Lobster House

I have been very excited, over  the last week or so, about the large Asian population in Georgia.  I have driven through and around the Atlanta metro area, and in the outskirts, through Duluth and Lawrenceville, I have seen that there is a large Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean population clustered in a small area just outside Atlanta.

The best thing about the wonderful Asian population is that they are almost ALWAYS surrounded by wonderful Asian food.  I have been telling my family and friends that I look forward to trying all the new dining choices around me as soon as possible.

My first experience here was a bust.  That was, however, not to say that the restaurant does NOT have good food.  The food that I was given was in a take out box, and not well done.  I will, at a later date, give them a try when I get to be in control of my destiny.

Today, I went to a restaurant called Lobster House, on 1555 Pleasant Hill Road, in Duluth, Georgia.  I drive past it any time I go anywhere, so my daughter and I decided that today would be a great day to give it a try. 

We showed up just before noon, before the lunch crowd had shown up, so we were seated promptly.  Our server was pleasant, but did confess to some unfamiliarity with the menu.  That being said, we did get plenty of time to peruse the menu.  I started us off with some edamame, which showed up promptly.  It was a generous portion, served with sea salt and ground peppercorn as seasoning, and a delicious honey soy dipping sauce. 

For my entree I selected the 5 piece sushi and 2 half-rolls lunch special, which came with a fresh hot cup of miso soup.  My daughter selected their newest lunch special, a 1 pound lobster, cooked any way she wanted, with her sauce of choice.  (She went with their butter sauce, a no frills, fail safe choice, that went deliciously with her lobster.)

Overall, both meals were good.  I was pleased with my selection of rolls, and look forward to trying a new one.  The California roll was made with a generous amount of crab and cucumber, and the spicy tuna roll was exactly as I wanted it.  Both rolls were well wrapped, tight and did not fall apart under the ministrations of my chopsticks.   The sushi was fresh as evidenced by the lack of an overly fish smell.

Eleyna's meal was good.  Maybe not great, but definitely good.  The lobster bisque was flavorful, with many generous chunks of lobster thrown in the soup for legitimacy.  As a bisque, it was a bit thin, but it definitely was tasty.  The lobster was presented almost whole, (the special was based on a single clawed lobster) but it was well cooked.  The thinner parts of the lobster were a bit chewy, but it was kind of to be expected.

The menu for the Lobster House offers a wide variety of cuisines, including burgers and sandwiches, but the sushi and lobster are their specialty.  I cannot wait to go back to try something different, as the food was definitely worth the total bill.

The only thing I would have improved upon was the Lobster Bisque, and I have included my recipe, which originally started as a corn chowder, which can be modified to include oysters or shrimp.  I also generally serve my lobster bisque with a hot buttered French bread.

Until then, Good Eating, Friends...

Lobster & Corn Bisque

(can be made without the lobster, turning it into a corn chowder.)

Ingredients

• 4 (1-pound lobsters)
• 6 ears sweet corn
• 4 bay leaves
• 8 sprigs thyme
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 3 thick strips bacon, julienned
• 2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 teaspoons chervil leaves

Directions

Prepare the lobster: Cook the lobsters in boiling salted water for 3 to 4 minutes, or until slightly underdone. Remove from the water and let cool slightly. Remove the lobster meat from the shells, reserving the meat and the shells. Coarsely chop the lobster meat.

Prepare the corn: Remove husks from the corn and cut kernels off the cobs. Reserve the corn, cobs, and half of the husks.

Make the bisque: Place the lobster shells, corn cobs, husks, bay leaves, thyme sprigs, and peppercorns in a stockpot and add enough water to barely cover. Simmer for 45 minutes, then strain through a fine mesh sieve, discarding the solids. Place the broth in a large saucepan and simmer over medium heat for 45 minutes, or until reduced to 1 1/2 quarts. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a small saucepan, place half of the corn kernels and the heavy cream. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, or until the cream is reduced to about 1 cup. Remove from the heat and puree until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cook the bacon over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the fat is rendered but not brown.

Remove the bacon from the pan and discard. Saute the remaining corn, the potatoes, and onion in the bacon fat over medium heat for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Drain any fat from the pan, add the pureed corn mixture, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until thick. Add the lobster stock in small additions until the desired consistency is reached. Add the lobster meat to the pan and whisk in the butter just prior to serving.

Ladle the soup into 10 bowls and sprinkle with the chervil leaves. Top with freshly ground black pepper to taste.

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Chinese Rice Wino

It never fails… We go to Sushi Zushi for lunch, I look at the menu and I see sake.  Or I look at a recipe wondering what to make next week and I see rice wine.  And after poring over all of the details, I see that I really cannot omit that one little ingredient from my meal or my recipe.  Rice wine… such a special ingredient, yet such a strange addition.  I have rows of sake and rice wine on top of the cabinets in the kitchen, yet strangely, I feel no urge to use them up.  But when I do crack open a bottle, the smells that mingle with the taste of the food are wonderful.

The Chinese believe that certain foods will give strength and heat and rice wine chicken is one of those dishes. The rice wine runs the blood that courses through your body, the chicken nourishes the body and the ginger that keeps you warm.

Rice wine, called Geo Niang, is a very popular drink in China. Most of the people from southern China and the warmer provinces know how to prepare it for their own enjoyment and for major festivals.

