By Executive Chef Russell Skall
When I think about summer dinners, I get excited about all the wonderful seafood available this time of year. And I think of freshly caught live Maine lobster — one of the biggest treats summer has to offer.
One of my favorite ways to enjoy Maine Lobster is in a traditional New England Seafood Boil. It’s a simple yet stylish way to prepare the summertime ocean harvest. I find a large pot and fill it with market-fresh seafood, add fresh vegetables and seasonings, then boil it. If I were cooking on the beach or at home, we would serve it in the traditional manner — the contents simply dumped out of the pot on a newspaper in the middle of a table for all to share.
If you're from New England, you're probably getting homesick remembering this delicious dish. It's very special to me, and I wanted to share it with all of Fleming’s guests. So to kick off the summer, we're introducing a new Memorable Meal — our Maine Lobster & Seafood Boil — a complete dinner that will transport you straight to a picnic table on a rocky Eastern shore.
We start, of course, with fresh Maine lobster. Then we add Manila clams, mussels and shrimp, along with fresh corn on the cob, new potatoes and andouille sausage, all cooked in a delicious stock. We’re also going to break with tradition: instead of on a newspaper, we’ll be serving our Maine Lobster & Seafood Boil in a bowl. And rather than the usual 
cornbread, we’ll be offering freshly baked buttermilk drop biscuits with sweet cream butter, along with a coleslaw salad with fresh tomatoes and sliced mozzarella, tossed with an apple cider vinaigrette.
For dessert, we're conjuring a few more memories with everyone's all-time summer favorite, fruit cobbler. Ours is made with fresh peaches and dried cranberries tucked beneath a golden brown cinnamon crust.
In other words, summer's here at Fleming’s.
Come and get it!
As always, I’ll hope you’ll let me know what you
think of this new Fleming’s offering, and my recipe, at RussellOnSteak at Twitter.com.
Maine Lobster & Seafood Boil
This recipe makes 4 servings.
Main ingredients:
8 baby red potatoes
4 ears of fresh corn, cut in half
1-1/2 lbs. andouille sausage cut in 1-1/4 inch wide slices on bias
8 Manila clams
8 mussels
4 Maine lobsters 1-1/2 lbs. each
8 shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 tsp. chopped parsley
Ingredients for poaching stock:
8 cups water
2 lbs. butter, lightly salted
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 bag of Zaterain's crab boil (available at grocery store)
4-5 whole peeled garlic cloves
1/2 medium yellow onion chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 lemons, cut in half
Instructions:
Combine water, butter, crab boil, Kosher salt, garlic cloves, chopped onions and celery in a large stock pot. Squeeze juice from lemons into pot, add lemon halves and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Remove crab boil pouch. Bring poaching stock back to a boil, add 2 lobsters, cover the pot and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove lobsters and place into an ice bath. Cook remaining 2 lobsters for 4 to 5 minutes, then place in an ice bath.
Wash the potatoes, then cook in the poaching stock for 15 minutes. Remove the husk on the corn and clean well. Split in half, then add to pot with potatoes and cook until both are done, about 5 minutes. Remove the corn and potatoes and allow to cool at room temperature. Strain the stock and reserve 4 cups of the liquid.
Remove the legs and claws of the lobsters and split the bodies lengthwise. Remove and discard the roe and tomalley (the green substance in the lobster body). Carefully pull up on the tail meat in each shell to loosen but don't remove. Crack open the shell of the claws and legs, remove all of the meat and set aside.
Slice the sausage into 1-1/4 inch wide bias cuts. Sear cut side down in a sauté pan set on high heat for 30 to 60 seconds on each side. Place the sausage and potatoes along with the mussels and clams into a pot with the 4 cups of reserved poaching liquid. Cover the pot and turn the heat on high, cook for 8 minutes or until the clams start to open up. Add lobster halves, claws, leg meat, shrimp and corn. Cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes until the lobster and shrimp are done.
Remove pot from heat. Using tongs, divide the lobster and all ingredients equally in 4 shallow bowls. Pour a bit of the hot liquid over all the ingredients. Garnish with chopped parsley.