Lobster Poached in Butter

One of the reasons we moved over to CAT was to be there for the opening of lobster season. Every time I heard lobster I thought of Thomas Keller's recipe - Lobster Poached in Butter. We just had to catch some lobster so we could try that delicious-sounding recipe. First we needed bait for the lobster traps, so we took the dinghy out trolling. John & I dropped lines in and immediately we both hooked bonitos- what fun! We hauled in our catch, threw our lines back in and again immediately both hooked another bonito. These fish really fight, they were great fun to catch.

Here is a bonito in the lobster trap:Traps ready to set:Our dinghy steering acted up and made it difficult to pick up the traps in the dark and wind. Well that's our excuse for coming up empty on the first night!

The next night Curtis and Bill took our traps out for us:

And brought back these four beauties from our traps:Here they are after John cleaned them: And here they are poached in butter:I can't even begin to describe how delicious these were. They were so sweet and delicate, the best we've ever tasted. I'm sure being so fresh helped a lot. Here's the very simple recipe- I removed the meat from the tail, cut them in half lengthwise and poached them very gently in a Beuure Monte at about 180 degrees for six minutes. Beurre Monte is butter melted in 1 tablespoon of boiling water, this keeps the butter from separating. I served them with individual potato galettes and roasted beets. To make the potato galettes, I sliced a russet potato very thin, brushed with butter and layered with sliced shallots and cheese in individual tart pans. Baked at 375 degrees for about 1/2 hour. I wrapped the beets in foil and roasted for about an hour, peeled, sliced then quartered and dressed with olive oil, vinegar and salt & pepper.

CAT Harbor-Cinnamon Rolls

After a few days at White's Anchorage we moved to the back side of the island to Catalina Harbor (CAT). We were happy to join Bonnie & Curtis and Nancy & Bill.

Our friends agreed to be guinea pigs for a cinnamon roll experiment using my grape starter.

My recipe started by creaming together sugar, salt, baker's milk and shortening, then mixing in eggs. I stirred in the starter, flour and a little yeast, covered the dough and let it rest for a couple of hours. Next, I rolled out the dough into a rectangle (14x12 inches), sprinkled with a sugar and cinnamon mixture and raisins, then rolled into a log. I cut the roll into large (about 1 3/4 inches thick) pieces, placed them on a parchment lined sheet pan and refrigerated overnight. I woke up at 4:00 am to take the buns out to proof and then went right back to bed. They proofed for 4 hours before I popped them in the oven for about 25 minutes:

After cooling for a few minutes I drizzled the buns with a powdered sugar and milk mixture:


Great island breakfast:Tastes even better with good friends and mimosas:

Avalon-Tacos de Lengua (Tongue Tacos)

We had been planning a trip to Catalina Island with several other boats from our marina, but work got in the way and we had to cancel. A few days later circumstances changed and we found ourselves with a week-long window to get away. We left Ventura at 6:00 pm and arrived at White's Anchorage on Catalina Island at 2:00am. It was a beautiful ride and we were happy to meet up with our friends the next morning.

Significant Other (emerging from the fog): Tenacious (being attacked by a fleet of kayaks):
My hairstylist (is that the correct term these days?) Armando has been telling me for the last couple of years that I need to try tongue tacos. I knew of a place in Avalon on Catalina Island that served them and promised myself I would try them the next we were there. Jane, Jeri & Joe and John & I dinghied the 4 miles into Avalon for a little shopping and lunch. I finally convinced everyone to have lunch at the Sandtrap so I could try a tongue taco.

The taco is served:
I take a bite and love it:
Joe and Jeri sticking to more traditional tacos: Armando, thanks for the recommendation. I truly enjoyed it and was surprised how much I liked the texture.

If you're interested in a recipe, here's a link I found. Don't know how authentic it is, I'll check with Armando - not that I have any plans of trying to make this myself anytime soon.

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=159269

Welcome Home Luke!!

We are so happy to welcome Luke home from his tour of duty in Iraq. Luke, we are so proud of your service to our country and very happy you are home safe and sound in the arms of our beautiful niece Sarah.

We look forward to cooking with you again soon.

Here are a couple of pictures of Luke in Poseidon's galley last Christmas:

Roasted Salmon Fillets with Red Wine Sauce

Meet our friends Jack and Curt:And their lovely wives - here are Curt and Carolyn: And Jack and Carol:

Oh, and one more cute pic of Jack and Carol:

John has been fortunate enough to make a couple of trips to Alaska with Jack & Curt to fish for salmon and halibut. He couldn't make it this year, but Curt was kind enough to bring us a couple of pieces of salmon.

