Since Valentines’s Day is just a week away, I’m planning a cozy little dinner for two. Going to a restaurant on the one day of the year when everyone else thinks they need to go to a restaurant has proven unpleasant in the past. Plus, getting all dressed up to go out on a Tuesday night and wait around for a table just feels like a lot of trouble. The menu I have in mind is very easy, very special, and most of all quite delicious. First I’m experimenting with the entrée. My poor husband will just have to bear with me and taste every dish ahead of time.
Lobsters were on sale at the grocery store, so lobster it is for the main course. I have a recipe I copied on a magazine insert years ago at a doctor’s office. That was long before computers, smart phones, and Google. The recipe has been in a file all these years. I’ve changed it up a bit, and now it’s even better. This is a New England classic - lobster in a cream sauce served on your choice of bread. The original recipe called for biscuits, but since it’s Valentine’s Day, and you don’t want to work too hard for your celebration, toast would be a perfect substitute.
When I got my first apartment, I decided to have a Valentine’s Day Dinner for some of my female friends who, like me, were “boyfriend-less.” There was a new seafood market in town and I had a coupon to get a free lobster with a purchased one. I decided a lobster pot pie would be perfect for making two lobsters feed several women. What the coupon did not state was that they were live lobsters. I bought them anyway thinking I could just pony up and deal with cooking a live lobster. The rest of the story is that they lived in my bathtub for a day before I tried to return them. Apparently you cannot return a live lobster, but the seafood guy very nicely offered to cook them for me. I don’t know why that seemed like a morally superior choice, but I went home feeling only slightly guilty with two beautifully cooked lobsters. I still don’t enjoy cooking the live one’s, although I have been so brave on a few occasions. It’s nice to know that the seafood guy at your grocery store will do it for you.
Here’s my last suggestion; this is as easy to make for one as it is for two or more people. If you aren’t celebrating the day with someone special enjoy this all by yourself. Everyone deserves a little treat!
Ingredients
2 (14 to 16 oz) whole cooked lobsters, shelled and cut into bite size pieces
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup sherry
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup half & half
1/2 cup milk (you don’t have to use whole milk)
½ tsp salt (taste sauce after you add lobster to see if you need a pinch more)
¼ tsp pepper
pinch of nutmeg
1 Tbsp lemon juice
For serving: toasted French bread
Directions
Melt 2 Tbsp butter with the sherry and pour over the lobster pieces.
Melt remaining 2 Tbsp of butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add flour and stir 1 minute.
Add half & half and milk, and cook over low heat until thick.
Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Fold in lobster and sherry.
Stir in lemon juice and serve over toast.
Serves 2.
Delicious!
