Sophie's External Brain

Ingredients:

• 6 fresh lobster tails
• 1/2 cup of yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup of organic celery, chopped
• 1/2 cup of organic carrots, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 2 32 oz cartons of seafood stock
• 1 bottle of dry white wine
• 1/2 cup of cognac
• 4 tablespoons of crème fraîche
• 4 tablespoons of organic tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons of Old Bay seasoning
• 4 sprigs of fresh organic tarragon
• 1/2 of a lemon or 1 tablespoon of tarragon or white wine vinegar
• White pepper to taste
• Cayenne pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• Fresh fettuccine pasta

Directions:

1. Start by dicing the onion, celery, carrots, and garlic
2. Sauté them together with butter over medium heat in a large pan
3. While vegetables are browning, lightly poach the lobster tails in a large pot with one carton of seafood stock, half of the bottle of white wine, the Old Bay, and the tarragon (4 minutes, or until shells are red)
   • You can add more wine if needed to cover the lobster depending on the size of your pot
   • Note: you are only cooking the meat so it is soft enough to be removed from the shells, so try not to overdue it or when you add them back in with your sauce at the end they will become chewy
4. Remove lobster tails from pot and then remove the meat from the shells, and set meat aside
5. Cut up the lobster shells into 1 inch pieces and put back into your stock pot
   • I recommend using kitchen shears for this step
6. Add the tomato paste to your vegetable mix and deglaze with cognac
7. Once the cognac has reduced, and your vegetable mix into your stock with the lobster shells
   • At this point you can add salt, pepper, and acid to taste
     • I add a 1/2 a lemon, a tablespoon of tarragon vinegar, and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper
8. Reduce for at least an hour (longer if you have time)
   • Add equal parts stock, wine, and cognac as needed, and continue to season to taste
9. Pour your stock, with the vegetables and cut up lobster shells into a blender, and on the lowest setting, pulse blend until lobster shells are closer to 1 quarter inch in size
   • Note: you don’t want to shells to be ground up to finely because you are going to put the mixture through a chinoise strainer and you don’t want them to go through
10. Pour this mixture back into your pot and reduce again for at least half an hour
    • Add equal parts stock, wine, and cognac as needed, and continue to season to taste
11. After reducing, strain your mixture in a chinoise, and then return it to the pot for the final touches
    • Now is about with you should start to boil the water for your pasta
12. Add the crème fraîche and stir to combine
13. Add the lobster meat into the mixture
14. At this point you can either strain the pasta and finish it in the lobster sauce, or serve them separately so people can control their ratios, I like to keep them separate so that if there are leftovers the pasta doesn’t become soggy
15. Add salt to taste
16. Finish with parsley if so inclined (it’s a relatively homogeneous in color)

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