A Lobster Dinner
At the centre of this week’s mystery is a meal of lobster and salad, bread and cheese, and trifle. Now, bread and cheese probably do not need their own recipe in this context, but today I am offering you both a recipe for a lobster dish and for trifle. These days, lobster and trifle make for quite a fancy dinner, and most folks do not frequently eat a cheese course, so we might consider this meal a historical oddity, a call to another time, where the food on our plates becomes a sort of time machine that brings us back to the 1920s or early 1930s. So let’s go waaaaaay back and enjoy some distinctly historical dishes alongside the Jones’ - but hold the arsenic!
Lobster Newburg
This is a great dish for stretching lobster quite a long way by adding lots of other ingredients so that a relatively small amount of lobster (or indeed any other seafood or firm fish) can feed several people. This recipe, for instance, serves about four. And, of course, as with the story, you can used tinned or frozen lobster, without the shell, which also reduces the cost of the ingredient.
Ingredients:
350g (2 c) cooked lobster meat, chopped
50g (1/4 c) butter
50ml (3 tbsp) sherry or apple cider vinegar
100ml (1/2 c) double cream
1 egg yolk
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne pepper
buttered toast
Instructions:
Mix the egg yolk with the double cream in a bowl.
Melt the butter in a frying pan, then saute the lobster for about two minutes. After 2 minutes, add the cream-and-yolk mixture, then either sherry or cider vinegar to the pan. Continue cooking the mixture for another 2 or 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce reduces and thickens.
Take the pan off the heat, add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. If cayenne is a bit much, you can also use smoked paprika, although this will obviously change the flavour of the final dish.
Serve the sauced lobster immediately over buttered toast. If you are eating with others, this dish is meant to be eaten with a fork and knife; if you are alone and care nothing for manners, you can certainly eat it with your hands, tidiness be damned. Serve with a salad or steamed greens.
Trifle
Now we turn our attention to the dessert in question. Trifle, not unlike Lobster Newburg, uses the bits and bobs you might have on hand to create a delicious, cost-efficient dessert that is reasonably easy to assemble but looks quite impressive. The suggestions of fruit are just that: suggestions. If you have other fruit on hand, feel free to use it instead. Keep in mind that most trifle recipes make absolutely massive quantities, because trifles are usually served to crowds at Christmas or special occasions. This recipe is sized down to make it a bit more manageable, but you can reduce or increase the amounts to you taste. This recipe serves about 8 people.
Ingredients
1 8-inch white cake, baked and cooled
1 pt strawberries (fresh or thawed from frozen)
1 pt raspberries (fresh or thawed from frozen)
1/8 c sugar
1/8 c liquor of your choice (sherry is traditional, but just about any spirit would do) or juice (again, you can adjust the flavour profile to your liking)
3.5 oz custard (from powder for an authentically British taste; instant pudding would do in a pinch)
1 c milk
1/2 c whipping cream
1/8 c topping - toasted almond slices, glaceed cherries, sprinkles, chocolate shavings, fresh fruit
Instructions
Cube the white cake and set aside.
In a bowl, add the sugar to the strawberries and let them macerate.
In a separate bowl, add the liquor or juice to the raspberries and let them sit.
Make custard or pudding according to instructions, using the milk.
In a bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks.
Get your impressive trifle bowl ready. Layer the cake cubes, macerated fruit, and custard into the bowl until you have used up all the ingredients. Top the trifle with the whipping cream and add your toppings. Refrigerate the trifle for at least thirty minutes or until ready to serve.
Enjoy your trifle in charming little dishes with spoons—the cake will have softened and absorbed much of the liquid from the custard, liquor or juice, and fruit, so no forks required! This recipe is enormously flexible - you can use just about any kind of cake, any sort of fruit, whatever flavour of custard or pudding you prefer, and whatever toppings fill you with joy. A chocolate version (chocolate cake, cherries and oranges, orange juice, chocolate pudding, and chocolate shavings) would be decadent for Christmas. Vanilla and lemon flavours with fresh fruit would make a lighter trifle for summer. The whole point of this dish is to use up what you have, so get creative!
Happy eating!Jennifer