Category Archives: Seafood

Lobster Pie

By emilia | Published: February 6, 2012

Make heads turn with a luscious recipe for lobster stew with puff pastry, via NYT.

Also posted in Article, baking, Holiday, Recipes | Tagged lobster, new york times, puff pastry, valentines day | Leave a comment

Key West—Gone Fishin’

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: January 19, 2012

Surf and turf for 17, last night

Working in the morning and cooking in the afternoon, and no time to post! Been having fun cooking nightly for a houseload of hungry sailors on a generous budget. Last night was steak and lobster and smashed potatoes and salad. Cooking mussels tonight, then wahoo (never cooked before, it will be interesting), saffron rice cooked in lobster stock (that I made this afternoon), asparagus, salad, and grilled baguettes. As they are true to the sailing culture, the crew go in for liquid desserts which makes it easy for the cook! I also brought the Polyscience immersion circulator, it came in handy for the surf and turf last night. We worked together to get the lobsters all done expediently. I killed them first, Doug Moose separated the bodies and dropped them in ...

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Also posted in Food Adventure | Tagged cooking on a boat, crew, I'm on a boat, immersion circulator, key west, lobster, polyscience, seafood, surf and turf | 16 Comments

Do-over: Charleston, Eve, & Grits

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 13, 2011

Shrimp and grits. photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

One of hard things about writing books is that they are in constant flux and then they are permanent. Thanks to the organic nature of blogs, I can make amends. When I was at the Culinary Institute of America, one of my best and favorite teachers was Eve Felder, who taught Garde Manger. She was the Cheshire Cat of chefs, perched high on stacked stools, who taught us that "Cooking is alchemy, cooking is magic!" And she was right. Righter than I knew, in fact. I'm heading to her native city, Charleston, South Carolina, and so she's been on my mind. When I wanted to do a butter-poached shrimp for Ruhlman's Twenty, I naturally wanted to pair it with grits. Who did I call for grits finesse ...

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Also posted in american regional cuisine, Appetizers, aromatics, chefs, Food Writing, From Scratch, Recipes, Seasonings and Spices, sidedishes, Technique | Tagged Charleston, CIA, Eve Felder, shrimp and grits, South Carolina, twenty | 22 Comments

Butter-Poached Shrimp and Grits

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: November 12, 2011

Butter-Poached shrimp and grits from Ruhlman's Twenty/photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Just the name is inspiring: butter-poached shrimp. Butter-poached shrimp and grits. Mmmm. Butter-poached lobster, not uncommon in French haute cuisine, was popularized in America by Thomas Keller in The French Laundry Cookbook and at that restaurant. "Lobster loves gentle heat," he told me then. It's not much of a leap for the thrifty-minded cook to reason that shrimp, too, love gentle heat. That's why, in the butter chapter of my new book, I showed how to use butter as a cooking medium (one of the many amazing ways butter can be used as a tool). This dish is absolutely killer. The shrimp stay very tender, rich and tasty with the butter; the grits are then enriched with the shrimp butter. Leftover butter can be used ...

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Also posted in Books, From Scratch, Recipes | Tagged Chronicle Books, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, recipe, Shrimp & Grits, technique, The Splendid Table, twenty | Comments closed

The Martha Stewart Show

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: November 10, 2011

Photos by Rob Tannenbaum/The Martha Stewart Show

Martha actually laughs! I was on The Martha Stewart Show, taped Monday in front of a crazily exuberant audience, on behalf of the new book, Twenty, and I saw it myself. Lord knows what we were laughing about. I haven't a clue. You go kind of senseless when you're not in front of Martha every day and there she is—felt exactly like jumping out of an airplane for the first time. But one of the things I've always admired about her show is there's none of that forced cheer and goofy laughter. So when she laughs it's real and affecting. I've done my share of TV but have never, ever been nervous. I was so nervous that morning. I brought three shirts and a valium. When ...

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Also posted in appearance, Books | Tagged french onion soup, home-cured salmon, New York City, The Martha Stewart Show, twenty | Comments closed

Maine’s Lobster Currency

By emilia | Published: August 29, 2011

Lobstering is Maine major fishing income, if lobster population comes into trouble, so does the coast. See how conservation is key, via NYT.

Also posted in Article, Food Politics | Tagged conservation, fishing, lobsters, new york times | Comments closed

How To Prepare a Simple Crab Boil

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: August 11, 2011

Crabs, kielbasa, corn, potatoes/Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

By far the best meal of the summer was our crab boil during our week in Ocracoke. And like many “best” meals, it was unplanned, a surprise, a gift we were smart enough to take advantage of. Donna has pals from her native Port Washington, NY, who have houses here, one of whom owns a popular restaurant on this lovely barrier island off the coast of North Carolina (a ferry-ride away from Cape Hatteras). So she found us a swank house on the water where we and friends and Donna's sister and nieces could frolic. In the grass beside the house was an old crab pot. In the house was my sun-averse pal Lester. In the fridge, was a beef heart. As the sun set, Lester lowered the ...

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Also posted in Main Courses, Recipes, Seasonings and Spices, Technique | Tagged crab boil, North Carolina, seafood, summer | Comments closed

Beaching It

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: July 15, 2011

Taking a breather and have have been eating load upon load of NC clams. So good and so delicious.

The Perfect Way To Cook Clams

Use the little guys, little necks or cherrystones. Saute some garlic in a big pot in some butter or oil. Add a cup of white wine and a cup of water (all depends on your pot, you want plenty of steam). Throw in some fresh thyme, dump in your clams, cover and cook on medium high or high. Melt some butter. When the clams open they're done. If you have a lot, take out the open ones so they don't over cook. Eat them standing up, dipping clams ...

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Also posted in Appetizers, aromatics, Food Adventure, Recipes | Tagged clams, summer, vacation | Comments closed

Salmon and Potatoes In a Jar

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: July 11, 2011

photos by donna turner ruhlman

I've known of Dorie Greenspan for ages, author of numerous books, highly respected and well-liked in the food world, even has large group of blogs at Tuesdays with Dorie, dedicated to her book, Baking: From My Home To Yours. But it wasn't till last fall at a BlogHer gathering did I get to see for myself what a sweetheart she is. She looks like and reads just like who she is, a genuine cook and wonderful spritely soul. Last fall she published Around My French Table, an exquisite book of her favorite recipes (and a steal at $22 from Amazon—how do they do it?!). My dear friend Lee asked for and received this book for Christmas. When we had Lee and her husband Les over for that spatchcocked grilled ...

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Also posted in Appetizers, Charcuterie, Guest Post, Potatoes, Recipes, Salads, sidedishes | Tagged Around my French Table, Dorrie Greenspan, Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar | Comments closed

City Fish?

By emilia | Published: July 4, 2011

The oceans are getting warmer, causing fish to decrease in numbers. The solution could be urban aquaculture, via NPR.

Also posted in Article, Farming, Food Politics | Tagged Aquaculture, food politics, global warming, NPR, seafood politics | Comments closed

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