SUMMER IN TWO BOWLS: LOBSTER AND CORN CHOWDER AND PEACH BLUEBERRY CRISP

LOBSTER AND CORN CHOWDER AND PEACH BLUEBERRY CRISP : TWO CELEBRATIONS OF SUMMER.

“As the days dwindle to a precious few”….I have to wonder why it is that from August 1st on, everyone out East starts talking about the end of summer!  There are another 7 weeks left but inevitably these get whittled down.  Freshmen are leaving for college the 19th.  New York private school kids sports programs gear up the same week.  Egads! They may be right!  This spectacular summer, with weather that’s kept the air conditioning on low almost continuously and with Camelot-like rain that never falls till after sundown, is winding down. So it’s time to celebrate with food that has summer written all over it.

LOBSTER AND CORN CHOWDER IS ‘SUMMER IN A BOWL’

Andrew named this wonderful dish “Summer in a Bowl”.  It’s a recipe from Saveur and a chef named Cary Wheaton who was inspired to make it on a vacation to the tiny town of Westport, Massachusetts.  It features Lobster and the fresh corn we cannot get enough of this time of year.  Then it’s topped with diced slab bacon for any extra kick of salty flavor.

AND THEN THERE’S THE PEACH AND BLUEBERRY CRISP

While I worked on the creamy sweet chowder, Andrew made an exceptional Peach Blueberry Crisp filled with local, ripe, sweet peaches, pop-in-your-mouth tart blueberries and a crisp topping that’s a reason to eat the dish all by itself.  This recipe came to us all the way from Seattle.  “The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook” (William Morrow 2012) https://amzn.to/46dnF6E and its author, Tom Douglas, waxed poetic over the Red Haven Washington State peaches he used. Ours were the best peaches anywhere in the Hamptons. They came from Hardscrabble Farm at the corner of Stephen Hand’s Path and Rte. 114, if you want to duplicate this recipe exactly.  Served with a scoop (or two) of vanilla bean ice cream, it’s a salute to an old-fashioned summer bringing up memories of sitting on a porch watching the fireflies.

The Seafood Shop sign should read 4 for $52.00.  Still a bargain!

Lobster, that luxury seafood in much of the country, is one of the most inexpensive seafoods you can buy here.  Pity the poor lobster fisherman, 4 lobsters of about a lb. each can be had for $52.00.  Sadly, Long Island Sound is no longer a viable lobster fishing ground.  As the water temperature rises, the lobsters simply cannot survive.  Yet another lesson in global warming and its consequences!  Our lobster likely hailed from Maine.  Now this dish is labor intensive, there’s no denying it.  At the same time Andrew and I were buying our lobster at the Seafood Shop in Wainscott, we saw that 1 lb. of Lobster Salad was priced at $65.00.    Outrageous?  This is actually the low end of the lobster salad scale here where quite notoriously one purveyor of gourmet goodies prices theirs at $100.00 a lb.  But after I’d dismembered the four lobsters involved in cooking the Chowder, and badly gashed my thumb on a piece of lobster shell, $65.00 seemed entirely reasonable to me.  If you want, you can certainly pony up for cooked lobster for this recipe. But you are going to have to ask for the shells to make the broth. Once the lobster is out of the shell, the rest is relatively simple,  but time is needed to get the broth made and reduced.  While that is happening you can get everything else prepped and ready to go.  It’s well worthwhile!  This is a treat with the full of the flavor of the sea, the season’s best corn and new red potatoes.  Served with crusty bread, it made a satisfying supper.  And for dessert there was Andrew and Olivia’s Crisp.  Here are the recipes:

Recipe for Lobster and Corn Chowder by Chef Cary Wheaton from Saveur Magazine.

Serves 6-8.  Takes a good 4 hours to make.  Worth every minute!

2 (2-lb.) or 4 (1-lb.) live Maine Lobsters

1 large stalk celery, roughly chopped

1 medium carrot, roughly chopped

1 sprig fresh parsley or cilantro 

1 bay leaf

5 black peppercorns

¼ lb. salt pork, diced

3 medium yellow onions, peeled and diced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1½ lbs. red potatoes, peeled and cut into ½” cubes

4 cups fresh corn kernels (cut from about 6 ears)

3 cups half & half

Cayenne pepper 

                                                                            Salt and freshly ground white pepper

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add lobsters and cook for 8–10 minutes. Remove lobsters, reserving cooking liquid, and run under cold water. Remove meat (discard tomalley and coral) and cut into small pieces. Return shells and 10 cups reserved cooking liquid to pot.

2. Add celery, carrot, parsley or cilantro, bay leaf, and peppercorns to cooking liquid, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 1½ hours. Strain broth through a sieve into a large saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until reduced to 6 cups, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

3. Cook salt pork in a large pot over medium-low heat until crisp, about 20 minutes. Remove, drain on paper towels; set aside for garnish. 

4. Cook onions and garlic in rendered fat over low heat until translucent, about 20 minutes.

5. Add potatoes, corn, and reduced broth to onions, increase heat to medium, and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in half-and-half and a dash of cayenne and return to a simmer. 

6. Add lobster meat and simmer (do not boil) until heated through, 3–5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

7. Ladle into bowls and top with reserved salt pork. Garnish with cilantro or parsley. 

Recipe for Peach Blueberry Crisp from Seattle’s The Dahlia Bakery.  Serves 8. Makes 1 9 inch crisp. Equipment: A nine inch deep ceramic dish pie plate or similar sized casserole or baking pan.

For the Peach Blueberry Filling:

5 or 6 medium (1 ¾ lbs) ripe peaches, peeled

2 cups (8 oz.) Blueberries

½ cup ( 3 ½ oz.) Sugar

3 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/8inch dice.

1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 vanilla bean

1 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. cornstarch

For the Topping:

2/3 cup (2 3/8 oz.) rolled oats

2/3 (3 ¼ oz.) packed brown sugar

2/3 cups ( 4oz.) all-purpose flour

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

6 tbsp (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter cut into ½ inch dice.

Pre heat oven to 350 F.

To make the peach blueberry filling:
1.Peel the peaches.  This is best done by submerging the peaches in boiling water until their skins split, about 2 minutes. Then use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin entirely.  Cut the peaches in half, remove  the pits and slice the peaches ¼ inch thick.  You  should have about 4 cups of sliced peaches.

2.Put the peaches, blueberries, sugar, butter and lemon juice in a large bowl. Split the vanilla beans lengthwise and use a paring knife to scrape out the seeds. Add the vanilla bean scrapings to the bowl. (You can keep the vanilla pod for an alternate use, like making vanilla bean sugar.) Sift the flour and cornstarch into the bowl and gently combine all the ingredients using a rubber spatula. Set aside.

To make the Crisp topping:

1.Combine the oats, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the diced butter to the dry ingredients and blend with a pastry blender on the tip[s of your fingers until crumbly.

Assemble the crisp:1.Put the berry mixture into the nine inch dish.

2.Cover the berries with the crisp topping.

3.Set the filled dish on a baking sheet to catch any juices that may bubble over the sides, then place in the oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the juices are bubbling, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time.

4.Remove from the oven and cool briefly on a wire rack. Serve the crisp, topped with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream while still warm.