DS Sunday No.2

Sunday, March 22, 2009



la lobster roll

Plan C. or C is for Crustacean.

It's Dim Sum Sunday {No. 2} and the theme for this week is shellfish or crustacean. Hmmmmm says the girl from the tiny Nova Scotia seaside village. Initially I was thinking scallops - scallops are good, not too expensive if you buy just a few and usually readily available at our little tiny village grocery store. Sadly this week no scallops were to be found and after taking a quick peek at the frozen foods selection and finding only product of Thailand raw jumbo shrimp I thought Well, I guess I'll resort to Plan B. I'll tweak the rules and cook seafood - fish. Salmon to be exact. Lobster didn't occur to me. It's not lobster season (yet) and even though the price of lobster has gone way down I rarely ever buy lobster ... and you can be sure that you would never ever find me plunging live creatures into boiling water. I have some issues with lobster (more on that later*).

As we walk each night along the harbour's edge (Miss D and I) I always spend at least some of that time pondering the ice ... and the melting of it. This is a little fishing village and the ice in the harbour is another harbinger of spring round here - the receding ice very much like spying the first dandelions and crocuses. Lobster season starts May 1st and in order for the season to begin without a snag the ice in the harbour and out into the Straight must be gone. In a round about way, which is always my preferred way of thought, I've been thinking about lobster. It amazes me how our little harbour which was frozen so solid all winter long - a big, cold, white expanse of flat, snow covered, thick ice - is now once again mostly open. Big flat cakes of ice gently sail back and forth on the tide, the water's sparkling again and filled with ducks and it won't be long now until the harbour is completely free of ice and lobster season will begin again.

Since I spent the entire day (I'm not kidding) and into the evening working on my new etsy shop I devised Plan C. & decided to re-post this Crustacean recipe.

Tres delicious, it must be summer by the sea food

lobster roll
lobster
buttered and grilled hot dog bun
mayonnaise
smidge of Dijon mustard (because I'm on a bit of Dijon kick at the moment)
pepper
garlic chives from the garden

The key ingredients to any good lobster roll are mayonnaise (never salad dressing) and a buttered white bread hot dog bun and it must be the kind with crustless sides because you butter these bready sides and grill each side in a frying pan - so the outside of the bun becomes crispy, browned and buttery like the outside of a grilled cheese sandwich while the inside stays steamy and soft.

* Quite a famous & fascinating article published in Gourmet Consider the Lobster on the ethics of eating lobster by the late David Foster Wallace. Whole Foods has a ban on selling live lobster - you know those giants tanks you see in many seafood places stuffed with live lobsters 5 or 6 deep crawling all over each other, claws banded and useless and tres sad.

** apparently if you place the live lobsters in the freezer for 1-2 hours before cooking this will kill them much more humanely

The lobster photographed above was given to me, a gift - already cooked and ready to be eaten. I wouldn't want to waste it would I ? I'll admit to the extreme wishy washy-ness of my lobster politics. Would I wear a vintage fur coat if given to me as a gift - No ! not on your life.

Hey ! the new 29 Black Street shop is open. All originals !

update speaking of harbingers of spring - Winnie D and I spied a pair of red winged blackbirds on our walk this early morning (actually we heard they're distinct trilling call first). Normally a marsh and pasture bird they've stopped by the petite forest in our backyard this morning for a little visit. (and don't I sound like a birding geek ?- oh yeah and the song sparrows are back too ! ) A great animal totem blackbird is ... especially for us Cancer gals.

11 comments:

  1. Great new shop! What size are the works? Everything is light and peppy! In reference to your last comment regarding lobster death practices:

    May all lobsters freeze to death...rather than scald to death...no...ur...that sounded wrong...

    sorry for my little attempt at lobster death humor :-)

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  2. Merci Cynthia for stoppin' by. Sizes and measurements are provided in the little description that accompanies each piece in the shop.

    I think the lobsters go into a frozen
    sleep state ... or at least I hope that's
    what happens.

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  3. Bravo on your choice of crustacean this week and using a nice simple recipe. I love lobster roll sammies. Hopefully we'll see your scallop recipe in the future.
    So what's the leading seafood export from Nova Scotia?

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  4. I gave your blog an award!

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  5. mmmm lobster roll looks SO GOOD.
    reminds me of summer, my family goes to martha's vineyard every year and we get these really amazing lobster rolls.

    your blog is great!
    http://anniediamond.blogspot.com

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  6. Lobster is the only shellfish I eat...so the sandwich looks delicious!

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  7. Hello hello,
    well alot has been happening in the last couple of weeks. Ive been away and now I have a lot of posts to catch up on. :) New shop looks good. Love the little one with hearts coming out the chimney.

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  8. New shop looks great Susan! Well worth the time and effort. I too, am squeamish with things thrown live into pots - it happens here with crayfish, crabs, shrimps, yabbies...I can't stand it.I would be one of those people that pay to release something from a tank back into it's environment, but it's seen as a gullible greenie thing to do, because the next fisherman is never far away. You introduced me to the animal totem site a while ago, and I dreamt of a gentle spider last night which I scooped up and carried in my bare hands(would never happen in real life).There was a big spider on the curtain this morning. I put a glass over it and released it outside.Then I looked up the totem which was fascinating. Have a good day - love to you and the Gang.

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  9. What a delicious choice! What I wouldn't give for a yummy lobster roll...Happy DSS!

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  10. I'm all about simple and this looks good and simple. And as far as the live lobster thing, I liken it to a quote I once heard (attributed to John Cleese I beleive) that goes, "If god didn't want us to eat animals (lobster included), he wouldn't have made them out of meat." Top of the food chain and damned glad.

    Happy Dim Sum Sunday.

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  11. WelI don't lie any crustaceans so jsut as well I am not surrounded by it BUT, love the idea of a more humane way to kill lobsters! I bet they jsut go into a sort of hibernation from which they never awake.

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