Cauliflower Soup with Lobster Dumplings

I am head over heels in love with this recipe, because it looks and tastes so incredibly fancy and elegant and complicated.  And it definitely IS fancy and elegant, but it definitely ISN'T complicated.  I just love it when that happens.  The soup itself is a simple puree of cauliflower and shallots and chicken broth with just a teeny hit of cream.  The dumplings are a quick mixture of bread crumbs, a little egg, some chopped fresh tarragon, a hint of soft butter and (here comes the beauty part), just a little bit of chopped up cooked lobster.

The rest of the lobster (and you only need one lobster for every two people in this recipe, so you don't have to take out a second mortgage to make this) you chop up and divide among the soup bowls.

After you puree the cauliflower and chicken broth into a nice smooth soup, you drop in your teeny little dumplings and cook them for about 5 minutes, just enough to make them hold together.  Then you ladle out the fabulous soup and dumpling mixture over that lobster in the soup bowls.

Then you stand back and let the love and adoration and amazement wash over you.  Even though the whole thing took 30 minutes from start to finish.

Important note: I used one steamed lobster to make this recipe for the Southern husband and myself for dinner, and because I am a girl who gives credit where credit is due, I need to tell you that the Southern husband went out in a pretty good-sized snowstorm to fetch the aforementioned steamed lobster.  Evidence of the good-sized snowstorm below.  This footage was taken about an hour before I started making the soup.

Names have NOT been changed to protect the innocent.

Anyway, if you are looking for a show-stopper of a soup that is pretty dang easy, you have come to the right place.  Or if you just like lobster.  Or cauliflower.  Or badly-filmed videos of crazy hound dogs.

Cauliflower Soup with Lobster Dumplings, adapted from Michael Symon's Food Network recipe

• 4 ounces butter
• 4 tablespoons shallots, minced
• 1 head cauliflower, greens removed, head cut into small pieces
• Salt
• 6 cups chicken stock
• Lobster dumplings, recipe follows
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 3 (1 1/2 pound) whole lobsters, cooked, meat removed from shell, 1/2 cup tail meat reserved for dumplings, tail meat sliced into rounds

1. Heat butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add shallots and cauliflower and season with salt. Saute the cauliflower until it begins to lightly caramelize and become tender. Add stock and simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are completely soft.  Meanwhile make the dumplings (directions below).

2. Puree mixture until smooth in a blender, or right in the pot with an immersion blender. Add the heavy cream and nutmeg and bring the soup to a simmer.

3. Add the dumplings and poach them in soup for 3 to 5 minutes. Check your seasoning and remove from heat.

4. In a soup bowl place the lobster meat and 1 claw in center and pour 8 ounces of soup and dumplings on top.

Lobster Dumplings:

• 1 1/2 cups white bread crumbs
• 1/2 tablespoon softened butter
• 1 egg beaten
• 2 teaspoons chopped tarragon
• 1/2 cup chopped cooked lobster meat
• Milk, to bind if needed
• Salt and ground white pepper

 

Mix all ingredients together and roll into small firm balls about 1/2-inch in diameter.

Click here for printable recipe