Food Porn Friday: Over the top

The “crustacean detonation”: Truffled lobster risotto for New Year’s Eve

There’s rarely a bad time to get excited and creative in the kitchen, but special occasions and holidays are a great excuse to go a little gonzo with the menu. This past New Year’s Eve, my mother decided to take some beautiful rice and truffle oil she’d brought back from a recent trip to Italy, and treat the family to a special, celebratory meal: truffled lobster risotto.

Naturally, a simple plate of truffle essence, creamy risotto and a modest amount of lobster meat wouldn’t suffice. No, she went “all in,” as the poker players say.

The resulting dish — made with five whole lobsters (the shells were pulverized with stock in the blender, strained, and added to the broth to add extra lobstery goodness) — looked like a devious crustacean detonation, lobster claws everywhere, a single head jutting out of the center of the serving bowl as if to say, “COME AT ME, BRO.”

It was totally over the top, and totally worth it.

And for you? When you decide to go kitchen crazy, what do you make?

Native New Orleans food writer Scott Gold, author of The Shameless Carnivore and a blog by the same name, has written for Gourmet, Edible Brooklyn, The Faster Times, and other publications. His Food Porn Friday column for NolaVie offers a weekly mouth-watering photo designed to start culinary conversations in the Big Easy. Catch his weekly food column for The Advocate here.