Seafood Lasagna and Rustic Caesar Update

"Potato soup or French Onion, babe?" was my question I texted last Friday night as to which would be preferred for dinner on Saturday.  At the time I asked, Blaine was standing in his kitchen laboriously de-heading some 30lbs of fresh shrimp just caught that day, thanks to procurement efforts of a client.  Plan change. No soup.  Seafood lasagna paired with our friend Hilary's Rustic Caesar.   A quick trip to my neighborhood Rousses assured efficient assembly of all the bits.  It's a humble assortment of ingredients for the lasagna, but for the salad, I used Romaine and Endive -- still not necessarily ultra chic, but you know.  At the checkout, everything went through without question.  I was so pleased not to land another Chatty Cathy.  I said it before: one of my most intense pet peeves is being subjugated to superfluous commentary on my groceries by a cashier.  Here's how I see it: if you sell it in the store, and you're ringing a customer, you should know what it is and whether it's vegetable or mineral.  Most importantly: no comment is necessary.  It is of no interest to me whether or not you've ever eaten it, have no clue how to prepare it, what it looks like to you, or how it compares to what you generally serve your family on weeknights.  As the Romaine hit the scanner, I saw it coming.  I could read it in her face.  "What's this?" I wanted so much to tell her it was a single lemon, since that would grant me a bargain, but I had a lemon in my order as well, and it would have been more difficult to convince her that the lemon was Romaine.  Blaine later referred to it as "weird lettuce".  Next time I'll be prepared.  Then the endive.  Same question.  Facetiousness took my soul, but prudence checked my tongue.  "Dead birds" I was yearning to explain.  "Endive."  "How you spell that? N-dive?" (the punctuation was spoken: "the letter n, dash, dive?").  Always an adventure.

  

In rough form, here's how one prepares the dish:

Shrimp

Scallops

Krab (I refer to this as "crab with a K".) 

Sliced Green onion

Clam Juice

Chicken Broth

Grated Parmesan

Milk

Whipping Cream

Lasagna Noodles

Prepare the lasagna noodles in the customary fashion.  In a skillet, saute the onion in butter.  Add broth and clam juice and let simmer.  Add seafood and allow to cook until shrimp turn pink.  Strain, reserving cooking liquid.  With 1/2 cup of butter, prepare a blond roux.  Add 1 1/2 cup milk and the reserved cooking liquid.  Allow to simmer and thicken.  Turn off the flame and fortify the sauce with 1 cup of cream and approximately 1 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan.  Add seafood to the sauce and prepare the lasagna strata as usual.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  

Visit Hilary's blog, Channeling Ina, for the details of preparing the Rustic Caesar.  It was a perfect starter for the seafood dish, and the N-dive gave just the right bit of pepperiness and added texture.  For a whole shredded head of weird lettuce and two dead birds, I doubled the dressing quantity.  

After dinner: carrot cake and coffee enjoyed sitting in over sized leather chairs, four feet sharing an ottoman. Movie choice:  For Colored Girls.  Life is good.