a mushroom sauce for this particular dish, but without adding mushroom sauce or soup (since I haven't done much research into the gluten levels of either), I decided to try to extract as much flavor as I could from simply sauteing fresh mushrooms in butter. Needless to say, it didn't quite work out as flavorful as I wanted. Desperate to rescue what I'd done, I threw in the garlic at the last minute afterall.
But no matter at this point. I have the basis for a one-skillet dinner which is going to change over time as I experiment. Right now I'm calling this "One Skillet Gluten Free Spiral Pasta with Shrimp."
Ingredients:
one bag (one pound) Tinkyada Pasta Joy Gluten Free Spirals
one pound deveined and pre-cooked shrimp
one can diced tomatoes
one package (12 ounces in this instance) of sliced mushrooms
four tablespoons of butter
fresh garlic or garlic powder to taste
Directions:
Prepare pasta per instructions, drain, and set aside.
Saute mushrooms in butter
Add shrimp and garlic to skillet until shrimp is cooked
Add pasta to skillet; stir in can of diced tomatoes.
Once all is well mixed, cover for ten minutes, stirring occasionally to even out thoroughness.
Serve
Calories:
I didn't do a calorie count this time since this is still in the experimental stage, but other than the butter, this should be a relatively low-cal meal.
Like I mentioned above, this truly is a recipe in the experimental stage. I have a vague idea what I want, but still not sure of the path to get there. My next steps include a search for gluten free mushroom sauce or soup, and I want to also keep the sodium level down to a medium roar.
Until Next Time...
Since the protein base of this recipe is shrimp, I thought I'd link in this video of the Five Largest Shrimp caught in recent times.
Experimentally Yours,
Michael
p.s. Later I did find a single can of Campbell's Golden Mushroom in the pantry, it contains wheat flour.
It started out as something simple - I had purchased some unfavorable steaks from a national warehouse retailer and needed something to help out and prevent them from ruining a weekend meal. My initial thought was salmon. It's a fish that's easy to grill and pretty hard to screw up. But a few days previously I had watched a few some videos, including a couple that showed how easy it was to grill lobster tail.
I don't see myself cooking lobster anytime in the immediate future, but I'm definitely over any confidence issues I had, and assuredly will be making lobster again (and again).
