frozen lobstertails?
I have a friend, who has a wife who doesn't cook and he loves to eat! Once a year he buys a boatload of shellfish and finds either Jill or me to cook it and gather the expended families to pig out.
This year it's my turn to cook and serve that shellfish. We will be 11...all adults...4 "boys"...mid 20's and 2 "boys" mid 50's....and a couple of girls to go with the younger "boys" and 3 adult females.
I called tonight to aask what to expect...twice before he had a couple of cartons of live lobsters. This year there are frozen tails. How big I ask....big enough he says....how many....6 or maybe 8.
And shrimp....frozen....really big he says shelled and deveined and precooked....How much I ask, 2 pounds he says....for 11 I say? Well he says....2 bags and they are pretty big. I said compared to a pound of butter, how big? Well maybe 4 pounds then he says.
And he says he has plenty of crab legs....lots and lots. he was going to thaw them and cut them i nto "serving size pieces" and I could then steam them because they would fit into the pot. I said don't cut them ahead...i plan to steam them in a covered turkey roasting pan with a rack.
Ph and he said no one liked the scallops last year so this time I bought some bacon wrapped ones....frozen....they ought to go well in the oven!
So...suggestions!
I plan on skewering about half the shrimp and doing a terayaki marinade, lots of garlic and briefly browning on the grill.
But what to do with the lobster tails? Don't want to do them inside....should they be steamed or should I plan on putting them on the grill too?
The scallops will be grilled, but how long....well hard to say because I don't know how big they are!!
I am baking lots of bread tonight, will make a token green salad, do some oven baked potatoes and plan on oven baking about a dozen chicken legs for those who really prefer chicken to shellfish.
Suggestions?
Comments (22)
9 years agoThe only thing I can think of that might be fun for a gang is to to do a "shell fish boil".
small potatoes, clams or mussels, the lobster, corn ,,,,,,maybe some of the crab or shrimp, cut up kielbassa
Here is the one I doPour in white wine into stock pot (just enough to come to the bottom of the steamer), 1 lemon quartered, half stick or so of butter, chopped green onions or chopped shallots, several garlic cloves cleaned and smashed roughly, peppercorns, chopped parsley and Old Bay seasoning ( I gave her some) .
Layer
12 small red potatoesMussels ( I used 2 bags)
12 large shrimp ( not huge!)
4 small lobster tails (optional)
sliced kielbassa or smoked chorizo (optional)
2 cobs of corn cut in half.
Cover and steam on the BBQ or range top, bring to a boil and then steam for about 15 minutes....just until potatoes are fork tender and clams have opened, Be careful not to over cook.
When finished remove the food to a serving plate , add a good size dollop of butter to the broth and pour over the food.
9 years agoThe accompaniments sound great, and like they'll cover for any inaccuracies in the amounts of shellfish. I assume the lobster tails are clean? If so, it should be easy enough to remove the meat, so if you need to extend them, you could do some kind of stuffed lobster, but use small dishes or scallop shells or whatever to serve them on instead of the shells, or use the shells cornucopia style, spilling into a serving dish. Or you could make lobster po' boys if you make rolls instead of bread. Amazing with a good remoulade.
If there's enough lobster to go around, you can't beat grilled for delicious and easy, especially if you have some good aromatics to make some smoke.
Whatever you decide on, I'm sure it'll be good. :)
9 years agoI've been told by a chef that the ideal way to prepare frozen lobster tails is to steam them. I buy my lobster fresh and have them do the steaming for me. :) I love it best when I can just dip it in melted butter -- especially if it has fresh-squeezed lemon juice in it! yum.
Since your shrimp is pre-cooked, my favorite way to serve it is with cocktail sauce and some crackers. Not sure how a teriyaki would be on pre-cooked shrimp.
- 9 years ago
So far you are grilling, steaming and baking....are you the only one doing the cooking? Will someone be able to man the grill while the other items are cooking?
I am a purist when it comes to shell fish, butter and lemon and maybe cocktail sauce (homemade of course) for pre-cooked shrimp. I find the teriyaki sauce too overpowering on shellfish. If you do skewer them, a quick brushing of evoo and garlic would do it for me.
Steam the lobster with the crab legs and have plenty of melted butter and lemon.
I hope the bacon has been par cooked on the scallops because it will not be done at the same time as the scallops. Broil those or skewer them for the grill. Tartar/remoulade sauce is good here.
How about steaming the crab and lobster and grilling the shrimp and scallops, even the chicken. You can even "hobo" the potatoes and put on the grill. This frees up the oven to be used as a warming/holding area.
Find out if you really need the chicken legs. If not, skip it and save some time.
