Iced Under
Page 20
1 #10 can (6 pounds, 9 ounces) crushed
tomatoes
4 Tablespoons olive oil
4 bulbs garlic, peeled and rough chopped
1 white onion, peeled and rough
chopped
1 carrot, peeled and rough chopped
½ Tablespoon dried oregano
½ Tablespoon dried basil
½ Tablespoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 pound lobster bodies
1 cup water
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SEAFOOD MARINARA SAUCE (MAKE A DAY AHEAD.)
In a large pot cook over medium-high heat the olive oil, garlic, onion, carrot, spices, lobster bodies, and water. Let simmer for about 30 minutes until flavors have had a chance to come together.
Add to the pot the crushed tomatoes and rinse out the can with a bit more water and add that too. Continue to cook the sauce over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Once sauce reaches a simmer, reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally throughout that time.
Once finished cooking, remove sauce from heat and allow to cool to room temp for another hour or so, stirring occasionally. Transfer the sauce into a container large enough and store in the fridge overnight.
The next day, the sauce is ready to strain. Pour sauce into a colander with a bowl or pot underneath to catch the strained sauce. With a large spoon or whisk, stir the sauce around the colander, forcing it to strain through and into the new pot or container. Once most of the liquid has gone through the colander and all you have are solids in strainer, add a touch of water and mix one last time to get every bit of flavor out of the bodies. By now, all you should have is lobster bodies and tomato pulp in the strainer; these can be discarded as their job is done! This sauce is now ready for the Lobster Fra Diavolo!
Note: You will use 4 cups of the sauce for Lobster Fra Diavolo (below). You can freeze any remainder. It is excellent over pasta.
INGREDIENTS FOR DAILY CATCH LOBSTER FRA DIAVOLO
2 1¼ pound live lobsters, body and tail
cut in half, claws removed, and
stomach discarded
12 littleneck clams, washed
1½ pounds PEI mussels, washed and
beards removed
1 pound calamari, cut into rings and
tentacles
12 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 Tablespoon olive oil
½ Tablespoon crushed red pepper, add
half or quarter amount if less spice
desired
1 Tablespoon garlic, peeled and minced
¼ cup white wine
4 cups Seafood Marinara Sauce,
see previous.
1 pound linguine pasta
1 Tablespoon Italian parsley
INSTRUCTIONS FOR LOBSTER FRA DIAVOLO
Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil.
Heat olive oil, garlic, and crushed pepper over high heat in a large skillet or pot. Skillet should be at least 14 inches wide and 6 inches deep. If large skillet is unavailable, use large pot with well-fitting lid.
When garlic gets fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes, add littleneck clams and lobster pieces. Do not burn garlic. Deglaze with white wine. Add marinara sauce and cover. Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes or until sauce begins to boil, stirring often.
Once sauce boils, add mussels, shrimp, and calamari and stir until all the seafood is evenly distributed in the pot. Replace cover and continue to cook.
Drop the linguine into boiling water and cook until desired doneness, 4 to 6 minutes, stirring often.
Once all the clams and mussels pop open, and all the seafood is cooked, turn off heat and wait for linguine to finish cooking.
When linguine is done, place in large serving bowl or pan. Ladle some sauce and mix into pasta. Place all seafood on top of pasta in an organized fashion. Pour remaining sauce over pasta. Sprinkle parsley over top.
Serves 4.
Daily Catch Monkfish Marsala
Once I knew I would set a scene in the story at the Daily Catch, I couldn’t resist including my favorite dish there, Monkfish Marsala, which is also a signature dish.
INGREDIENTS FOR DAILY CATCH MONKFISH MARSALA
1 pound monkfish filets, trimmed and cut
into thin medallions
½ Tablespoon olive oil
½ Tablespoon canola oil
1 cup flour
½ pound white mushrooms, sliced
1 cup Marsala wine
1 lemon, juiced
1 Tablespoon butter
salt and pepper
½ Tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MONKFISH MARSALA
Heat the olive oil and canola oil over high heat in a large pan, until just about smoking.
Season the monkfish medallions with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour. Carefully place the floured medallions in the hot pan and sear until nice and golden brown.