Rice wine is often served warm, roughly 95-130 degrees.  Warming it allows the aromas of the rice wine to be better appreciated without losing too much of the alcohol. 

Rice wine was first discovered when a selected strain of yeast reacted with the water-soluble starch of glutinous rice to form sugar. After further fermentation, this yielded a very fragrant sweet alcoholic brew. Thereafter, it became known as sweet rice wine.

My Great-Aunt, while she lived in Hong Kong, loved to make rice wine for special occasions; she always shared it with her friends and relatives. I had an opportunity to witness the fermentation process about 28 years ago, and while I don’t remember too much about the details, some it the images of the procedure are burned indelibly in my mind.  She would use large-mouthed crockery jars as the fermentation vessels. After a few days of fermentation, her house would be filled with a very fragrant and delicious aroma. Before World War II, polished glutinous rice was not readily available in Hong Kong, so she would use the unpolished red glutinous rice instead. The resulting brew would have a lovely red color. When the brew settled, the clear effluent was the rice wine and the residue was used in desserts and other cooking (this is called wine lees). To stop the fermentation at the rice wine stage, the jars would need refrigeration in their closed containers, without that, the liquid would eventually turn to rice wine vinegar.

While I was strolling through Tim’s Oriental Market a few months ago, I was greeted by a whiff of the unforgettable rice wine and I felt strangely nostalgic. I walked into the store and pots of the aromatic amber liquids fermenting on a shelf and THEN I remembered what the aroma was from… memories and images from long ago…

While drinking rice wine is part of the culture and daily tradition of Chinese cuisine, it is important to know how certain wines behave with particular foods.  It is important to not consume rice wine with your meal just for the simple sake of pairing a Chinese beverage with Chinese food. 

Flavor matching is one of the biggest principles that needs to be taken into account when drinking with your meal.  Focus on the dominant flavor, say, in the sauce.  If you want to mirror the flavor of the dish, then choose a wine that is somewhat similar which will then add depth to your meal.  Or, if you want to blast the senses, you can pick a contrasting flavor that will enhance and change your perception of the dish.

Pay close attention to the intensity of the dish that you are eating.  A fish course, with its light sauce and delicate flavors will be lost if paired with a bold red wine (a Cabernet Sauvignon), or even a strong white, such as a Chardonnay.

Comparatively speaking, you would not want to enjoy a hearty beef stew paired with a light Gamay, or a white Chenin Blanc… You will end up tasting more stew than wine. 

Match cooking methods to tastes.  A lighter steamed poultry will call for a lighter, more delicate white wine, whereas a roast duck dish will scream to be paired with a bolder Syrah or Merlot.

Use the acidity or sweetness to your benefit.  A Riesling’s dry body will pair well with the greasiness of fried foods, as the bubbles will tend to break the greasiness up.  Sweeter wines, and sparkling wines will cool the heat of spicy foods.

It is critically important to use the right kind of wine to cook with. If you do not have rice wine readily available, it is acceptable to substitute a dry sherry instead of sake, as the sherry has a sweeter flavor.  Try to avoid the standard, generic “cooking wine” that is available on your local supermarket shelves as they have a lower alcohol content and do not have as much flavor as rice wine.

Rice wine is perfect to use when deglazing the wok after cooking your stir fry.  The flavors that the rice wine imparts on the wok as it sizzles away on the bottom of the wok add a new dimension of taste to the dish.  

There is a local brew-master’s joint here in town that will make a custom wine for/with you at your leisure.  Another sells all the supplies necessary to brew your own beer.  I wonder if they offer a course in making your own rice wine… Can I convert the house bathtub into a still and make my own moonshine?

Brewing Chinese Rice Wine

Ingredients:
4 cups glutinous rice
1/4 piece Chinese yeast ball
1 teaspoon all purpose flour
Preparation:
1. Soak the rice in hot water for one hour.
2. Drain water and steam the rice over boiling water for twenty-five minutes then rinse with warm water until the rice is cooled to about 95 degrees F.
3. Crush the yeast into a powder; mix it with the flour.
4. Put the rice in a warmed three-quart saucepan. Add yeast mixture and mix by hand. Use your fingers to push the rice against the side of the pan evenly then make a well in the middle. Cover with plastic wrap and then the cover of the pan. Leave this in a warm place or wrap the pan with one or more heavy towels and keep it in a warm place. After four or five days, uncover the mixture, transfer to a jar with a lid, and refrigerate. This can keep about two years.
Note: The clear liquid is the sweet rice wine, the remaining mash, called wine lees can be used as a condiment.

Rice Wine Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• 30 ounces chicken, wash and cut into pieces
• 6 ounces ginger, shredded
• 6 ounces wood ear fungus, finely shredded
• 6 ounces shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 T garlic, chopped
• 1-1.5 liter Chinese rice wine
• 2 T sesame oil
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• ¼ tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Heat the sesame oil in a claypot (or wok) to sauté the ginger, garlic, shiitake mushroom and wood ear fungus until fragrant.
2. Add the chicken and wine and stew over a medium flame until chicken in tender yet firm, about 20 to 30 minutes in a claypot, longer in other pots.
3. Season with salt and pepper.

 

 

 

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cooking, Martin Yan, Gordon Ramsey, Asian Stir Fry, Chino's Cafe, Chinese Food, Asian Stir Fry