Lobster Valentine ♯

This dish is especially crafted to be the evening meal on Valentine’s Day. It is almost guaranteed to render romance when properly prefaced by intimate, loving conversation and a glass or two of champagne and then accompanied by a glass of fine chardonnay. It beats anything you can find in a restaurant.*

  • 2 lobster tails
  • 2 serving portions lower G. I. fettuccine
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • ¼ cup red onion, diced
  • ¼ cup carrot, diced
  • ¼ cup red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 tbsp smashed garlic
  • 1 cup mushrooms, diced
  • ½ cup nonfat milk
  • ½ cup dry white wine
  • ¼ cup sherry wine
  • 1 tsp lobster base
  • ¼ tsp <salt>
  • ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 dashes habanero sauce†
  • ½ cup nonfat cream cheese
  • 3 oz Swiss cheese, grated
  • ½ cup grated Asiago cheese
  • 2 tbsp corn starch
  • 1 ½ oz brandy
  • a few dashes cilantro sauce†

Make 2 serving portions of lower G. I. fettuccine according to appetite and package directions, remove from water into a dry pan with the olive oil, stir to coat the pasta, and bring up the heat until it begins to sizzle. Turn off the heat and reserve.

Put the oil, onion, carrot, and bell pepper into a saucepan over medium heat and cook until the onion begins to brown. Add the garlic and mushrooms and continue cooking another few minutes until the mushrooms are well integrated. Add milk, wines, lobster base, <salt> pepper, and habanero sauce and bring to a boil.

Clip out the lobster underside abdominal shell, add both the lobster and its underside shell to the boiling vegetable pot, and cook for the short time it takes for the lobster just to turn red and become firm. Turn off the heat, remove the lobster to a bowl to cool, and discard the abdominal shell. When cool, remove the lobster meat from its shell, reserve the shell, and slice the meat into ½” pieces.

Add the cream cheese to the vegetable mixture and stir until incorporated. Fold in the Swiss cheese, then the Asiago, and finally the corn starch stirred up in the brandy. Reheat, stirring constantly, until thickened and the taste of the cornstarch has subsided.

Fold in the fettuccine and then the lobster slices. Place a lobster shell on each of two plates, spoon the mixture over each shell, sprinkle with cilantro sauce, and serve immediately.

Serves two.