So, tonight it's salmon for dinner, thanks Curt.

Start by brushing salmon fillets with melted butter, sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. To make the sauce, saute shallots and garlic in butter, stir in a little chopped tomato, add red wine (I used a pinot noir) and simmer until reduced by half about 15 minutes. Roast the salmon in a 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile finish the sauce by straining into a clean saucepan over low heat and whisk in more butter and season with more salt and pepper. Serve the salmon on top of mashed potatoes. Drizzle a little sauce on top of the salmon and around the potatoes.

I'm not sure what the funny white stuff is in the picture, maybe a reflection from the flash - I need a new camera (hint, hint)!

Anyway, this dish was absolutely delicious. John is not usually a big fan of salmon, but he loved this! I am sure that Curt will want to take most of the credit for the salmon being so good, but I insist he share some of the success with me.

Ad Hoc's Fried Chicken

Well, I guess it's a Thomas Keller kind of day - a recipe from his restaurant Bouchon for lunch and for dinner this recipe from his restaurant Ad Hoc. I have really been looking forward to trying this chicken. The recipe was published in Food & Wine magazine last year and Bon Appetit last month. I have read so many glowing reports on food blogs from people who have prepared this at home and raving reviews from many who have eaten at Ad Hoc. They only serve the fried chicken every other Monday night and charge $48!

What a disappointment! I don't know what I did wrong, but I was not happy with my result. The texture of the chicken was too mushy and the batter wasn't as flavorful as I had hoped. The recipe calls for brining (the same recipe as for the roasted chicken) a whole chicken for 12 to 24 hours. This may have been part of my problem, I brined individual pieces of legs & thighs for about 9 hours. Remove the chicken from the brine, pat dry and remove any pieces of herbs sticking to the chicken. Now is when the recipe calls for cutting the chicken into pieces. The batter is made by mixing flour, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt. First dip the chicken in the flour mixture, then dip in buttermilk and then back into flour mixture again. Place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and let stand 1 to 2 hours at room temperature to dry. Heat oil in a heavy large pot to 320 degrees. Fry chicken until cooked through and skins is deep golden brown, turning once, about 13 minutes total for dark meat and 7 minutes for white meat. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with coarse salt. Deep-fry thyme or rosemary sprigs for 30 seconds to use as a garnish.It looks pretty enough, don't you think?
I will definitely give it another try (I don't usually deep-fry so it may be awhile) and follow the directions more carefully. It also could be that I just didn't have a great chicken to work with, although it was organic free-range chicken. And I just realized that I forgot to salt the chicken after frying - dumb, dumb, dumb!

If I'm ever in Yountville on the right Monday night (hey you never know!) I will definitely go to Ad Hoc and find out what all the hub-bub is about.

Tuna Nicoise Tartine (or Fancy Tuna Sandwich)

Mmmmm good, Saturday lunch. This is another recipe from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Cookbook. Have I already mentioned that we have been lucky enough to eat at this Napa restaurant a few times? Well, since we can't just pop up to Napa for lunch I decided to try and bring a little Bouchon flavor to Poseidon's galley.

First drain good-quality Italian canned tuna packed in olive oil. Mix the tuna with minced shallots, cornichons, capers, chives, parsley, tarragon and chervil. Stir in some mayonnaise, lemon and season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle a little olive oil on a slice of baguette, sprinkle with salt and brown on both sides under the broiler.

Spread one side of the toast with aioli (garlic mayonnaise), top with lettuce leaves (I used arugula), and mound on the tuna salad. Top with sliced hard-boiled egg, Nicoise olives and chives.

Veal Milanese with Salsa Rosa

To make the Salsa Rosa: Combine roasted red peppers, serrano chile, fresh oregano, garlic and tomato puree in a blender until smooth. Add a little red wine vinegar and fresh ground pepper.

Dredge veal scallopini (you could also use pounded chicken or turkey breasts) in flour, dip in a beaten egg and dredge in seasoned bread crumbs. Heat olive oil in a large skillet, cook cutlets until golden (about 2 minutes) turn and cook for another minute. Drain on paper towels.

Dress arugula with olive oil, lemon juice and salt & pepper.

Place cutlets on a plate, spoon a little Salsa Rosa on the side, top veal with arugula salad and shave a little parmesan on top of the salad.

This is a very quick meal to make and the flavors work great together.

