by Barbara Ross
To make the sauce
Heat olive oil. Add scallions and pinch of crushed red pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes and stir in tomato paste. Cook for three minutes and stir in wine and stock. Let bubble for a minute or two and stir in shrimp. Cook for two minutes and stir in lobster. Let warm through. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, zest, and parsley. Reheat and stir polenta, put in a bowls, and spoon sauce over top. (Serves two.)
Slow-Cooker Curried Fish & Butternut Squash Stew
This slow-cooker stew is delightful, mixing so many great fall flavors. The base can cook all day with the fish and kale added an hour before serving.
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 ounces pancetta, diced
½ pound kielbasa, cut into half-inch rounds
2 medium onions, sliced
1-2 red peppers, quartered and cut into thick slices
3-4 fat cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tablespoons curry powder
½ teaspoon cayenne
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1½ Tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
1 pound butternut squash, cut into large pieces
1 small to medium head cauliflower, cut into florets
3-4 cups diced tomatoes or 1 28 oz. can with juices
4 cups vegetable broth
1½ pound fish such as pollock or cod, cut into thick pieces
8-10 ounces chopped kale
1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk
Heat oil in pan on medium heat. Add pancetta and lightly brown, about four to five minutes. Add kielbasa rounds and lightly brown, about three minutes.
Add onion, peppers, and garlic and soften, about three minutes. Stir in curry powder, cayenne, lemon juice, salt, brown sugar, and ginger. Deglaze pan with a ½ cup of broth, if necessary, and scrape everything into slow cooker.
Add soaked chickpeas, squash, cauliflower, tomatoes, and vegetable broth.
Cook on low for seven hours. Add fish and kale and cook another forty-five minutes. Add coconut milk, adjust seasonings and cook fifteen minutes to meld flavors. Serve with crusty bread.
Grandma Snowden’s Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
We haven’t learned much about Julia’s father’s side of the family so far in the series, but Livvie has continued one of their traditions by baking Grandma Snowden’s pumpkin whoopie pies. Whoopie pies are the official, and well-loved, state snack of Maine.
Pumpkin Cookies
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 15-ounce can of pure pumpkin (not pie filling)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Filling
½ cup (one stick) salted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla abstract
To make the filling
Beat the butter on medium speed until smooth (no visible lumps). Add the cream cheese and beat on medium speed until smooth, and combined. Add the powdered sugar gradually, beating as you do until it is mixed. Add the maple syrup and the vanilla and beat until smooth. Place the filling in the refrigerator while you make the cookies. This will make it easier to work with when you are filling the pies. Filling can be made a day ahead.
To make the cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices together in a bowl. Whisk together sugar, oil, pumpkin, egg, and vanilla in a separate large bowl until combined thoroughly. Add in flour mixture.
Using a one-ounce ice cream scoop, drop a scant scoop of batter onto the parchment paper. Scoops should be two inches apart. (You will have batter left over.)
Bake twelve to eighteen minutes, until springy to the touch. These will be cakelike cookies. Place cookies on rack to cool.
Repeat until all the batter is used. (You will have thirty-two to thirty-six cookies.)
To assemble
Spread a heaping Tablespoon of filling on the flat side of a chilled cookie. Top with another cookie.
Hot Lobster Dip
Invited for dinner at the Snugg sisters’ B & B, Julia’s niece, Page, attacks this delicious hot lobster dip because she’s famished after a long, dramatic family day. But you don’t have to be starving to appreciate the flavor combinations of this reliable crowd-pleaser.
1 clove garlic
¼ cup snipped chives
8 ounces cream cheese
3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice
teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon salt
teaspoon black pepper
½ pound cooked lobster meat, roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons thinly sliced scallions
With food processor running, drop garlic clove through feed tube and finely chop. Add chives and pulse about six times to finely chop. Add cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, cayenne, salt, and black pepper. Process until fully combined. Scrape down sides of bowl and fold in the lobster meat. Process about thirty seconds to combine. Spoon into baking dish or pie plate and refrigerate for at least two hours. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake dip for twenty to twenty-five minutes until bubbling. Garnish with scallions. Serve with crackers, chips, or slices of baguette.
Genevieve’s Signature Mussels
Genevieve Pelletier has built the reputation of her restaurants on her mussels, and if you make this dish you’ll see she certainly deserves the praise she gets for them. Genevieve serves this hearty dish as an appetizer, but it’s more than capable of carrying a meal as the entree.
