Recipes

Recipe courtesy of Five Fifty-Five in Portland, Maine.

Roasted Garlic

Cut two bulbs of garlic in half (across the equator). Cover the garlic in oil (olive oil is preferable) and roast in the oven at 300 degrees for approximately one and a half hours or until the garlic is spreadable. Then remove the garlic from the oven and let cool. Once cool, squeeze the garlic into a mortar and pestle and crush into a paste.

Cherry Peppers

• ¼ gallon water
• ¼ gallon vinegar
• ½ cup salt
• ¼ pound red cherry peppers
• 1 carrot roughly chopped
• 1 stalk of celery roughly chopped
• 1 onion roughly chopped.

Sweat mirepoix in a small amount of oil until tender. Add water and vinegar and bring to a boil. Add salt. Return liquid to a boil. Remove liquid from heat and cover cherry peppers with hot liquid. Allow to pickle for 2 weeks.

Bang’s Island Mussels

• 2 T diced orange peppers
• T pickled cherry peppers seeded and roughly chopped
• 2 bulbs roasted garlic
• 3 pounds bang’s island mussels
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 4 oz. Butter
• 2 T chopped chives
• lemon juice to taste
• salt to taste

Heat a pan over high heat until it is smoking hot. Add a splash of oil, orange peppers, cherry peppers, and roasted garlic and sauté for 10 seconds. Add mussels and toss. Add white wine and reduce by ½, then add butter, chives, lemon juice, and salt. Toss and then cover mussels and allow them to steam until the mussels open. Once mussels have opened remove the mussels from the pan, leaving sauce behind. Let sauce reduce until thickened and then pour over the mussels. Serve with crusty grilled bread. Serves 6-8 as a starter.

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Recipe courtesy of Chef Sam Hayward at Fore Street in Portland, Maine.

Ingredients

• 3 lb. very fresh Maine shrimp in their shells
• 2 oz smoked slab bacon, diced about 1/4 inch
• one large leek, white part only, rinsed and diced about 1/4 inch
• 3 medium russet potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and sliced about 1/2 inch thick
• 3 cups of shrimp broth
• sea salt, fresh-milled black pepper, and cayenne
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup rich cream (preferably not ultra-pasteurized; it really does make difference)
• about 2 tablespoons snipped chives
• New England common crackers

For the chowder base

Shell the shrimp and reserve the heads and tail shells for the broth.

Poach bacon in simmering water for one minute, drain and reserve.

‘Try’ the bacon over moderate flame in a heavy non-reacting soup pot until some fat has been rendered and the bacon pieces begin to color. Add the diced leeks and potatoes, stir, and cover. Cook about five minutes over moderate-low flame without browning, stirring occasionally. Add the shrimp broth and simmer about eight minutes, or until the potato pieces are tender and crumble easily when pressed. Season with sea salt, a generous grating of the peppermill, and a pinch of cayenne. Keep chowder base warm.

To finish the chowder

Melt the butter over moderate flame in a heavy non-reacting skillet. When the foam subsides, increase the heat to high, add the shrimp meats, and sautée over high flame just until shrimp meats begin to ‘set’ and become opaque, about one minute. In a separate saucepan, heat the cream to scald. Pour the hot cream over the shrimps, swirling the pan to combine. Add the cream mixture to the hot chowder base, stirring gently. Off heat, cover the chowder and allow it to ripen for ten minutes in a warm place. Adjust the seasoning and serve in heated soup plates. Sprinkle with snipped fresh chives, and serve plenty of common crackers on the side.

For the shrimp broth:

Place the shrimp heads and tail shells in a non-reacting saucepan and add enough cold water to just cover the shells. (Don’t be concerned about any shrimp eggs that may be present. The broth won’t be affected.) Bring to a simmer over high flame, then reduce the flame to low and gently simmer the broth uncovered about five minutes, skimming off the foam as it rises. Strain through a colander lined with three layers of cheesecloth.

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Recipe courtesy of White Barn Inn in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Dry Navy Beans
• 1 lb. Dry Red Kidney Beans
• 2 ea. Diced Potatoes
• 1 ea. Small Diced Onion
• 2 ears Corn (cleaned)
• 8 oz. Diced Lobster Meat
• 1-cup Champagne
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 4 oz. Unsalted Butter
• 4 ea. Diced peeled Tomatoes
• 1 ea. Lemon
• Salt
• Fresh Ground White Pepper
• Cayenne Pepper

Soak the beans separately in cold water for 12 hours.

Boil the beans separately in plenty of salted water until tender, drain off the water and mix together.

Shave the corn off the cob.

In a tablespoon of butter sweat the onions for a few seconds until they are translucent, add the corn and diced potatoes. Once the potatoes are translucent add the beans and the remainder of the butter.

Add half the champagne sauce to the succotash and simmer on low heat until every ingredient is tender.

Add the lobster dice and tomato, warm gently, season to taste with salt, pepper and cayenne. Serve the finished succotash in a soup bowl.

Blend the remainder of the sauce to form foam and ladle the foam over the succotash.

Sauce

In a thick bottom pan reduce the champagne by half add the cream, bring to the boil simmer for a minute, season with salt, cayenne and lemon.

Cooking your own lobster recipe? Try these tips for how to cook and eat a lobster.