Gavin and his Tomalley
We bought a 4-lb. lobster and we named him Gavin. He cost $31.96 + tax. He was too big to fit in any of our pots, but we filled the largest one with water anyway and when it was boiling, we pushed Gavin in and held the pot lid closed. He struggled. That was the worst part about making lobster chowder.
The best part was how good Gavin and his tomalley tasted. Lately, I’ve taken to visiting the big library downtown near city hall. It is gloriously enormous and has aisle upon aisle of cookbooks in the cooking section. I barely made it halfway through one half of one aisle before I had as many books as I could carry. In Food & Wine Best of the Best Volume 4 was a recipe – one of the best of 2001 – for Lobster Chowder, originally from Jasper White’s 50 Chowders. Not really a repast befitting summer but it sounded too good to miss. When we bought Gavin, he went into a paper bag and then into a plastic bag and I was hoping that we would take the bus so that I could set the bag on the floor at my feet and watch other people’s reactions as the bag kicked and squirmed. Because who transports a lobster on the bus? As it turns out, we walked home with him and thus developed an appropriate appetite for chowder.
Superb, this one. Includes two cups of heavy cream added at the end and was better for the fresh buttered baguette dipped in to sop up the juices.