I had a reader request my recipe for lazy man’s lobster. I had to sit down and think about how I actually made it. The thing to keep in mind with recipes like this depends on the size of the lobsters you are using. I used two 1 1/2 lb lobsters and got 3 nicely filled baking dishes.

This is a super-rich dish; the portions don’t need to be extravagant due to the richness. I recommend serving with fresh lemon wedges for each diner. The fresh lemon juice squeezed on top cuts through the richness and makes the dish in balance.

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Lazy man’s lobster

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of crushed Ritz type crackers
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
¼ cup fresh Italian leaf parsley, chopped
½ cup butter
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
¼ cup sherry
The juice and zest from one lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooked lobster meat from 2-3 lobsters, depending on their size, cut into bite-size pieces.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter 3-4 ovenproof dishes, place them on a sheet pan. Divide the cooked lobster meat amongst the dishes. I say 3-4 dishes, depending on the size of the lobsters. Set aside.

Crush crackers in a ziplock bag and a rolling pin or a food processor. Crush or pulse until it becomes crumbs. I like my crumbs with more texture crushing them less.

Melt the 4 Tbsp of butter. In a bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, melted butter, lemon zest, and parsley. Mix until completely combined, set aside.

Heat 1/2 cup butter in a saute pan over low heat. When the butter has melted, add garlic and slowly poach the garlic until soft, not brown. Add sherry and lemon—season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Divide the butter mixture evenly between the dishes, pouring the butter mixture over the lobster. Top with a generous amount of cracker topping on each dish.

Put the baking sheet in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until the lobster is hot and the topping is golden brown. Serve with lemon wedges and more parsley. Serve with rice, pasta, or a baked potato. Enjoy!

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Coming up with ideas to cook is the hardest part of cooking for most people. I nailed Sam and Marty down on Sunday morning asking for some dinner ideas for the week. They came up with their suggestions; I would fill in the blanks based on what I wanted. 

Every week, I write down dinner menus in my cooking notebook; then below it, I make a shopping list of ingredients. I leave the list at home when I go to the store and have someone take a photo of it and text it to me. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I had a craving for something flavorful, different, and better yet, a one-pot dish. Jambalaya was that dish. Having a well-stocked pantry makes pulling one of these dinner ideas out of your ass possible. 

I’ve mentioned that we live in a food desert here in Southern Vermont, so if you want something a little different, you have to cook it yourself. If you don’t cook, you are out of luck or settle for mediocre, ordinary cuisine.  This is not a food snob talking, just a person that likes different varieties of food. 

Finding ingredients around here is another story; I do most of my ethnic shopping in Albany, NY. When you want to make a dish with ingredients that aren’t available here, you make do the best you can. 

I made my version of jambalaya tonight, one that would make creole folks go crazy since it isn’t authentic. I used common ingredients out of necessity but tried to mimic the flavor the best I could. 

I started sautéing in olive oil, what they call in New Orleans the “holy trinity,” which is onions, celery, and bell peppers. Cooks know what the “holy trinity” is, just like a “mirepoix,” onions, celery, and carrots in French cooking. 

Next, I added the sausage to the vegetables. Since I didn’t have andouille sausage, I used kielbasa. I made my own creole seasoning on the spicy side to help the kielbasa masquerade as andouille. 

For the rest of the recipe, I used long-grain white rice, a can of Rotel tomatoes & green chilis, chicken broth, and a bay leaf. I added a bag of shrimp at the very end of the cook.

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I browned the rice with the kielbasa and veggies. Next, I brought it up to a boil, covered it, and cooked it on low for 20 minutes. I stirred in a bag of mall shrimp that I marinated in a touch of olive oil and creole seasoning. I turned off the heat, covered the pot, and walked away for ten minutes. The residual heat cooked the small shrimp through without overcooking them.

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Not many ingredients like most of my recipes, just flavorful AF ones. While it was cooking, the house smelled delicious. So delicious that when Sam woke up at 5 pm (he works night shifts), he came down to see what the hell I was cooking. 

After I told him it was jambalaya, I realized I had never made it for him before; I made it while he was away at school. He thought it smelled amazing with flavors he had never had before. 

It turns out he wouldn’t be having it this time either since he wouldn’t be home. I packed a take-out container for a 3 am work dinner later this week for him. Yes, I pack him his dinners. I love feeding people! 

The jambalaya came out exactly how I wanted it to taste, smokey from the smoked paprika I put in the creole seasoning, a little heat but not too much, and that holy trinity was the foundation of the dish building flavors.

