Nick

Lobsters should keep in the refrigerator for 24 hours without any problems. Some of this has been said before, but I'll repeat. When you get the lobsters take only the ones that are "kicking" when taken out of the water. Tails flipping and claws waving around. Also, the harder their shells the better. If you can get seaweed (rockweed) that will help. I think they feel more at home on rockweed even in a refrigerator. When you get home put them in the bottom drawer of the fridge on the rockweed, if you've gotten any. If you have enough weed also cover them with it. If not enough you can cover them with newspaper. I've never used damp towels but maybe that would work. Whatever you do, do not ice them. Fresh water kills lobsters. It's okay to use gelpacks. When I ship them I put gelpacks at the bottom, then weed, then lobsters, more weed, then more gelpacks. Make sure your fridge is at 33-35F. That's where it should be anyhow. I steam lobsters if I can get them all in the pot. About an inch, inch and a half, of water in the pot. Cooking batches probably is better done in boiling water. In twenty five years on the coast of Maine I've never heard of anyone starting them in cold water.

Havarti and dried apricots. Wrap the apricot with the Havarti. Edit: I've never actually tried wrapping the apricots with the Havarti. It was one of those things I thought of as I was writing. They do go great together though.

I have a small Aeternum (Italy) that I bought 20 or so years ago. I still haven't seen a pressure cooker that can equal it for quality. It does have a "jiggle thing" rather than spring loaded. It also has a little red button that pops up when when pressure starts coming up. (You can press on it and get a good idea of the pressure.) And also, a pressure safety device under the locking arm, so that if too much pressure built up, it would discharge under the "arm" which would deflect things downward. In twenty years that's never happened so I can't really say where everything would go. I mostly use it for cooking or pre-cooking dry beans.

Robert, That was a magnificently well written bit of complaining. I was particularly struck by, "...what was inexcusable was including the rubbery tip of the claw." As well as, "Because no one picked up the slack, we poured the rest of the bottle ourselves." Was your arm in a sling? Yours from the coast of Maine.

This is probably a stupid question, but did you parboil the potatoes and turnips? If you did, for how long and did you do them together? I'm still trying to figure this out. In his Q&A, Heston boiled them until almost done, but others have said a short parboil followed by a long roast. Tried Heston's way twice, but am thinking the other way might be better. Thanks, Nick

Jin, What with Cabrales' chicken adventure and my own with chili last night, I forgot to mention that a friend (good cook) stopped by and I brought up the grilled sardines. He thinks it worth a try so I'm going sardine (herring) hunting. Snatching little herring from the mouths of lobsters.

Suzanne, It came out okay. Nothing I'd want to put on the table for a bunch of strangers, but not bad. I didn't add the seasonings I usually would toward the end because of the lamb - didn't know what would happen. But, I did plow ahead cubing the lamb a little finer and giving it a pretty good sprinkle of salt, pepper, chili powder, and garlic crystals the same as I'd do with beef before I seared it for chili. Difficulty was compounded by the fact that this was the first time I cooked everything on the wood range this season. Have to get the top to sauteing, then searing temp while making sure the oven stays somewhere around 350. But, it's a good stove. Built it back in '78 and if necessary (and the wood holds out) could probably keep that oven at 350 'til hell freezes over. All in all, it came out okay. The lamb came out really well.

Waiting for the lamb chili to finish. Back to sardines. Torakris, how the hell do you stuff a sardine with all that? Are they bigger than what we have here?

Okay. Sardines are left for another week. Tonight's adventure in cooking was to be a plain old chili. Except baked in the new 3 1/2 qt Le Creuset. Dry pinto beans, some beef, onions, peppers, garlic, etc. The only thing different was instead of using chuck, I decided to use a nice Angus strip steak in the freezer. 1 3/4' thick and well marbled. So I got it out to thaw in some water. Washed the beans, brought them to a boil , and let sit for an hour, after which I pressure-cooked them for 10 minutes, along with some good smoked bacon ends, whole garlic cloves, and a little cumin seed. everythings good so far. I take the well-marbled Angus strip steak and cut open the cryovac. (My friends with the slaughterhouse/wholesale/retail shop cryovac almost everything except pork.) Well, well, it turns out that the Angus strip is in fact frozen stew lamb in the same shape as a nice thick, well-marbled strip. What to do now? Mise en place, forget it. It's gone. Shit. Plow ahead, do the same thing you were going to do. You're not going to mix mint with pinto beans are you? It's in the oven now. I hope it comes out as well as Cabrales' chicken.

