Preparing New Year's/Birthday Feast

New Years Eve also happens to be the birthday of granddaughter C - or has Pulisha calls it the anniversary of the good tax deduction timing arrival. C has very grown up tastes and as she was turning 10 and was in fine motivated cooking style, Wife and I whipped up a special meal

Homemade Lobster Pasta
Chocolate Raspberry Cake

The lobster pasta consisted of a home made lobster sauce with home made pasta. As I showed the pasta making technique a couple of posts ago, I will focus on the lobster sauce.

Start by boiling a couple of nice size lobsters but only until half done (about 7-8 minutes)

These were about 2.5 pounds each

Next separate the meat from the claws and tails while chopping the shells and body into large pieces - you can see how little meat you end up with but it is very rich

Saute butter and salt pork

Add and saute the mirepoix (onions, carrots and celery)

Add the lobster shells
Brown slightly
Add some cognac and then flame to burn off alcohol
Add water, bay leaf, salt and pepper
Cook for 15 minutes at a fairly high heat

I put the resulting broth through two strainers

The resulting lobster stock

Finish by making a roux (flour cooked in butter) and adding the stock until you have a nice consistency.
The lobster meat is finished by cooking for about three minutes in butter
Add cooked pasta to the sauce
Plate pasta and put lobster on top

The Cake

Make a sponge by whipping egg whites and folding with other stuff (Wife has the recipe - I don't)

These are raspberries Wife froze from her garden this summer.
Mix with sugar and cook down to a nice thick consistency

Chopping Chocolate for a Ganache (fancy term for chocolate-cream topping)

Finished Ganache

Filling going onto the cake

Finishing the cake

Aftermath - C loved it.