You know you made a good dinner the night before when you start talking about it in the morning.
Friday felt like Saturday so I don't know what yesterday was but it turned out quite nice for a whatsit kind of day. I had a fair amount of work to do so curled up and laptopped it until mid-afternoon. Then I took the lobster shells out of the refrigerator. I set Ernie to coaxing the last bit of lobster out of the knuckles, etc and broke up the shells and tossed them in a stockpot with some olive oil. After the house started smelling lobstery I cut up the last beautiful tomatoes that Ginna had given us, along with a cup or two of white wine, and added that before topping it all off with a pitcher of water and a few dashes of salt. We set the bits of leftover lobster back in the frig and let the stock start simmering.
I had thought it was cold outside but it turned out that in the sun it was absolutely luscious. We sat like two little cats and soaked it up. I read, he crossworded, we both sipped a bit of wine. It was heavenly. When the sun got too low we quickly got cold so headed in. And then, well, I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it is to have a husband that will watch Hallmark Christmas movies in October with you. We take a drink every time they say cocoa.
Eventually, it was time to strain the broth…and oh, that BROTH. It was positively magical. We put some arborio rice in a pan and toasted that bit before we began slowly stirring in the lobster broth, ladle by ladleful. We'd take turns stirring while the other person found a video on YouTube to watch. We ended with these two.
When the risotto seemed to be the right texture, creamy with the teensiest bit of bite to it, we stirred in some parmesan…not tons because I didn't want it to overwhelm, and then some green peas. We spooned it onto our Flow Blue plates and topped it with the leftover lobster and some tiny halved sweet little cherry tomatoes.
No, we didn't light the candles and sit at the dining room table, instead we curled up in front of the TV with the end of our Hallmark movie and we positively swooned with pleasure. It. Was. Perfect. Ernie thinks it may have beaten the actual lobster dinner. I can't go that far but it was one of the best meals we have cooked in eons.
Onward.
Looks scrumptious!