The Final Mission Possible: December

I can't believe we've hit the one-year mark for the Mission Impossible cooking project! Time really does fly! It's been a lot of fun exploring ethnic cuisine, and I feel like I really conquered a lot of my cooking fears and insecurities regarding meat and seafood. Before I get to December's menu, let's do a quick recap of the last eleven months.

January 2010: Octopus and Pork Okonomiyaki


February 2010: Scallops and Linguine


March 2010: Pad Thai


April 2010: BBQ Chicken Pizza


May 2010: Shrimp Tacos with Fresh Mango Pico de Gallo


June 2010: BBQ Pulled Pork and Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread


July 2010: Citrus Ginger Teriyaki Steak and Sesame Noodles


August 2010: Moroccan B'stilla Royale, Spiced Lamb Kabobs, and Rice Pilaf


September 2010: Chicken Fried Steak, Buttermilk Biscuits, Twice-baked Potatoes, and Apple Pie Casserole


October 2010: Creamy Chicken Curry, butter Potatoes and Spinach), Chapatis, and Basmati Rice


November 2010: Chicken with Olives and Linguine


And now for December... I knew early on in this project that it's inevitable conclusion would have something to do with cooking live lobster. The lobster scene from "Julie and Julia", where Amy Adam's character has a meltdown over trying to keep the flailing crustaceans in the pot, has always stuck with me. And I knew that hand-picking live seafood, boiling it alive, shelling it, and cooking something fabulous would be the ultimate challenge. So that's exactly what I did.


I feel her pain...

KC and I went to the Asian grocery store, Uwajimaya, to get our two lobsters, as their live seafood selection is impressive. As I often do, I had decided on a combination of two recipes: Lobster Thermidor and Lobster Newberg. When it was time to start dinner, I dragged our little soldiers out of the bucket so they could (humanely) meet their doom in a stock pot of boiling water.










Phew! Unlike the aforementioned movie, my lobsters actually didn't put up much in a fight.


Bright red and ready to go!







The meat is really just in the claws and the tail, and as it happens, the rest of the lobster is slimy, explosive guts. I would have been happy to just throw out the mid-section without carving into it, but the recipe called for the shells to be split, stuffed, and baked.




Not very pretty on the inside...


About an hour and a lot of hard work later.


Champagne and raspberries as I worked ;)

After the lobsters were cooked, carved, shelled, and cleaned up after, it was time to prepare the stuffing and sauce, which consisted of the lobster meat, mushrooms, butter, cooking sherry, ground mustard, salt, pepper, shredded parmesan cheese, and cream. In other words, YUM.


Browning the mushrooms...


All of the above ingredients combined and simmered to perfection.


The lobster shells are then stuffed and baked.


I paired our rich, succulent main dish with parmesan and olive oil crusted asparagus.


The finished product!




For our final Mission Possible dinner, it was just KC and I



In closing, I have to say that ending our project with this particular dish really was incredibly satisfying. It was challenging and a lot of preparation, but the effort paid off both in a sense of accomplishment and taste. While it won't be part of our regular rotation meal-wise, it was so delicious and very special.

I just want to thank everyone who was a part of this experiment-- you were wonderfully obliging guinea pigs! And I want to give KC so much credit for being supportive, enthusiastic, and for coming up with this challenge in the first place. It's funny, everyone keeps asking what I'll do next now that it's all over. You know, I think I'll get married ;) And after that? Hmmm, maybe desserts are next!