Reporting back. The fish store (salt water right in back of it) had never heard of grilling sardines and didn't think they'd be very good anyhow. Not quite yuk, but not too far away. Ditto down at the shore (wharf.) I'll keep scouting around in coming weeks, but at least along this part of the Maine coast, this is new territory. We do do something like this with smelts, a migratory (salt to fresh water) small fish 5-6" long. Gut them, cut the heads off, roll them in corn meal or flour, and fry them. As Jin says, the meat comes right off the bones. I also eat the tail. It's nice and crispy. Sandra, I'm assuming Jin does gut them before cooking. Jin, if anyone's fishing on herring, I'll let them know I'd like a few small ones and give them a try. Tommy, you sound like the pot calling the kettle black. Edit: Oops, I just noticed Jin doesn't gut them. Jin?

Headed out to town a little later and will stop at the local fish store and after that have to go to the shore and will ask there as well. I've been seining for herring (got 200-300 bushels a night) but that was for lobster bait. The only time we'd eat any was if someone smoked some. And those would be 6-8" long. Anything smaller would usually get through the twine. Will report back later. Edit: RP slipped in there while I was typing. This is in reply to Jin.

Jin, in over twenty five years on the Maine coast, I've never seen fresh sardines. But, I'll check around. You don't mean herring do you? How big/long are they? With heads or without? Thanks

Grilled sardines?

The only cooking I use milk/cream for is a fish or clam chowder and lobster stew. Do you make them and how do you do it? Thanks

Thanks for writing. And thanks, Cathy, for the menu. It would have been hard to know what to chose. Though if Hideji had some soup left over, I would have liked that. Thanks again. His Holiness is a special person.

I don't know about quahogs or cherrystones, just regular Maine clams and what we call hen clams (probably like quahogs) which we mostly use for fritters. Regular clams can be kept for at least four or five days (uncovered) in the bottom drawer of your fridge (kept at 33-35 degrees.) This is assuming you're not in a city where the clams are already days and days old when you buy them. Before using, put them in a bowl and rinse them with fresh cold water until they come clean. I put them in the bowl, fill with water, and stir them around by hand. It's sort of like washing brown rice only bigger. If you just want steamed clams, that's all there is to it. Otherwise continue. Next, if you want to shuck them for chowder, fritters, or frying - have the clams in a bowl or suitable container, heat water to boiling (enough to cover the clams), and pour over clams. Let sit for 1/2 minute, pour off, and cover with cold water. You can then open without a knife, the neck skins will come off easily, and all the juice will still be inside to add flavor to whatever you're cooking. That's it for now. Got to get to bed soon. A fisherman drove all the way down here today from Gloucester, Mass to have me work on his winches. He just got done tuna-ing and wants to get back to dragging (groundfishing) as soon as possible. Big cod are bringing $2 right now. So, I've got to get these done. (This is a day boat.)

What was it like to cook for the Dalai Lama and did you get to "hang out" with him? Whenever I've heard him speaking (on the radio), it's been a bright spot in my day - sometimes for weeks. Edit: Thoughtlessness. What did you cook for this get-together?

Man, things do go in circles. I got here because I was at my dentist's office last month and while waiting picked up a copy of Food & Wine from the magazine table. (Wow! goes this country boy who had never come across the mag before.) Was July issue with best new chefs and there's Michael Anthony saying his current obsession is eGullet. Just had to check it out. (Mike, if I blow it and people start coming down on me, I'm gonna say it's your fault. ) The circle closes with me getting a subscription to F&W and now looking forward to your forthcoming article. Steve, my mention of the 20G's was in awe. I didn't figure that was all coming out of your pocket.

"...eats about $20,000 worth of restaurant meals per year." THAT'S IMPRESSIVE!.

The other George Goble lighting a grill - For more pics on combining LOX and charcoal for a spectacular grill lighting and meltdown - Getting the grill going Edit: Scroll down aways.

And CT is a client?

Just had to put in a word here. To the best of my knowledge, wood ashes are not acidic. In fact, they have been used in past years to "sweeten" the soil, especially in growing onions. The problem with corrosion comes from allowing water (rain?) to mix with the ashes making a caustic mixture. As long as the ashes are kept dry there shouldn't be any problem with corrosion. Just my .02's worth.

A bottle of beer followed by a shot of vodka is not for the alcohol intolerant if you're planning on having more than one. I had my second semi-spectacular motorcycle crash after six rounds.

Dave, That was GREAT! Thanks!

Oh my God! Michelob Dry? Or any Michelob? Give me Bud or Coors, even Rolling Rock if we're gonna drink gussied-up river water.