Fall ... already. Remembrance of lobsters past

HALLIE EPHRON: I can tell it's fall because I'm drinking my first cup of tea in six months, and look at what's on my feet.  Also we're sleeping with the windows closed and I've hauled out the blankets and I've had my first allergy attack in months.

There's one piece of pie left from my first apple pie this year, made with local Cortland apples. Cortlands are incredibly good when they're fresh picked and more or less useless from the supermarket, IMHOP.

We ate most of the pie last night with friends, at the end of a cookout that ended early because by 8 it was dark. Very dark.

The hydrangeas and hostas in my garden are starting to show fall colors.


This summer lobsters have been incredibly cheap. So cheap that I've started to think of them as an ingredient, not the star of the show. So in honor of the end of summer and cheap lobsters, here

Lobster mango salad... it was sensational and I only thought to take a picture after I'd eaten most of it... What makes this work is the bitterness of the arugula and the bite of the cilantro and the sweetness of the mango. I put the dressing on the lobster and added it to the rest of the (undressed) ingredients because you don't want to overwhelm it with the taste of the dressing. 

Dressing:
Mix together --
- About 3 T of mango chutney (if there are big chunks of mango in it chop them up)
- About 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- About 1/3 cup olive oil
- A healthy squeeze of sriracha (hot sauce)
Create a bed of:
- Romaine lettuce
- Arugula
Top with:
- chunks of meat from a steamed (chilled) 2-pound lobster that have been tossed in the dressing
- chunks of mango (I like to use 2 of the yellow "ataulfo" variety)
- chopped cilantro (about 1/2 cup loosely packed)

Lobster corn chowder, dinner for 2... much easier than lobster bisque.
First, boil 2 lobsters, take out the meat and chop it coarsely.
Cook 3 ears of fresh corn, cool, and cut the corn off the cob. Scrape (I use a grapefruit spoon) the cob to release all the nice white milky deliciousness that's still stuck on the cob)

are two recipes
Then...
- Crisp 4 pieces of bacon and set aside; keep the fat!
- In the same pan, saute about a cup of chopped onion, and a cup of chopped celery in the bacon fat drippings
- Add about 2 cups of cubed peeled new or yukon gold potatoes
- Add 3 c. of seafood stock
- Simmer until the potatoes are done
- Add the lobster meat
- Add the corn and crumbled bacon
- Add 1 cup of cream
- Warm through
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- To make it especially delicious, sprinkle each bowlful with chopped fresh tarragon (if you haven't got it, then use parsley)

Leaving you with this morning's New England sky... is this a fall sky or what?

Taste of summer: Lobster mango salad

HALLIE EPHRON: With temperatures soaring here into the 90s day after day, the only thing to do is boil a lobster. How can you not, with prices having come down so far? Here in New England we're seeing them as low as 5.99 a pound. I'm afraid it's the silver lining of global warming.

The other day I boiled a 2-pounder, took the meat out of the shell, chilled it, and made a lobster mango salad. It was spectacular. The perfect summer dish.

What makes it work is the bitterness of  arugula and the bite of cilantro and the sweetness of the mango and the lobster. I put the dressing on the lobster and added the lobster to the rest of the (undressed) ingredients because you don't want to overwhelm the greens with the taste of the dressing. 


Hallie's Lobster and Mango and Arugula SaladServes 2

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SALAD
Meat from a 2-pound boiled lobster, chopped into good sized chunks
1 mango (I like the yellow "ataulfo" variety best) peeled and seeded and cut into pieces
1/4 cup of coarsely chopped cilantro
Romaine lettuce
Arugula

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DRESSING
3 T mango chutney (if there are big chunks of pickled mango in it, chop them up)
About 1/4 c rice vinegar
About 1/3 c olive oil
A healthy squeeze of sriracha (hot sauce)

Directions:
1. Make the dressing: Mix together the ingredients. That's it.
2. Toss the lobster with the dressing.
3. Assemble the salad - a layer of lettuce and arugula topped with fresh mango and sprinkled with cilantro - top with lobster and dressing.

We had al fresco it with some French bread and Vinho Verdi --  a light, crisp, and inexpensive (at least the bottle we had) Portuguese wine with a little sparkle.

Share your favorite summer salads...