Food & Beverage Intl. - The Great Chefs SeriesWith Chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry

ROBERT MONDAVI WINERY PRESENTS

Chef Thomas Keller
The French Laundry,
Yountville CA

The Great Chefs Series
With Chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry

By Ellen Walsh

Robert and Margrit Mondavi created another piece to their legacy
this past fall, as they presented their Great Chefs Series to the public once again. This time it was their Napa Valley neighbor and friend
Thomas Keller, one of the country's most accomplished chefs.
Keller shares his techniques, trademarked with
his incredible attention to the smallest detail, with over
twenty people gathered together to learn how to prepare
life's most treasured bounty-

Lobster and Foie Gras.

Chef Thomas Keller Shares Techniques for Cooking and Cleaning Lobster

It has been said that you don't own anything until you give it away. This is especially true of Thomas Keller. Articulate, exact, and precise, Thomas generously shares with you his techniques for working with lobster. It is this attention to detail that has insured Thomas Keller's loyal following at the acclaimed French Laundry, located in Yountville, California, a treasure of a destination adjacent to the well known Napa Valley.

Click on Images for Captions

Techniques for Cooking and Cleaning Lobster
(Detailed cooking instructions excerpted from The French Laundry Cookbook)

Before we cook lobster we take it out of its shell. Most people cook lobster in its shell, and once it's cooked there's nothing you can do to it anymore. By cooking raw lobster out of its shell you can influence its taste and texture. What I've been doing since Raquel is cooking the exterior layer of the flesh, just enough so that it will pull cleanly away from the shell, leaving the interior raw. This allows us to treat the lobster as we would raw fish. At Raquel I used to roast the lobster.

When I got to the French Laundry, we came up with the technique of butter poaching, which loads the flavor of butter into the lobster and cooks it so slowly and gently that the flesh remains exquisitely tender. so tender some people think it's not completely cooked.

When you cook lobster violently, the meat seizes up and becomes tough, and you can't get anything into it. Gentle heating is the key to tender, flavorful lobster.

Sometimes we roast this lobster, and it thus moves into the realm of meat so we treat it like a meat. We season it with the squab spice, roast it and serve it with a foie gras garnish. like the squab.

After the initial pairing lobster with butter in the cooking method—what's the point of lobster without butter?—lobster is then very versatile. Once you make the initial lobster-butter connection, which takes you back to your very first experience with, lobster you can put it with so many different garnishes: beets and leeks, peas and carrots, figs, foie gras.

Preparing Lobsters for Cooking:

Ingredients:
6 -(1 1/2 to 2 lb.) Lobsters
White Distilled Vinegar (I/2 cup of vinegar to every 8 quarts of water)

All lobster dishes at the French Laundry begin with this initial preparation, after which they may be poached in butter, roasted or chopped for a filling. It's crucial to work with the lobsters while they are hot, or the fat in the meat will congeal and make it difficult to remove the lobster from its shell.

Steeping the Lobsters:
Place the lobsters into a tight fitting container. Cover with cold water to determine how much you will need. Drain off the water, measure it and place the water in a large pot. Bring the water to a boil and add I/2 cup of white distilled vinegar to every 8 quarts of water you are using.

After the vinegar is added, pour the boiling liquid over the lobsters and let them steep for 2 to 3 minutes (3 minutes for 2 pound lobsters). Reserving the water, use a pair of tongs to remove the lobsters, from the water. Place them on a sheet pan with sides or a board placed over the sink: it is messy to disassemble the lobsters.
Using a towel or rubber gloves to help hold the hot lobster, grasp the lobster's tail, twist and pull the tail, to detach it from the body. Twist and pull the arms to detach them and return the arms to the hot water for an additional 5 minutes. Reserve the bodies.

For the Tail:
Hold the tail flat and twist the tail fan to one side: pull off and discard. Use your fingers to gently push the meat through the tail end, and pull the meat out through the large opening. Discard the tail shell. Lay the tail meat on its back and cut lengthwise through the middle. Remove the vein running through the top of the meat. Lay the finished pieces on a sheet pan lined with paper towels.

For the Claws:
After 5 minutes, remove the arms from the hot water. Twist off the knuckle to remove it from the claw. Hold a the claw in your hand and pull down to loosen the lower pincer. Crack it to each side and pull it straight off. The cartilage from inside the claw should be attached to the pincer and the claw meat should remain intact. You may not always succeed in keeping the claw meat in one piece, but with practice your success rate will increase.

Still holding the claw, crack the top of the shell with the back of a heavy knife blade, about 3/4 inch from the joint where the knuckle was attached. You want to go through the shell but not damage the meat. Turn the claw over and repeat the procedure a second time. Wiggle your knife to loosen and crack the shell. Pull off the lower section of the shell.

Shake the claw to remove the meat (if it doesn't fall out, cut off the very tip of the claw shell and blow through the hole to release the meat). Add the claws to the tail meat.

For the Knuckles:
Cut off the top joint of the knuckle that was attached to the lobster's body. Use a pair of scissors to cut away the shell along the smooth outside edge of the knuckle. Use your fingers to pry open the shell and remove the meat. Add the knuckle meat to the tails and claws. The recipes may not always use the knuckle meat. If it is not called for, enjoy it separately! Cover the lobster pieces with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to a day.

For the Bodies:
Pull back and discard the top shell of the lobster including the heads and antenna, remove the tomalley (gray), the roe (deep green), the feathery lungs, and the sack behind the head. You may want to reserve the tomalley and roe for other uses (they can be wrapped and frozen separateIy), but discard the lungs and sack.

You will be left with the bodies and legs. Rinse them thoroughly under cold water and use them immediately or freeze them to make a lobster stock or a consomme.

Links to more Thomas Keller Recipes:
Braised Stuffed Pig’s Head with Sauce Gribiche

Bittersweet Valrhona Chocolate Fondant with Sable Cookie

Broccolini Salad with Burrata Cheese - (new)

Buttermilk Biscuits - (new)

Buttermilk Fried Chicken - (new)

Creamy Maine Lobster Broth, Russet Potato and Lobster Coral Gnocchi

Foie Gras Infused Custard with White Wine Poached Anjou Pears

Iceberg Lettuce Slices with Blue Cheese Dressing, Oven-Roasted Tomatoes, Bacon, and Brioche Croutons - (new)

Leek Bread Pudding - (new)

Milk Poached Wild Turbot with "Foie Gras" and Sweet Onion "Cracklings" and Foie Gras Emulsion

Nantes Carrot Stew - (new)

Pig’s Feet with French Green Lentils