How to Cook Lobster Tails and Tournados

If you are using small sized lobster tails you probably want to add steak to your menu. Ingredients: Frozen uncooked lobster tails, thawed – 4oz to 5oz Butter Cayenne Pepper Procedure Using kitchen shears, cut through the shell, down the centre right to the end of the shell only. If not completely thawed, hold under room temperature tap water to speed the process up. Spread the shell apart slightly and cut meat down the centre being careful not to cut all the way through. Insert a finger under the meat (between the cartilage) and gently bring meat to top of the shell. Push the shell together so meat stays on top of the lobster shell. Spread the softened butter generously in a think layer over meat. Sprinkle lightly with the cayenne pepper and arrange on a shallow baking pan. If you’re not quite ready to serve you can refrigerate them until ready. Bake in a very hot oven at 550 degrees Fahrenheit (about 260 Celsius) for about 7 minutes. Serve with melted butter in little bowls or dishes for dipping. For poached lobster tails place the thawed lobster tails in boiling salted water, cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove cartilage and serve as is, or loosen and cut up meat and replace in shell before serving. This meal goes lovely with baked potatoes, carrots and a Cesar salad. If your guests are big eaters then adding steak to the dinner might be a good idea. If you feel like keeping the dinner fancy and extra special then Tournados might be a lovely addition. Tournados Fillet steaks, 1 ¼ - 1 ½ inches thick. Bacon Slices Margarine Pepper Mushroom Caps Bread Slices Around each steak circle a slice of bacon and secure with wooden toothpick. Fry in margarine or butter, browning both sides for about 3 minutes for rare and about 5 minutes each side for medium. It is important to turn the steaks without piercing the meat. Sprinkle with pepper and remove and keep hot. Sauté mushroom caps in frying pan. Cut bread in circles slightly larger than steaks and then fry to brown both sides. Place fillets on fried bread rounds and top each fillet with a mushroom cap.Once again this recipe is a lovely addition to the lobster tails or by itself. Serve with potatoes, carrots, salad or any other special side dish you have cooked up!

Another simple Christmas Turkey roast dinner recipe

Ingredients 1 turkey (10 to 12 lbs ready-to-cook weight) 2 tsp. salt Melted fat Directions If the turkey is frozen, thaw according to package instructions Set out a shallow roast pan with rack Clean turkey (cut off neck at the body leaving only the skin) by rinsing and draining the body and patting it dry with paper towels. Prepare your stuffing Rub turkey cavity with salt Lightly fill the body and neck cavities with stuffing Close turkey body by sewing, lacing, or skewering. Fasten the neck skin of the turkey to the turkey's back with a skewer. Tie the drumsticks to the tail. Bring the wing tips onto the back of the turkey. Brush the skin thoroughly with melted fat. Place turkey on the rack inside the roasting pan with the breast-side down Place a roast meat thermometer in the centre of the inside thigh muscle. When done the meat thermometer should register 100 Celcius. Place a fat-moistened cheesecloth over top and sides of turkey. Keep the cloth moist during roasting by occasionally brushing with fat from the bottom of the pan. Roast uncovered at 170 Celsius for 4 to 4 1/2 hours or until the turkey is done (the thickest part of the drumstick feels soft when pressed with your fingers - protect fingers with a cloth or napkin when testing). Remove the turkey from the oven. Remove the meat thermometer and keep the turkey hot until served. Allow 20 minutes of standing time before serving (this makes it easier to carve the turkey and allows time for any last minute preparations Remove and cords or skewers and serve on a heated platter

Seafood's Crab Spaghetti Casserole

What you need: 1 package of spaghetti (250 grams) 300ml condensed cream of mushroom soup 250ml milk 3 tbsp. butter (50 grams) 250 grams grated cheese 350grams flaked crab meat pepper Directions: Cook spaghetti in salted boiling water until tender. Drain when finished. Heat soup and stir until smooth. Add butter and milk to the soup. When the soup is hot remove from heat and stir in grated cheese (save some to sprinkle on top). Combine cheese sauce with spaghetti, crab meat, and pepper. Place in greased shallow casserole and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake in hot oven (200 Celciuc, 400F) for about 30 minutes. This is a very simple recipe for when you want something different in a hurry. I consider this one the the old "student" recipes, which involve putting together different ingredients to make a meal (i.e. tinned soup with tinned fish and speghetti).

Simple Tomato Soup

This is a simple tomato soup, which makes a great starter or a meal in itself. What you need: A large knob of butter 1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced 1 carrot, chopped 2 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped 1 can peeled Italian plum tomatoes, or ripe in season tomatoes 500ml chicken stock 1 small potato, peeled and thinly sliced 2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil leaves or2 tsp. dried basil1/4 tsp. nutmeg Salt to taste 250ml milk or cream The procedure: Melt butter in a soup pot over low heat. Add the onion, carrot and garlic. Cook, covered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender and wilted. Crush tomatoes in their liquid and add to the pot along with the chicken broth, potato, basil, nutmeg and salt. Cook, covered, over low heat for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool to room temperature. Puree in a blender, in small batches, adding a bit of milk/cream to each batch. Return to soup pot and adjust seasonings. Before serving, warm through over very low heat. Do not boil. Serves 6. Such a simple and delicious soup. Use the best, freshest ingredients you can find and this should warm you up on a cold winters day.