The house still smelled good three hours later when I took out the trash; I considered having more but decided against it. I hate feeling overfilled and have to stop myself by having only one portion. I also put my fork down the second my brain tells me I am full, no matter how delicious the meal is.

So a pot of faux jambalaya was the food hero last night and will be again today for lunch before belly dance classes. Yum!

Faux Jambalaya

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 package of grocery store kielbasa
1 Tbsp Creole seasoning
1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilis
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 lb bag of easy-peel raw shrimp
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp creole seasoning
Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

Chop the onion, pepper, and celery. Mince the garlic. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a dutch oven or large pot, then add the “holy trinity” and the garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes.

Add the kielbasa and the Creole seasoning. Stir to combine. Sauté uncovered for 10-12 minutes, stirring often or until the vegetables are soft.

While the kielbasa and veggies are cooking, peel the shrimp. In a bowl, add a tablespoon of olive oil and one teaspoon of creole seasoning. Stir gently to combine thoroughly. Set aside.

Add the rice to the kielbasa and veggies, stirring until combined. Brown, the raw rice for 3-5 minutes, stirring often to prevent the rice from burning. This step gives the rice a rich and nutty flavor.

Add the Rotel tomatoes and the chicken broth stirring well. Add the bay leaf, then bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.

Uncover, check the doneness of the rice. Stir in 1/8 cup water, cover, and cook for five more minutes if the rice is underdone. When the rice is tender, stir in the shrimp, turn off the heat, cover and leave for 10 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf, check for seasoning and serve. Enjoy!

Macaroni and chop meat. I am not sure if this was just a Jersey saying or generational. 

What in the hell is chop meat some of you may be asking yourself. It’s also know as ground beef or hamburg here in VT. 

Macaroni when I was growing up in Elizabeth, NJ was any pasta except for lasagna. It wasn’t called pasta. Ever. 

In restaurants, they had fancy names for their macaroni like linguine & clam sauce, penne vodka or baked ziti. But where I come from it was all macaroni. 

Macaroni and chop meat is also know here in America as goulash; not to be confused with the Hungarian kind. I’ve also heard it called American Chop Suey which is so wrong! I saw a show about Asian cuisine in which they made it crystal clear there is no such thing as chop suey in Chinese cuisine. 

A Chinese woman who was over 100 years old who was the first woman to ever own and cook in a Chinese restaurant. She had her own story about chop suey when Chinese food was still considered exotic.

When the interviewer asked her what chop  suey was she laughed. She said it means chopped up shit thrown in a wok. It was named chopped suey for the unknowing American customers. She was a fireball guzzling down booze and cursing like a sailer. 🙌🏼 She is my hero!

Macaroni and chop meat is one of a handful of dishes that I haven’t changed when I make it. I’ve been making it for as long as I can remember. I’m not sure who I watched make it, but I still do it the same way with the same simple ingredient. Jazzing up macaroni and chop meat is pasta with meat sauce; this is not. 

The only thing that I’ve changed about the dish is the macaroni. Originally, I used the classic elbow macaroni. When we had to go gluten free I made it with gluten-free penne pasta that fell apart and sucked up all the sauce. It sucked so bad I stopped making it. 

Now I make it with our gluten-free spätzle. The beauty is no boiling necessary for our “pasta.” It can go straight into a soup, sauce, gravy or casserole without having to boil it. The spätzle doesn’t get mushy or fall apart. Brilliant!

With all the fancy-ass cooking that I do, it’s refreshing making something so simple, comforting and familiar. It’s like a grilled cheese sandwich with butter, white bread and yellow American cheese.

The macaroni and chop meat that I make is a pound of chop meat, 1 diced onion, salt, 1 28oz can of plain old tomato sauce and a pound of macaroni. 

The beef is sautéed with the diced onion that has been seasoned with kosher salt until the onions are translucent. 

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Once the onions are translucent, you add the tomato sauce. Cover and bring to a simmer. Simmer and stir often for 30 minutes adding water if the sauce looks too dry. This is a looser sauce than my regular “sauce.”

Next, the cooked elbows or in my case spätzle gets mixed it. Cover, and let simmer for 20 more minutes adding water if it gets too dry. How do I know if I should add water or not? You just know.

I check to see if it needs more salt, it usually doesn’t since tomato sauce can be salty. That’s it. I serve it as is. No spices, no parmesan cheese, no black pepper…just plain. I love it with buttered white bread. Mmmm! 

I’d love to know if anyone else called this dish macaroni and chop meat. I’d also love to know how others make it. One time I ate at a friends house that were serving macaroni and chop meat with melted American cheese melted on top of it. I told my father about it and he said adding American cheese is sacrilege. 🤣

Please share in the comments section I your experiences with this dish; I am dying to know.

