I’ve found my spirit animal mashed potatoes. If you just happen to have a small excess of lobster tails lying around, why not make these really decedent mashed potatoes with lobster sauce to go on top?

Just to be clear this is mashed potatoes with a lobster sauce to be technically correct – no lobster in the potatoes themselves. And why would you do that anyway? So here’s how we do it:

Boil some potatoes (red skin with skin on please) and melt some butter in a separate pan.

Oh, and steam your lobster tails in the standard fashion: water, lemon juice, salt, peppercorns, bay leaf etc. Pull those bad boys out of their shells, so now you have lobster meat.

Add the lobster to the melted butter, then add flour, heavy cream, seasoning (see recipe below).

Potatoes? Simple, just drain, pop them back on the stove (low heat) and add your butter, milk, boursin cheese if desired and beat with hand mixer.

Serve them up in a bowl with topped with lobstah sauce.

Lobster Smashed Potatoes (4 servings)

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 medium “Klondike Rose” or similar redskin potatoes
• 2.5 oz Boursin Cheese
• 1/2-3/4 cup Whole Milk
• 6 TB Butter (5 for sauce, 1 for the potatoes)
• 4 oz Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 TB Fine Flour
• 1/2 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 TB Old Bay Seasoning
• 3 small to medium lobster tails, removed from shell – either pre-cooked or lightly steamed

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut lobsters into small chunks and set aside.
2. Wash and Cube redskins with skin on and boil until fork tender. (If you have the shells, you can place one in the boiling water for a while to add extra flavor to the potatoes).
3. Melt butter in small sauce pan and add lobster meat to warm it up.
4. Add tablespoon of flour and continue to heat to reduce raw flour taste.
5. Add heavy cream, Old Bay and Chili powder to sauce pan and stir on low.
6. Drain potatoes and place back on stove on lowest heat.
7. Mix cheese, milk and 1 added tablespoon of butter to potatoes and mash to desired texture. (Skins will still be visible).
8. Place serving on plate and pour sauce over top.
9. Sprinkle lightly with fresh chives.

Step one to this is kindof optional, but if you make your own broth, this will taste better. I’m no expert at making greens, but I watched a few videos (some good, some bad) and I read the comments. People be adding all kinds of stuff: bacon, butter, ham hocks, smoked turkey leg, onion, garlic, etc. But don’t add water, my friend; use chicken broth (homemade is best). My broth was made from a leftover rotisserie chicken. The key here is to impart so much flavor to the greens that you don’t even know you’re eating this stupid-healthy leafy vegetable because it tastes so damn good.

You need some kind of smokey/salty meat to add flavor. I wanted to do this with a smoked turkey leg, like in this video, but I couldn’t find one at a store and it’s too cold and snowy right now for me to get my smoker out. I couldn’t find ham hocks either – nor do I know how to prepare them, so I went with my one true love, the thing I know best, bacon.

INGREDIENTS:

• 12 strips of bacon – cut into about 2″ pieces
• 3 TB bacon fat (from cooking the bacon)
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic – chopped
• 16 oz collard greens – chopped, large stems removed
• 3 – 4 cups chicken broth – homemade
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cook bacon over medium-low heat, slowly in a large sauce pan. Let the bacon cook until it’s just starting to get crispy and most of the fat begins to render out. Remove bacon and drain on a plate lined with paper towels. Pour bacon fat into heat proof container. Wipe out some of the loose bits of bacon from the pan – you don’t have to totally clean it. When this bacon is added back to the broth, it will have a nice chewy texture.
2. Spoon 3 – 4 TB of the bacon fat from the top of the container you poured it into back into the large sauce pan. This fat should be clean with no residue in it. Re-apply heat and add onions and garlic. Saute until getting translucent.
3. Add broth, red pepper flakes, and collard greens. Get it simmering. Add bacon. Cook, simmering, adding more broth as needed, until greens are done to desired level of tenderness and broth reduces. About 1.5 hours.

Mac and cheese is one of the first dishes I learned to make as a kid. Out of a box of course. Eventually I developed a preference for Kraft spirals.  However, in my college years I became a fan of Stouffer’s. You can microwave or bake it. The cheese gets a little burnt; add a little pepper. Good times.

This Stouffer’s mac copycat recipe is  simple. Few ingredients: mild cheddar, flour, butter, milk, and pasta. Better yet, it tastes exactly right. The gourmet chefs use the same method. It’s all in the cheese sauce.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Cup Skim Milk
• 5 tsp All-purpose Flour
• 2 cups (6 ounces) shredded medium cheddar cheese
• 2 tsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni (about 2 cups cooked)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Whisk the flour into the milk in a small saucepan, then place it over medium-low heat.
2. Add the shredded cheddar cheese, butter, and salt and stir with a spoon until the cheese begins to melt. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Use a whisk to stir the sauce every couple of minutes so that it becomes smooth and thick.
3. While the sauce thickens, prepare the macaroni by dumping the uncooked macaroni into rapidly boiling water. Boil according to package directions, and then drain.
4. When the cheese sauce has simmered for 30 minutes, pour the pasta into a medium bowl. Gently stir in the cheese sauce, and then pour the mixture into a loaf pan or casserole dish. Serve it right now or cover and freeze.
5. For extra flavor attack, preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and bake until the cheese begins to brown slightly.

References:

http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/Stouffers-Macaroni-Cheese-Copycat-Recipe.html