Is This The Year To Simplify Christmas Dinner?

by: Joanie Williams Are you hosting Christmas dinner this year? What do you think about making this the year you simplify it? We know perfectly well that every year there's too much food on the table. We eat too much, we work too hard, and most years we get ourselves too tired to really enjoy everything. What about making as much as possible ahead? What about (gasp!) even cooking the turkey and making the gravy the day before? There are lots of recipes on the internet for making the turkey ahead. You just have to put in "make-ahead turkey" and you can pick and choose the one that suits you. A few years ago one of my sisters and I tried cooking our turkey the day before. It worked beautifully. The turkey tasted no different, although I admit we "cheated" a little because we also cooked another turkey on Christmas Day. So the guests could smell turkey cooking when they walked in. Just the same, I am going to cook my turkey ahead this year, and I won't be cooking another one on Christmas Day. I'm also going to make the mashed potatoes and gravy ahead. You can also find lots of recipes for make-ahead mashed potatoes and make-ahead gravy on the internet. Imagine - all those roasting pans and mashed potato pots washed and put away before Christmas morning. Wouldn't that be super? The other thing I am going to do this Christmas is limit the number of dishes. When we already have turkey and gravy and stuffing, why do we need a bunch of other side dishes? Isn't one or two vegetables enough? If you really think you need two vegetables why not serve frozen mixed vegetables? That way you get two for one, and you only have to use one serving dish. Does that salad get eaten? Be ruthless answering this question. If you have wondered in years past why you (or your host of the year) bother making it, then just don't make it this year. Of course if people love to have salad, then by all means go ahead and make it. Just prepare it the day before, so all you have to do at the last minute is add the dressing. If all this sounds a bit heartless, then close your eyes for a minute and visualize what Christmas Day is really like. Do you have nuts and tangerines and maybe chocolates out in little dishes around your living room? Have people been eating a hearty breakfast at your house or somewhere else? Did it maybe include eggnog, shortbreads, candy canes and other rich treats? Have your guests spoiled their appetite a little even before they arrive? Have you or your guests already been to a big meal on Christmas Eve? Do they have to go to other relatives tomorrow to have yet another feast? Then ask yourself - will people suffer if Christmas Dinner is simple? Or will they be grateful that they have the turkey and trimmings, but don't have to stuff themselves with hearty starter appetizers, turnips, squash, or whatever else you normally put on the table to make it groan? What would you prefer? If you would prefer to simplify Christmas dinner, then why not start right now, this Christmas? Just remember, make everything you possibly can ahead, get those pots washed and put away. Pare down the number of side dishes, and don't serve a rich appetizer. Then enjoy your own simplified Christmas dinner! About The Author Joanie Williams has been giving small dinner parties for years. She would love to hear your burning questions about planning a dinner party. Submit your burning question now.

Fejoida - English style

This weekend I finally made my wife a proper fejoida, after promising to do so for several years. I had previously made pork and bean stew, which although very nice, my wife informed me was not fejoida. For those that do not know, fejoida is a dish from Bahia, Brazil, made from black beans and pork. The dish was invented by slaves who were given the left over pork by their master to cook with. Really the meal is simply beans, onion, garlic, bay leaves and any bits of a pig you can get - ears, feet, lips, and no doubt less savoury parts than that. Today in Bahia people also use salted beef and Brazilian smoked sausage. My wife managed to order these on the internet, so I cooked with these. But in future I will use steak and salami instead. Anyway, on with the ingredients: Pork - I used a mixture of chops, ribs and thick smoked bacon Spicy smoked sausage Beef (use good quality - the imported salt beef cost us more than a piece of fillet from the supermarket, so we will not be doing this again). Large onion Several cloves of garlic bay leaves black beans - if you cannot get Brazilian black beans, use nay others that you like - black-eye beans work well, as would a selection of beans, or kidney beans etc. herbs - oregano, basil, tarragon salt and pepper cumin - and anything else you fancy (I usually like to spice it up a bit) stock Preparation is easy. Hack up any big bits of meat, chop the onion, slice to sausage. Get a big pot, add some olive oil, fry the onion gently, chuck in the meat and garlic and all other spices and herbs, continue to fry gently until meat is sealed. Then add the stock (use chicken or beef) and add the beans (either soaked and washed or tinned). Top up with water, stir it a bit, bring to the boil, then reduce and simmer for a couple of hours. Serve with rice. Easy. One pot wonder. Plus another for the rice.... It really pays to use better quality meats. My wife has agreed to let me make more "pork and bean stews" as I do not really like the Brazilian sausage and salted beef much. But each to their own. Try it, change it, modify it, and enjoy.