1 Tablespoon olive oil
6 ounces chorizo, divided. Half diced, half sliced into thin rounds
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
¾ cup onion
¼ cup celery, diced
¼ cup red pepper, diced
salt and pepper
½ Tablespoon smoked paprika
1 cup diced tomatoes
½ Tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
½ cup white wine
½ Tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ cup heavy cream
1-1½ pounds mussels, scrubbed and de- bearded
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley for garnish
Heat the olive oil on medium heat in a wide saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Cook the chorizo rounds until lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the diced chorizo. Cook until lightly browned.
Stir in garlic, onion, celery, and red pepper. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in smoked paprika. Sauté for three to four minutes.
Stir in tomatoes and thyme, cover pot, and simmer together for three to five minutes.
Add wine and let bubble on high heat for about a minute.
Stir in mustard and heavy cream and cook another minute. Taste and add additional salt or pepper, if necessary.
Add mussels and reserved chorizo rounds, stir, cover pot, and cook for five minutes, stirring once halfway through.
Spoon mussels into bowl, pour sauce over, and garnish with parsley.
Autumn Salad
With its pears, apples, and dried cranberries, this salad combines some of the best flavors of fall fruit. Genevieve Pelletier serves it as a salad course, though it can also be a side salad or a full meal on its own. Though the dressing contains honey, it is not overly sweet.
Salad
6 ounces pancetta, diced
8 cups mixed salad greens
1 pear, cored and diced
1 apple, cored and diced
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
½ cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
Dressing
¼ cup vinegar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon finely chopped thyme
2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
salt and pepper
½ cup olive oil
Cook pancetta over medium heat until browned and just crispy. Remove from pan with slotted spoon and allow to cool on paper towels. Put greens, apple, pear, and cranberries in bowl. Prepare dressing by whisking together vinegar, lemon juice, honey, thyme, rosemary, and salt and pepper. Drizzle oil and whisk until dressing emulsifies. Add pine nuts, pancetta and Gorgonzola and dressing. Toss to combine.
Lobster, Shrimp & Fennel Scampi
This is the pièce de résistance of Genevieve’s thank-you meal for the Snugg sisters. The lobster adds richness to the flavor that shrimp alone can’t provide. The fennel gives the dish a satisfying crunch.
1 Tablespoon oil
3 Tablespoons butter
1 head fennel, cored, quartered, and sliced thinly, fronds reserved
4 shallots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup white wine
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
¼ teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup seafood stock
¾ pound cooked lobster meat, chopped
¾ pound shrimp (preferably Maine rock shrimp)
1 pound linguini, cooked al dente in a pot of salted water
½ cup reserved pasta cooking water
½ cup chopped parsley
Heat the oil and one Tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add the fennel and shallots and cook for four minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for two minutes. Add salt and pepper. Add the wine, lemon juice, and zest. Turn the heat up to high and let bubble for one to two minutes.
Add stock and cook together for three minutes. Stir in shrimp and cook for two minutes. Stir in lobster and heat through a minute or two. Add pasta, the reserved pasta water, and remaining butter and toss together.
Garnish with chopped fennel fronds and parsley.
Vee’s Apple Pie
Viola Snugg is a wonderful baker, as exemplified by the scones and muffins she serves to guests at the Snuggles Inn. Her pie is irresistible, as Julia discovers when she tries to take a sleepy Page home before the dessert course.
Pie Crust
3½ cups flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1½ cups shortening, lard, or unsalted butter
1 egg, beaten lightly with a fork
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
¼-½ cups ice water, as needed
1 Tablespoon milk (to brush over finished pie before baking)
In food processor, using the metal blade, pulse flour and salt to combine. Add shortening and pulse until reaching the consistency of corn meal. Add egg, vinegar, and ¼ cup of ice water. Pulse, adding additional ice water, if necessary, until ingredients barely come together in a dough ball. Turn out onto cutting board and pat together evenly into a large oblong. Divide into four pieces. You will need two for the pie. (You can freeze the other two for a later pie.) Refrigerate. Remove from fridge ten minutes before using.
Filling
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 medium apples
¾ cup sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 Tablespoons salted butter
Roll out bottom crust of pie and put in pie plate. Add apples. Over the top sprinkle lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, and the butter in pats.
Roll out top crust and cover. Slit top. Brush with milk.
