My Cooking Posts

Lobster Thermidor!🦞

For a celebratory dinner, I made Gordon Ramsay's recipe for lobster Thermidor.

This recipe (linked below) calls for whole lobster, but using lobster tails of equivalent weight works just fine. The lobster tails I got were frozen and uncooked, so I thawed them beforehand and put them into a large stock pot with boiling water for 5-6 minutes to cook them thoroughly before cutting them into halves.

I tripled the recipe, so the reduction of the cream sauce took longer than would be expected for the recipe as given. Also, though the recipe called for fish stock, I substituted seafood stock instead, and it worked just fine.

https://ourtableforseven.com/gordon-ramsay-lobster-thermidor-recipe/

Pickled herring salad!

Unlike "shuba" ("herring under a fur coat"), which has potatoes and beets, this one is much more keto-friendly, with only a tablespoon of sugar in the entire dish. You could probably swap out the sugar for an erythritol and monk fruit powder without noticeably changing the taste. Doing that would leave onions and apples as the only remaining sources of carbohydrates in the salad.

https://dinneratsheilas.com/post/188508430392/pickled-herring-salad

Okra and tomatoes!

I made this according to the recipe in the "I Heart Soul Food" cookbook. I highly recommend this cookbook if you like Southern food. I could not find a copy of the recipe online, so the link below is a very similar recipe.

The main differences:

1. Instead of 2 cloves of garlic, use 3.
2. If you're using bags of frozen okra, instead of one can of tomatoes for 2 cups of okra, use 3 cans of tomatoes for 2 bags of okra - it will generally be more than a pound.
3. Add at least 1.5 teaspoons of kosher salt, a tablespoon of salted butter, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and 2 sprigs of fresh thyme before simmering.
4. After simmering for 20 minutes, add a tablespoon of cornstarch to a half-cup of vegeatable broth, whisk until dissolved, and add to the pot. Simmer another 5 minutes.

I cheated and used frozen sliced okra rather than fresh. If you do this, add a few minutes to the cook time. I had no fresh thyme, so I used about a half-teaspoon of dried thyme.

For my taste, I thought more salt was needed. Instead of regular salt, I sprinkled on some Captain Coby's Cajun Seasoning. I found that to be ideal for this dish - it added salt, but also more spice, including a little heat from cayenne pepper.

It's recommended that this be served over rice or mashed potatoes, but if you're avoiding carbs, it's great all by itself!

Similar recipe: https://addapinch.com/okra-and-tomatoes-recipe/

H/T:
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Шуба!

"Shuba" (meaning "fur coat") is the nickname for the dish: its actual name in Russian is usually written as "сельдь под шубой". In Ukrainian, it is "oселедець під шубою". Both mean "herring under a fur coat". In English, it is often listed on the menu as "dressed herring".

This is a multilayered salad that consists of potatoes, onions, pickled herring, carrots, eggs, beets, and lots of mayonnaise. It is often served as an hors d'oeuvre or snack, or as a part of a New Years' Day meal.

I followed the recipe linked below. The recipe leaves out eggs, though does mention that eggs can be used - I used three hard-boiled eggs and put them above the carrot layer. This didn't turn out as pretty as I've seen it before, but it turned out fine for a first attempt.

Herring in oil is the ideal pickled herring to use. Since they didn't have that at Kroger, I bought herring in sour cream and washed the sour cream off in a colander. Often, herring is sold in a wine sauce. This type might have a different flavor, as the wine would likely impart its own flavor to the herring, whereas sour cream is more neutral. Instead of herring, some people use smoked salmon for a different flavor.

For mayonnaise, I used Hellman's. Many salads like this are easier to make if you make Russian-style mayonnaise yourself, or buy it at a market, as it's thinner and easier to spread than American mayonnaise. As for flavor, Hellman's or Duke's should work fine.

https://momsdish.com/recipe/132/shuba-fur-coat-salad