Happy Friday guys! Time to go!  It’s dinner time! Yum! Have a great weekend! ☺️

I love lobster but I am way too much of a cheapskate to buy them these days. Have you seen the price of lobster? We bought two of them for Sam’s seafood boil for his birthday back in August and they cost a small fortune.

Our friend Martin had two live lobsters leftover from the seafood salad he made for his wife’s celebration of life luncheon on Saturday. He asked me if I wanted them he wasn’t going to cook them for himself. Hell, yes! 

I’ve killed lobsters before and hate doing it. I am a person who likes their food already dead, but when it comes to some shellfish like clams, oysters & lobsters you have to take them out yourselves. I’ve put the in the freezer before throwing them into the pot. I’ve done it putting a knife swiftly through the head, which is considered the most humane way for this task.

This time I made Marty do it. I thanked them for their lives and that their death wouldn’t be in vein. I’ve been weepy enough this week and wasn’t up to doing it. I promised them before they went into the pot that I would make something amazing with them. Ten minutes later, I had two beautiful cooked lobsters. 

I decided to make Lazy Man’s Lobster which I never made before but love. It just so happened that I had some gluten-free ritz type of crackers on hand so I wanted to give it a whirl. 

I removed all the meat from the tails, claws and knuckles from the lobsters. Next, I crushed up the crackers and mixed them with some butter, lemon zest, and parsley for the topping.

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I butter poached some minced garlic then added a splash of sherry, the juice of the lemon I zested, kosher salt & pepper. Next, I divided the  lobster meat between three oven safe dishes, I spooned the melted butter mixture over the three dishes and topped them evenly with the cracker crumb topping. 

I threw them into the refrigerator then just needed to heat them up and brown the topping at dinner time. I baked two of the dishes at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. The third one I kept in the fridge for Sam since he was working.

I served the lazy man’s lobster with a baked potato. We squeezed fresh lemon wedges on the lobster. Lemon with rich dishes like this one is necessary because it cuts through the richness and brightens the dish. Rich food can be sickening without the acid.

The lazy man’s lobster was incredible. Better than any lazy man’s lobster I’ve ever had at a seafood place. The garlic and lemon elevated the dish making it so bright and flavorful.

The next day, I told Sammy there was a lazy man’s lobster in the fridge for him. He got the biggest grin on his face that made my heart sing! His smile looked like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland or the Grinch when he decided to ruin the whos down in Whosville Christmas.

I gave him the heating instructions then went upstairs to put away laundry & shower. When I came back downstairs there was still the smell of garlic waifing in the air. All of a sudden Sam practically yelled, “That was soooooo good” with a big smile on his face

Cooking delicious food for others is what I live for! I was thrilled I did those two lobsters justice. I sent Martin a photo of the lazy man’s lobster and thanked him again. 

I love Chinese food! When I was little my parents took me out to dinner for my birthday every year; I got to pick what type of food I wanted to have. It was always a hard decision between Italian food at Spiritos in Elizabeth, NJ, or Chinese food at a place in Linden.

Spiritos was my number one favorite place to eat, but my mouth drooled anytime I thought about Chinese food. The place in Linden had my favorite ice cream, pistachio with lots of maraschino cherries that were right in the ice cream.

One of the biggest bummers about having to be gluten-free is not being able to eat most Chinese food because of gluten in the soy sauce and marinades; along with gluten contamination coming from the deep fryer as well.

When I was a kid I loved chicken lo mein, shrimp chow mein, pork fried rice, spare ribs, eggrolls and spring rolls, egg drop soup, chicken with lobster sauce soup, and anything on a pupu platter. Yum shrimp toast!

As I got older I expanded my food selections to more adventurous and flavorful choices. That’s when I discovered hot and sour soup. I started making my own version after going gluten-free several years ago.

Asian cuisine is getting easier to make at home with many of the ingredients available at your local grocery store. Those specialty items used to be found at Asian-type markets exclusively. I still get mine at the Asian Supermarket in Albany because I love going there!

To be honest, it’s taken me a long time to master a few Chinese dishes. It’s fucking hard to make Chinese food that tastes like the kind you get at a restaurant. There are so many variables why the home-cooked versions don’t compare. Cooking equipment, ingredients, cooking style, and the lack of crazy hot BTU cooking temps that cannot be reached on a home stove.

Starting out with Chinese soups is a good place to start since the cooking methods aren’t hard and no special equipment is necessary.

