How to Grill Lobster

Most seafood is on the list of anti-inflammatory goodness, with a few noticeable exceptions such as talapia, Mediterranean sea bass, and any fish that starts with the word, "cat." Stay away from those as a general guideline and eat the occasional lobster with gusto. Here's how to grill 'em.

Step one: butterfly your lobster tails by turning them upside down (lil' swimmers facing you), and make an incision from the bottom to the top. Then whack all the way through the top part leaving just the flipper flap holding it together. Following are pictures of all that just in case I made it too confusing.The whack

Next you want to pull the meat away from the exoskeleton, but not all the way, which means you'll still leave a connecting piece close to the end. You want to be able to get butter underneath the meat as well as on top of it. Same as with Cap'n Shrimpy's butterflied shrimp. While you're at it, make the same melted butter with garlic. You'll be needing it very soon. Here's what the "pulling away" process looks like.
So far, so good? Good! Because the next part is the easy part. Fire up the grill to medium hotish. My gas grill thermometer, which I'm sure is totally inaccurate, reads about 400. Get your melted garlic butter ready and give it all a good shellakin' before you even introduce your tails to the fire.

Throw 'em on, armor side down and watch very carefully. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes, and possibly way less. Baste with butter every two minutes. When your tails are almost totally opaque, flip them for the big finish for only a minute. Then take them off and baste once more, cause you just can't have too much butter when you're dealing with lobster.

before:After:

I'm not suggesting you eat this much butter every day, but you probably won't have lobster every day, either. Just special occasions. Like when they go on sale. Or Sundays.

Cap'n Shrimpy's Butterflied Shrimp

There's a man at the farmer's market that we know only as "Cap'n Shrimpy," and that we only call him to each other- never to him. He sells the best shrimp in town. There's another fish market that sells shrimp, but going into that place is like entering a parallel universe similar to the one in which elves are doing photo shoots outside my back patio. It's not a place I'm entirely comfortable in.

Anyway, for 7.50 a pound, the Cap'n will sell you these guys right here:For free he'll tell you how to butterfly them and grill them. And so will I. Check it out:

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First you have to tend to the garlic butter. Get yourself two cloves of garlic.Give them a rough dice, and then throw a pinch of kosher salt on them. We're making a paste.Now take your chef's knife and spread it across the cutting board for about ten good passes- it'll go something like this:What you now have, my friends, is gold. Put that gold, along with a stick of butter (for two people, that is) in a saucepan and get it all going at medium-low. Start this part before anything else so the butter can get right for about 20 minutes, then strain the garlic out, along with the other solids from the butter, and split it in two. One part is now to be brushed on during cooking, and the other is for dipping. We also used the mango-habanero hot sauce for dipping, and it was really, really good.

Now, back to the shrimp.

When you get 'em all prepped, they should look like this:I keep them on ice until the moment they hit the grill. I get like that sometimes.

Preheat your grill to "super-hot." Add shrimp. Baste.
It only takes about 3 minutes from the moment these bad boys hit the grill until you take them off. The shell protects them for burning and adds flavor. When they turn opaque, take 'em off and stack 'em up like gold ingots in Fort Knox.
Oh yeah.One last step for this Tex-Carib feast- put on the appropriate tunes. On vinyl if you have it.

And I do.

Enjoy. And I'll see you soon.

Fish n' Chips

I warn you, what you are about to read is going to inspire you, and the results just may not be too healthy. There. You've been warned. I made this for the first time a few weeks ago, Cara took the photos, and now guilt compels me to write this up, since we had it again tonight. I just can't continue to allow myself to deprive humanity from the crispiest fish ever eaten. The fries are most excellent too. All in all, this is one of the best monochromatic plates of food you've ever eaten.

The first thing you gotta do, is get yourself some fish. I used some Orange Roughy that was on sale at our local grocery store (Publix- a name I still can't seem to get used to). It's a nice white fish that comes in fairly thick fillets. Cod or any other white fish would work too. Step one- cut your fish into the perfect sized fryable pieces. That's right- "fryable." Observe:Step two- cut four taters into French fry shapes. I made mine into slightly less than 1/2 inch planks of love. No need for a picture. Cause we didn't take one. It does make it easier to cut the sides flat so that you have a rectangular shaped cubey thing. I'm sure there's a geometry term for it, but I'm too lazy to check. Once you have the afore mentioned shape, cut it into fries.

The secret to the perfect homemade fries is the "double fry." DFing ensures a perfect inner texture with a crispy exterior. Trust me. But before you fry them even once, you've got to pre-cook them just a touch. Just coat them in oil, then cover them and microwave them for five minutes. They'll look like this:In the meantime, start heating your oil. Go for about 350 degrees, or so I'm told. To be honest, I can tell by looking at it when it's hot enough. I have a deep cast iron frying vessel, which is perfect for this recipe for the two of us, but if I were having a fish n' chips party I'd break out my Dutch oven. It's what Bobby Flay does, and that dude can cook. Fry your fries the first time for about six minutes.

Healthy!

I used peanut oil, which is also what Bobby Flay uses. Please review the warning at the top of this post.

Once Fry-Down Part One is complete, mix up your batter for the fish. You'll need a cup and a half of flour; a half a cup of corn starch; a couple of big pinches of salt; a teaspoon each of cayenne pepper, paprika and, baking powder; and a few grinds of black pepper. And a beer.

Whisk everything but the baking powder and beer together, and reserve 3/4 cups on a pie plate (or a regular plate or whatever- you're going to dredge the fish through it twice before you're done). After you have your reserve set aside add the baking powder and then the beer. Stir it up until it's just incorporated. There will be some lumps, but that's cool. The batter will be very thin- when you pull your stirring device out, it will run off in rivulets. So now you have a wet beer batter, and a pile of heart healthy flour and cornstarch. Dredge (cookin' term for "drag") the fish in the dry pile, then dip it into the wet, and take it for one last romp through the dry. set each piece aside until you've got your fish piled up like gold bricks in Fort Knox. Delicious gold bricks that go great with malt vinegar that is:

Next step: fry 'em. Golden brown, please.
Oh yeah.

Now refry the fries until they too are golden brown.

Get yourself a bowl of malt vinegar, a pile of ketchup, and go to town. London town, that is.

I hope this post makes up for my absence of late- neuroanatomy is hard. I have a few ideas for other food related posts, as well as a general status of our days in Florida post, but for now, eat yourself some delicious fish. And check back soon.