Once browned, flip each piece and add the mushrooms. Cook for a minute until mushrooms begin to soften. Carefully deglaze the pan with the Marsala wine. The wine will ignite into a flame and continue to burn until all the alcohol has been cooked off. Gently shake the pan during this process to keep the flame going.
Once flame has finished, add lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to medium and continue to simmer and let Marsala wine reduce and monkfish cook. Once wine has thickened into a sauce, add the butter and gently swirl the pan as it melts. If sauce is too thick and not enough liquid is in pan, add a few drops of water. Once butter has melted and incorporated into sauce, remove from heat and serve. Garnish with chopped parsley.
Serves two
Acknowledgments
Pieces of Julia’s mother’s story have been told in each of the Maine Clambake Mysteries. We know Jacqueline lost her mother young, that she inherited Morrow Island, and that her once-wealthy ancestors build Windsholme. Her missing cousin, Hugh, is mentioned in the very first book in the series, Clammed Up. What we’ve never been told is how her family made their money and how they lost it. Iced Under supplies the missing pieces.
I’ve known for a while that the Morrows made their money in the frozen-water trade. The idea that New Englanders, in the early part of the nineteenth century, shipped ice halfway around the world has always seemed crazy to me. Crazy in an entrepreneurial, good way. Frederic Tudor was the originator of the ice trade, as well as the inventor of home iceboxes and frozen food. His extended family life was somehow even more colorful than his business. I borrowed a good deal of his history for Frederic Morrow. Two excellent books about Frederic Tudor are The Ice King: Frederic Tudor and His Circle, by Carl Seaburg and Stanley Patterson (Massachusetts Historical Society and Mystic Seaport, 2003), and The Frozen-Water Trade: A True Story, by Gavin Weightman (Hyperion, 2003).
The end of the ice trade is as interesting as the beginning and brings us another fascinating character, Charlie Morse of Bath, Maine. I appropriated some of Charlie’s deeds for William Morrow. If this novel has made you want to learn more, I recommend Bath, Maine’s Charlie Morse: Ice King & Wall Street Scoundrel, by Philip H. Woods (The History Press, 2011).
I would like to thank my friend Mark Wilcox for suggesting the idea behind the GimmeThat! App, a Bitcoin for Uber for Millennials, and for taking the time to describe it to me. He’s a million times smarter about technology than I am. I’ve dumbed the idea down, not for my readers’ comfort, but for my own.
Carolyn Vandam walked me through the ins and outs of death and burial in Back Bay. I had to make some changes because, when the day came, I didn’t have a body, but I was grateful to have a baseline.
A huge thank you to Basil Freddura, the chef at the Daily Catch in Boston’s Seaport district, who supplied the recipes for Lobster Fra Diavolo and Monkfish Marsala, not to mention many wonderful evenings.
Julie Hennrikus, Ramona DeFelice Long, and Katrina Niidas Holm supplied critical information at just the righ
t moments to keep me from making a fool of myself. If I have still managed to do so, it is no fault of theirs. I thank them all.
As always, I would like to thank my agent, John Talbot, as well as John Scognamiglio, Karen Auerbach, Robin Cook, and the whole team at Kensington, who have supported the entire Maine Clambake series.
Huge shout-outs to my writers group, Mark Ammons, Katherine Fast, Cheryl Marceau, and Leslie Wheeler, who reviewed a draft of the book and supplied valuable feedback. Thanks also to Sherry Harris, who supplied edits for this book while up against a deadline for her own series with Kensington, the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries.
My Wicked Cozy Authors blogmates are my lifeline every single day in this crazy writing life we share. Thank you, Jessica Estevao, Sherry Harris, Julianne Holmes, Maddie Day, and Liz Mugavero. And to my Mainers at the Maine Crime Writers Blog, especially Kaitlyn Dunnett, Lea Wait, and Kate Flora.
And finally, there is no possible way to thank my family enough for their support, but I will try. Bill Carito, Rob Carito, Sunny Carito, Viola Carito, Kate Donius, and Luke Donius, I couldn’t do it without you. Love to you all.