Braised Beef Ravioli with Butter and Sage

I started by making the Beef Braised in Wine: Brown large pieces of chuck roast, dusted in flour, in butter and olive oil. Remove the meat and cook finely minced carrot, celery, onion and garlic for about 6 minutes. Return the meat to the pan, add a bottle of red wine (I used a merlot) and a cup of finely chopped tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for about 3 1/2 hours. I braise the meat in the oven instead of the stove top to conserve fuel. Our stove uses CNG (compressed natural gas) tanks, they're expensive and a pain to haul on the boat, so I use the oven whenever I can.

While the meat was braising, and smelling oh so good, I made the pasta dough for the ravioli. I have to share the credit for this beautiful, silky dough with my son-in-law, he supplied me with the imported 00 flour - thanks Jeff!

When the meat was nice and tender, I shredded some of it into small pieces, added some of the cooking sauce, an egg and grated parmigian0 for the ravioli filling. I rolled out the pasta (using the pasta roller attachment on my Kitchen Aid) into long thin sheets:

Then spooned mounds of the filling onto the sheet:Placed another sheet of pasta on top of the filling, pressing around the filling firmly to remove air bubbles and seal: then cut into rounds pressing again to seal:I cut the scraps into stracciatelle (little rags) to freeze and use later:

Time to eat! Boil the ravioli for about 2 to 3 minutes. While the pasta is cooking, melt butter in a large skillet until it foams, add fresh shredded sage leaves and cook for about 30 seconds. Drain the pasta and put in the skillet with some parmiagiano. Serve at once with more parmiagiano.

We started the meal with a caprese salad - fresh tomatoes from Pete's garden, the small tomatoes and basil were from the Farmer's Market and the disappointing cheese was from the grocery. I need to find a source for good, fresh mozzarella. I drizzled the salad with olive oil and basalmic vinegar:

I served the ravioli with some of the braised beef: John said these were the best ravioli he had ever eaten! Wow!!

Santa Cruz Island with Sarah, Jeff & Marco

This year our annual summer vacation with Sarah & Jeff included Baby Marco, his first island trip. He took to boating from the start: (See Marco's Blog for more cute pics).

Marco takes his turn at the helm:

Jeff invited our neighbor Bug aboard to do some fishing. Together they caught this nice halibut.

While John was cleaning and fileting the halibut, I mixed up some wasabi & soy sauce and we were ready for some sashimi - yum! Bug was a little hesitant to try the raw fish, but discovered he liked it. I think it helped that he had caught the fish.

For dinner we barbecued clams (see previous post for recipe):

I have to say, they tasted even better eaten outside under the stars at anchor - 0r maybe it was the company:


The next morning we awoke to a visitor. As cute as he is, he can make an awful mess and wasn't welcome aboard Poseidon.

One morning Jeff taught me how to make carasau, a bread (really more like a cracker) from Sardinia. Sarah & Jeff had fallen in love with this bread on their Sardinian honeymoon. First Jeff made a dough from our grape starter, flour, water, salt and yeast. He kneaded the dough for a few minutes, then we cut it into pieces and rolled out into very thin discs. The discs, one at a time, go onto a pizza stone in a very hot oven for about 1 minute or until they get very puffy, then they're flipped over for about 30 seconds.

Immediately, the puffy discs are cut open and separated - it's a two person job:

The separated discs go back into the oven one at a time for about 10 seconds per side until very crispy. Next we brushed the discs with olive oil and sprinkled some with fresh chopped rosemary, some with fresh chopped thyme and the favorite - finishing salt and garlic.

Served with cold cuts and cheese it made the perfect lunch:

In the afternoon we hosted a Mexican-themed cocktail party. Our dish (thanks to Bug's halibut) was Halibut Tostadas. Mix cubed (uncooked) halibut with avocado, green onions, chipotles, lime juice, tequila, adobe sauce and ground cumin. Serve on fried tortillas.

Some of the tame party pics:

Marco chooses the bait:to catch Daddy's shark:

Marco looks on while I make sushi:

We had spicy-halibut rolls (halibut mixed with sriracha and a little mayo with cucumber) and yellowtail rolls (fish from John's Mexico trip with avocado):

Sushi for four:

Sweet stuff in Poseidon's Galley:

Sarah & Jeff volunteered to help with dinner. At first they were a little intimidated:

But quickly gained confidence and cooked a great dinner-Pork & Mushroom Skewers with Basil Sauce:

They cut pork tenderloin into strips, and along with mushrooms, marinated them with green onions, basil, olive oil, vinegar, garlic and salt & pepper, then threaded on skewers and onto the bbq.We also had grilled eggplant topped with the same basil sauce. Thanks for your help guys, I appreciate the help!

What a great trip. We were so happy to discover that Marco is a natural "Sea Baby" and look forward to his next Poseidon cruise.

The End