Hubris: It’s OK when the Gods do it, but when it comes to us mortals…
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If you read my last diary, during Lent I’m making meatless stuff for my meal prep. With that in mind, I decided to treat myself on Ash Wednesday. I had some frozen lobster tails in my freezer (they were on sale) and I decided to try a recipe I’d always wanted to try after I first saw it: Lobster Béchamel. Only the béchamel was a recipe from the time of Louis XIV. During this time, sauces in Europe were moving out of the Medieval way of being vinegary and thickened with bread crumbs, to the modern way of thickening with a roux. The first written recipe was by Francois Pierre de La Varenne in his cookbook Le cuisinier françois. I’ll let Max Miller take it from here:
The recipe Max sets out is the one I followed. Exactly as he said it. Without thinking. Because Hubris.
So I went to the store and got supplies. Shallots, parsley, green onions, and, 16oz of heavy cream. I contemplated buying the full quart just in case, but economics and my hubris won out. Smart readers can already sense where this is going, so continue to have a giggle.
The first order of business was how to cook the lobster. Since I divide up everything into small meals, doing stuff in the shell was probably out. So I removed the meat from the shell (not my greatest work) and cut it into bite sized pieces. Then I sauteed it in butter.
Clik here to view.
I got it to about 75-80% of done, as the rest of the cooking would be done when I added the lobster to the sauce. So for the sauce. I used, according to the recipe in the video:
1 small to medium shallot
1 handful of parsley
The greens from the green onions
4.5-5 Tbsp butter
8 Tbsp flour (½ cup)
16oz heavy cream
Plus the salt pepper and nutmeg.
Next was the shallot. Finely diced and sweated in a little butter:
Clik here to view.
I set it to the side, then started my roux.
Clik here to view.
It looked a little paste like as I was mixing, but I’ve done that before with no ill effects. Then I added the cold cream all at once, because cold cream, hot roux equals no lumps. Chef John knows his roux. Plus vigorous whisking takes away all such things regardless. But I digress. I stirred until there were no lumps, turning the heat up so the sauce can bubble and thicken and the flour could cook. As that was happening, I added the shallot, green onion, parsley, and grated the nutmeg. My mise was very en place, but it seemed like an instant when my béchamel went from a thick sauce to this:
Clik here to view.
Yup, too much flour, as astute readers have already divined. My béchamel went from a sauce to a choux dough. And it broke because of that. Now, I had milk in the fridge for the chowder I was making that weekend, but I didn’t want to use any as I needed the full quart. Did I realize I could buy more? Nope. In hindsight I should have bought the full quart of cream and then added any leftover to the chowder. But no, in my hubris I thought I had it all figured out so I panicked.
But then I regained my cool, and just added the lobster, hoping the butter and lobster juice would help thin it out.
It didn’t.
But it didn’t matter how badly I screwed it up. It was FREAKING DELICIOUS!! Buttery, lobstery, and one of the best flavored béchamel attempts I’ve made. Max is right. This sauce (or dough as I made it) was unbelievably good. I got more meals out of it than I thought I would, and it made a lovely change of pace while I was finishing my tuna casserole (hint) I made that week.
In short, never let the food win. In my hubris, I caused a potential great dish to not realize itself. However, what resulted was just as yummy. I was extremely happy with it because it tasted great.
WFD this weekend was not exactly an experiment, but it’s something new-ish I wanted to try. I’m going to cook some golden buttered rice (recipe here) and broil some bay scallops. The I’m going to add the bay scallops into the rice. Just having had some, It’s HELLA GOOD. Here’s a picture of the finished product:
Clik here to view.
I’ll probably diary it at some point. Super easy to make. I’ve got a couple other things for diaries down the line also, or for placeholder diaries when someone misses a day.
This week’s question: Have you ever had a total kitchen disaster happen but you said “what the heck” and it turned out really good?