All that said, your are in for a feast! Wish you were closer so I could crash the party.
lindac92
Original Author9 years agoonly maybe 2 of us are"Purists"....and a couple like the idea of sea food more than the eating. One will likely eat nothing but salad and bread....and perhaps a chicken leg. The other only likes shrimp "in recipes"...her mother was going to make a pasta dish with the shrimp for her. I said, why don't I skewer a few and do a terayaki grilled shrimp...Mother thought she might like that.
There were a dozen chicken legs for about $6....I'll roll them in something and put them in one oven with the potatoes. What doesn't get eaten will go into a soup pot.
Peppi, I think I will do what you suggested....steam the lobster and crab and put some of the shrimp and the scallops on the grill....AND make some home made cocktail sauce
I bought 2 pounds of butter today and 4 lemons....and I have 3 pounds of butter and several lemons...
Bought baby spinach and iceberg lettuce....will see if there are decent strawberries on sunday and make a sweet mustard, balsamic dressing.
I'm not doing the dessert....but I think that "better than sex cake" is on the menu....;-0
9 years agoIt sounds wonderful!!!"
To a French, seafood is a disaster in the USA for most people.
Try finding "dry" scallops, live shrimps --------
Everything is previously frozen or chemically treated from China.
dcarch- 9 years ago
You can get fresh seafood by the sea in the States, too, but while there's more population on the coasts than in than in the middle, there's a heck of a lot of middle. :)
9 years agoYes. If you're in France or England - or many European countries, you're never that far from the sea. That said, there are strange things such as oysters here are not at all a luxury item whereas in England they're really expensive. Scotland exports most of their langoustine to France and Spain! They sell them too expensively at home while we stuff our happy little faces.... I don't get it at all.
- 9 years ago
"---You can get fresh seafood by the sea in the States, too, but while there's more population on the coasts than in than in the middle, ---"
Doesn't mean anything. Manhattan and Long Island for instance are surrounded by water, no good seafood in stores either. Maybe in a Chinese store where they sell live fish.
dcarch - 9 years ago
Okay. In California, you can get local fresh seafood at the seafood/fish stores. I believe that's also true in Maine and the Carolinas, but I haven't seen for myself. There is a lot of habitat degradation, so it's not as plentiful as in the past. And there are some spots which have too much pollution. :( There's so much demand for seafood, however, that the cities would never be able to meet it without the farms, and the city folk don't seem to mind where it comes from.
PRO9 years agoEvery Christmas Eve, I serve lobster stew that I have made several days ahead of time. It's the fabulous recipe from the Jordan Pond House in the Acadia Nat'l Park on Mount Desert Island in Maine. I buy frozen lobster from a local pound (yes, a lobster pound in KY - UPS hub here - flies in from Nova Scotia, then all over the country). I buy the frozen knuckles and claws but frozen lobster tails would work perfectly. The best thing is that you can prepare this several days ahead of time and then just very gently heat it up to serve. You've got a LOT of cooking to do and having something done before would be a help. Here's the recipe:
I can't tell you how delicious this is! I serve it with a salad and hot popovers (now made with Stonewall Kitchen's delicious popover mix).
Bon appetit!
lindac92
Original Author9 years agoWhy would you use a popover mix?? Popovers are simply flour eggs milk and a bit of salt....and the bonus is no preservatives.
4 eggs, 1 1/2 cups AP flour, 1 1/4 cups milk, generous pinch of salt, beat together....butter a popover pan well, divide batter into the cups and place in a preheated 425 oven for 20 minutes, then lower the temp to 350 for another 20 minutes without opening the door!
Popover mix??- 9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
The thing about frozen fish and seafood is that it's usually done right on the boat so it can be actually better than what's sold as fresh
lindac92
Original Author9 years agoDonno.....depends on if I over cook stuff or not....If I get distracted, you could probably arrive at 9 and there would be some left!
9 years agoI would be sure that I would overcook the pre-cooked shrimp! All I ever do with those is to thaw quickly under cold water, then add to my recipe at the last minute, when it comes off the fire -- just long enough to warm them. Or serve them cold with cocktail sauce.
- 9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
Did you want the lobster stew recipe, plllog?
http://www.maine-lylobster.com/2014/05/jordan-pond-house-lobster-stew-recipe.html
Basically pretty much like newburg, only without the eggs.
- PRO9 years ago
Weird - showed up when I posted it! Thank you writersblock for posting it!
Why do I use the mix? Because sometimes, the popovers are fabulous, and sometimes they're a flop - I have no idea why as I used the same recipe (from the Jordan Pond House) every year. When I discovered the Stonewall Kitchen mix and tried it multiple times with nary a failure, I switched. I find that any leftover (rarely happens!), can be satisfactorily reheated with ones made from scratch cannot be.
lindac92Original Author