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This month's theme was chosen by my friend and mentor, Stacy of Food Lust People Love. Stacy challenged us to:
"Bake us something cozy this month including your favorite seafood. Shortcrust, puff pastry, deep dish with mashed potatoes on top, hand pies, free form galettes or ornate decorated crusts, quiche, even vols-au-vent with seafood filling would qualify. Use one type of seafood or mix it up."
I have been wanting to make a Lobster Pot Pie for a long time now. The idea of tender chunks of lobster in a creamy sauce with veggies and a crust sounds so appealing to me. Unfortunately, my husband does not love seafood as much as I. He will eat fish but prefers it fried. He will eat small amounts of shrimp, scallops, crab and lobster but isn't crazy about it. The way I have found to work around this difference of tastes is to serve seafood as a first course where the portions are smaller.
I decided to make these individual lobster pot pies for the first course of our family Christmas dinner where it was just us and our children. Each year we try to have one dinner over the holidays where it is just our immediate family. It is not always an easy task getting all of our kids together at one time. This year we were missing our eldest son, Chuck, who was on leave from the Navy for Thanksgiving this year but not Christmas.
I used premade, frozen puff pastry shells for the crusts of each pot pie. This small shell filled with the creamy, savory filling was just the perfect size for a starter.
I boiled up 3 lobster tails, removed them from their shells and chopped them into bite size pieces before incorporating them into the sauce that started with a base of fennel and onions. The sauce is a a roux mixed with clam juice and heavy cream. Sweet peas are folded in at the end along with the lobster pieces.
I placed the bottom of the pastry into a small dish, smothered it with the lobster filling and topped it with the pastry disc. It was a lovely presentation and a delicious start to our meal.
Individual Lobster Pot Pies
1 med sweet onion, chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped
1 stick butter
1/2 c. flour
3 (8 oz) bottles, clam juice
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. heavy cream
3 lobster tails, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces
1 (12 oz) pkg frozen peas, thawed
1 pkg frozen puff pastry shells, cooked per package directions
Melt the butter in a large skillet over med high heat. Add the onion and fennel, cook and stir until tender and translucent, about 15 minutes. Add the flour, cook on low, stirring until nutty smelling and light brown, 3-4 minutes. Slowly add the clam juice, stirring constantly until incorporated and starting to thicken. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the heavy cream until smooth and silky. Stir in the peas and lobster, cook gently until heated through.
Place the bottom of each pastry into individual shallow bowls, spoon the lobster mixture over each bottom and top with a pastry round. Print Recipe
