This week highlights France’s Bastille Day celebration. The citizens, ex-patriots and Francophiles share in the singing of “La Marseillaise” and revel in French cuisine and French wine around the world, on July 14. It is a joyous occasion. Summer occasions require food and beverage to bond those gathered. When the summer heat builds, I serve super-chilled fare. Ice-cold selections usually can be made hours in advance which helps save time for plating. Also, refrigerated courses can showcase elaborate creativity because the food is prepared earlier. This concept includes the use of molds that shape pâtés, terrines, timbales and ramekin designs. Aspics are delightful finishes for culinary art. I collect tempered glass vintage English pudding molds. Their quality curvatures ensure classic styling. Molds shape food into interesting concepts. A salmon mousse can be molded into the shape of a fish and topped with thinly sliced cucumbers to appear as the scales of fish. It’s all about quality. It’s all about the integrity and originally of your kitchen’s production. Our neighbors are coming for dinner and I have decided to feature an all-chilled menu including cantaloupe soup, Japanese stuffed shrimp, sorbet, salmon terrine, lobster salad, potato salad, green bean salad, asparagus wrapped with prosciutto, stuffed endive leaves and lemon supreme tarts. I have shared many of these recipes in the previous weeks’ blog except for my exceptional lobster salad, which I share with you now. So, it’s time to add a little downstream chill-down to your summer’s upstream sizzle for a perfectly balanced evening! © Kelly McBride Loft
Kelly’s Lobster Salad
Boil fresh lobsters (1 per person). Finely chop the lobster meat; then, squeeze fresh orange juice onto the lobster, to just flavor, and chill immediately. Blanch seedless grapes and completely peel the skin off each. Cut each in half – (6 whole grapes per person). Add finely diced celery (1/4 cup per person). Mix all of the above ingredients with a minimum amount of Orange Flavored Poppy Seed Dressing. In a separate bowl ,mix 1 cup of finely food-processed pecans and 1 cup of finely chopped black olives. In your favorite fish-shaped mold, spray the mold with non-stick cooking spray. Dust the mold with the pecan and black olive mixture. Pack-in the lobster salad mixture. Invert the fish-shaped mold onto a tray. Pack-in extra pecan and black olive mixture to completely encase the lobster salad. Decorate with vigor and serve this fine dish, chilled, to intrigued guests! Violià! © Kelly McBride Loft