Bake at 425 degrees for ten minutes. Then lower oven temperature to 350 and bake twenty-five to thirty-five minutes more, until top is brown and fruit is bubbling.
Acknowledgments
There are so many people to thank for their support for Musseled Out, and indeed for the whole Maine Clambake Mystery series to date.
Captain Clive Farrin took me out on his lobster boat, where he and his sternman Cage Zipperer patiently answered my many questions. If you are ever in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, you should definitely take the tour, which is beautiful and informative. http://www.lobsterfrommaine.com/golobstering.aspx
And, if you want to experience an authentic Maine clambake on a private island, be sure to visit the Cabbage Island Clambake. The real family and island differ entirely from the Snowdens and Morrow Island, but you will get the same delicious meal. http://www.cabbageislandclambakes.com
I got the idea that Julia and her mother should drive winter beaters from a column by Maine humorist Tim Sample in the Boothbay Register. Since I know nothing about cars, Tim also supplied the makes and models. You can read the whole column at http://www.boothbayregister.com/article/winter-beaters/24807
Thank you to Richard Hayes for talking me through the rescue at sea and improving its authenticity. Toby Peltz and Kathy Fast also supplied feedback. Any mistakes, inadvertent or deliberate, are mine.
If you can’t make it to Maine, but want to learn more about lobstering, I recommend these books, all of which figured in the research I did over a long, snowy New England winter. The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean, by Trevor Corson (Harper, 2004), was particularly helpful, not to mention a piece of well-written and compelling nonfiction. The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island, by Linda Greenlaw, (Hyperion, 2003), was the first book I read about the lobstering life, long before I started work on Musseled Out. I have no doubt of its influence. In the same time period, I read Eva Murray’s Well Out to Sea (Tilbury House, 2010), which also had a tremendous impact. James M. Acheson’s seminal work of anthropology, The Lobster Gangs of Maine (University Press of New England, 1988), supplied great context. If you want to read an account of the real rescue of a lobsterman at sea, I recommend Paul Tough’s New York Times Magazine article, “A Speck in the Sea” (January 2, 2014). Finally, I was helped immensely by Barbara Delinsky’s Does a Lobsterman Wear Pants? (Down East Books, 2005). This little book is the result of Delinsky’s research for her own work of fiction, The Summer I Dared (Scribner, 2004). I love the idea of a fiction writer collecting her research for the benefit of another fiction writer.
Lobstering and lobsters are a complicated business, and all mistakes and exaggerations, inadvertent and deliberate, are mine.
As always, I would like to thank my agent, John Talbot; my editor, John Scognamiglio; and the entire team at Kensington Publishing, especially Adeola Saul and Robin Cook. Also, artist Ben Perini for all the terrific Maine Clambake Mystery covers to date.
A book can’t be successful without finding readers, and I’d like to thank the Malice Domestic conference Agatha voters, RT Book Reviews, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance for their award nominations for the first book in this series, Clammed Up.
Book bloggers have been especially critical to the success of the series, and happily there are too many to mention. However, I must give a shout out to Dru Ann Love, who put her hand up during a round of “author speed dating” at Malice Domestic, when I, dazed and confused, asked if anyone would take one of my Advanced Reader copies. I often feel like she started it all.
I’d like to thank my writing community for all the help and critical support: Sisters in Crime New England, The New England Crime Bake, Grub Street, and most especially my blogmates at Wicked Cozy Authors—Jessie Crockett, Sherry Harris, Julie Hen-nrikus, Edith Maxwell, and Liz Mugavero—and at Maine Crime Writers, including Vicki Doudera, Kaitlyn Dunnett, Kate Flora, Sarah Graves, and Lea Wait.
Thanks to my most critical readers, my fabulous writers’ group, Mark Ammons, Kathy Fast, Cheryl Marceau, and Leslie Wheeler. And for Musseled Ou
t especially, Sherry Harris and Bill Carito, who both went above and beyond. What is the saying about my procrastination creating your emergency?
Finally, in author talks and blog postings, I’ve been open that I don’t cook and do not develop the recipes that appear in the Maine Clambake series. Fortunately, I’m married to a superb chef who has the patience to work with me as I figure out what foods will tempt my characters in each book. All of the recipes in Musseled Out are Bill Carito’s, except the apple pie, which is one of my specialties, and the pumpkin whoopie pies, which I supplied, because Bill “doesn’t bake.” I’m working on that.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2015 by Barbara Ross
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