Lobster Wellingtons: chunks of fresh lobster meat wrapped in lobster paté, and tucked into puff pastry envelopes.
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| KAREN HOCHMAN is Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE™. |
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May 2005
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Hancock Lobster Pies & Lobster Wellingtons
A Little Luxury Goes A Long Way
CAPSULE REPORT: The luxury of lobster, ready to heat and eat, is yours all year around from this award-winning purveyor of lobster entrees, chowders and casual delights like lobster rolls. For romantic occasions, for sybaritic evenings, for thank-you gifts, or to treat yourself!
Nothing says lobster more than Maine. If you grew up there and your grandmother owned a restaurant turning out lobster goodies, then that’s the basis for a business.
The Hancock Gourmet Lobster Company of Cundy Bay, Maine’s oldest commercial lobstering community, produces a variety of lobster dishes, and we’ve enjoyed their Pemaquid Point Lobster Pot Pies and lobster stews. The lobster pot pies won the “Outstanding Meat, Paté, or Seafood” category in the annual awards competition of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, the largest industry competition (in 2003). Just writing this review, we long for a hot, fragrant pot pie.
The pot pies come frozen in individual white ceramic ramekins. You defrost them before baking; what comes out of the oven is a golden crown of puff pastry with a three-dimensional puff pastry lobster on top—lots of “ooh” value. The “aah” value is under the crust: large chunks of tender, sweet lobster meat in a classic sherry cream sauce. It’s the kind of fragrant, sybaritic sauce that used to be enjoyed often at restaurants and dinner parties, but with the rise of nouvelle cuisine and the demise of classic French restaurants is now as uncommon as...a shipment of lobster pot pies from Maine.
Not to be overlooked are Nubble Light Lobster Wellingtons (photo top left), chunks of lobster topped with lobster paté (lobster, cream cheese, sour cream, herbs and spices), then enclosed in a flakey puff pastry with the signature puff pastry lobster on top. If you’re not a cream sauce person, this preparation may be your preferred lobster fix.
Serve either at dinner (first, second, or fish course) or as a luncheon entrée. Hancock recommends a green salad with grapefruit and avocado slices (try O Blood Orange Olive Oil in the vinaigrette) and a crisp white wine or Champagne. While they may seem pricey for everyday fare, think of them for:
- Holiday celebrations and special occasions (they have great eye appeal)
- To thank someone for doing you a favor
- Gifts for new parents, who need to celebrate but have no time
- An alternative to going out for pricey seafood
- A romantic dinner for two, where spending little time on preparation leaves lots of time for romance.
If you want to give a gift of the full lobster monty, Hancock has a High Tide Sampler that includes two Pemaquid Point Lobster Pot Pies, two Nubble Light Lobster Wellingtons, a quart of Cundy’s Harbor Lobster Stew, Christmas Cove Lobster Cakes, a quart of Smoked Scallop Lobster Bisque, and Yarmouth Island Lobster Hors D’oeuvres. Given what dinner for two at a fine seafood restaurant costs these days, $255.00 sounds reasonable.
Both products are shipped frozen and need to be thawed overnight before baking; they’re ready in 25 and 30 minutes, respectively. The shelf life frozen is months, thawed and refrigerated 4 days.
Bake-and-serve has never been so elegant.
HANCOCK GOURMET LOBSTER COMPANY
- Pemaquid Point Lobster Pot Pie
4-Pack, 4.9 ounces each in re-usable
ramekins
$61.50
- Nubble Lighthouse Lobster Wellingtons
2-Pack, 6 ounces each
$38.50
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Pemaquid Point Lobster Pot Pies—you get four white ramekins (green plates not included) reusable for
baking as well as non-cooked items like nuts, olives
and condiments.
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Purchase online at HancockGourmetLobster.com or telephone 1.800.552.0142
Prices and product availability are verified at publication but are subject to change.
Lifestyle Direct, Inc. All rights reserved. Images are the copyright of their individual owners.
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