One thing I tell my cooking class students is just because you don’t have one or two ingredients in a recipe, you don’t have to scrap the entire thing. Obviously, you can’t leave out major ingredient components, but some you can either omit or substitute with something you have on hand.

So what exactly is Chinese hot and sour soup? The direct translation is hot vinegar soup. Many other Asian cuisines have their own type of this soup. Don’t turn your noses up to the word vinegar soup, it is simply a form of acid that is necessary to create balanced dishes.

It seems to me that most Asian cuisine dishes are always in balance. A balanced dish contains the five basic tastes-sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. When the taste of a dish is “off” or not right, it’s because the dish doesn’t contain the right taste components.

Knowing what the dish should taste like helps to figure out what it needs, more salt, umami, or acid when tasting it. Always try a dish prepared authentically so you know what you are tasting. Don’t try ethnic cuisine in a place that doesn’t specialize in any one kind of cuisine. For example, ordering ethnic foods from a ten-page diner menu isn’t the place to try it.

My style of cooking and recipes for home cooks is creating food that tastes as authentic as possible but is not too intimidating. Trying to track down dried lily flowers or dried wood ear mushrooms would make most people run away from a recipe. Substituting easier-to-find ingredients is a better choice for home cooks. Advanced cooks or chefs love to seek out these hard-to-find ingredients and would shake their heads at the notion of using baby bella mushrooms available at the local grocery store instead of dried shitake or wood ear varieties.

I keep a well-stocked pantry so I can whip up an ethnic dish any night of the week. A trip to an ethnic market or specialty store and picking up a variety of ingredients. to have on hand makes ethnic or specialty cooking easy.

Some things I always have in my pantry: Ethnic spices like curry powder, Chinese 5-spice, garam masala, sesame seeds, and turmeric to name a few. Canned items like coconut milk, Thai curry pastes, chickpeas, and green chilis. Chicken, beef, and veggie broths. Sauces like oyster, soy, and Thai chili sauce, Chinese garlic chili paste, rice vinegar, Chinese cooking wine, sherry, Marsala wine, and sriracha. Dried items like basmati and jasmine rice, corn, and potato starches…the list can go on and on.

My version of hot and sour soup doesn’t have ingredients such as dried lily flowers but easier to find ones. This version can be made gluten-free, vegetarian, or vegan using GF soy sauce and GF broth or omitting the pork and using vegetable broth. For vegan also omit the eggs. The pickled daikon radishes that I add are totally unnecessary, but I add them instead of the bamboo shoots.

Speaking of specialty ethnic items, I am in love with pickled daikon radish! I had it for the first time at an Asian hot pot and BBQ place in Albany this summer and have never looked back. The restaurant sold me a small container of the pickled daikons which I needed to replicate this deliciousness at home and keep in the fridge at all times.

For anyone who is adventurous and wants to make pickled daikons, you can find daikon radishes at your local supermarket. The rest of the ingredients are vinegar, sugar, salt, and water. Black mustard seeds aren’t necessary but kick up the flavor. There are many recipes online. The pickled daikon radishes should be kept refrigerated and need at least a month to pickle in the refrigerator. If you taste the daikon radish raw be prepared for your mouth to be on fire. Pickling the daikon mellows out the heat leaving a sweet, turnipy tasting crunchy treat.

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Here’s my version of Chinese Hot & Sour Soup. There are literally hundreds of different combinations you can use to create your own version.

Chinese Hot & Sour Soup

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

8 cups chicken, beef, or vegetable broth
4 oz lean pork cut into batons
8 oz shitake or baby bella mushrooms thinly sliced
1 8 oz can bamboo shoots, drained (optional)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari for GF version
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp white pepper or to taste
1 tsp garlic chili sauce
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
2 large eggs beaten well
1 tsp sesame oil
8 oz extra firm tofu cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3-4 sliced scallions thinly sliced
*** 4 oz cubed daikon radish

Directions

In a large pot add the broth, pork, mushrooms, bamboo shoots (if using)
rice vinegar, soy sauce or tamari, ground ginger, white pepper, and garlic chili sauce. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes.

To make a cornstarch slurry, in a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water mixing well until smooth. Begin stirring the soup in a circular motion while slowly drizzling the slurry into the soup. The slurry will give the soup body, but will not make it thick.

In a bowl, stir the sesame oil into the beaten eggs. Repeat the circular stirring motion and slow drizzle method with the egg mixture.

Add the tofu and the sliced scallions. Taste for seasoning. Some people like their soup spicer and add more white pepper, others like their soup sourer and add more vinegar. This is when I add the pickled daikon radish.

Simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Serve immediately in soup bowls garnished with more sliced scallions if desired. Enjoy!

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