I had occasion to visit with friends in Maine last week, and since they were putting me up, I thought it only fair that I bring and prepare dinner for them. Lobsters sounded good to me, but I wanted to treat them to something just a little bit different. The theme for the meal, then, became nuts.

    Here’s the menu:
   
    Pan-roasted one and one-half pound lobsters with bourbon, tarragon and cream; risotto with Gorgonzola cheese, green peas and walnuts; roasted wedges of acorn squash; and grapenut custard pudding with maple syrup.    

      Here’s the execution:            

      With your chef’s knife in one hand, and the lobster held still on the cutting surface, push your knife through the head between the eyes. Make sure you apply enough pressure so it happens quickly. The lobster will die instantly, although the legs and tail will twitch a little. I know, me, too. I always apologize just before I do it.

    Turn the lobster over onto its back, and run your knife down the center of the body and tail, all the way through, so the lobster is split in half. With a spoon, remove the loose brown and green innards, and separate the knuckles/claws from the body.

    With a mallet, crack the knuckles and the claws.Chop a shallot finely, and chop some fresh tarragon. The amounts of each depend on how many lobsters, but let’s say for two, you’d want one shallot, and about a tablespoon of tarragon.

    Heat a cast iron skillet on high, and add 4 tablespoons of butter (one-half stick), and two tablespoons of canola oil. The oil has a higher burn temperature, and will help the butter from burning badly. Add the chopped shallots, and saute for a moment.

    Add the lobster halves, flesh side down, the knuckles and claws, to the pan. Don’t move the lobster halves - - let them develop some brown. After about 2 minutes, turn the knuckles/claws.

    Add a half cup of bourbon to the pan and flame it while you swirl the lobsters in it. Add the tarragon, swirl a little more, and then put the pan in a 350 degree oven for the lobsters to finish roasting.
   
    Remove from the oven in 5 minutes, take the lobsters out of the pan, and put the pan back on the burner. Deglaze with just a little bit of whatever white wine you’re serving with dinner, scrape the good stuff off the bottom of the pan, add a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and one cup of heavy cream. Whisk and reduce to a sauce consistency, and pour a couple of tablespoons over the flesh of the lobster halves, and serve.

    Here’s the results:

    The nuttiness of the bourbon folds in with the walnuts of the risotto and the acorn squash, and you finish that all up with the grapenuts for dessert. That’s how the theme of the dinner, lobster and all, became nuts.

“What did you have for dinner last night?”

“Nuts. And, oh yeah, there was lobster, and risotto, and squash, and custard, too. But, I had nuts for dinner.”

    If you can get past the knife between the eyes thing, this is a terrific meal. If you can’t, just get a friend to help, because it’s really worth it . . . easy, quick, and oh, so good.

    It's been one year since the first restaurant review appeared on these pages. During that time, more than 90 columns have been posted, a lot of food has been eaten, visitorship has risen from 600 in that first month to more than 5,000 last month, and the subscription list continues to grow.

    I've enjoyed some truly memorable dishes in the last twelve months, and I thought I'd refresh recollections and mention one more time some of the best before moving into our second year of dining out on Cape Cod. For starters, two in particular come to mind. The butternut squash soup at The Brazilian Grill in Hyannis made the trip worthwhile unto itself. The Chef was kind enough to provide the recipe for the soup, and allowed me to publish it for him on our site. The Brazilian Grille review (click here) and the recipe (click here) remain on our site, and you might want to take another look.

    The lobster salad at RooBar in Chatham was among my most favorite dishes of the year. The chilled lobster tail was accompanied by shaved fennel, water cress, radish and orange flesh, and the orange and poppy seed dressing was sublime. I also enjoyed the scallops and macaroni and cheese dish there, too. Chef Webb is a talented fellow and turns out a great meal. The RooBar review can be found here.

    The duck confit at The Arbor, in Orleans, also comes to mind. It was a terrific offering, an entire leg, served well and very artistically, and is worth a mention here. The grilled pork medallions are also a fond memory of the excellent meals enjoyed at The Arbor. That review can be found here.

     Lobster cakes with a pear and mango slaw at The Artful Table made it a memorable evening for me, as did the company of my daughters.  You can read all about our night together in the review here.

    The barbecued brisket at Oinky & Moo's, well, actually everything at Oinky & Moo's comes to mind, too, as I look back. Stan's work is top shelf, and I can feel even now the impact of those smells the first time I got out of my car in his parking lot. Truly great food here, too.

    The cheesecake at Villa Roma . . . . aaahhhh, now that is a memory. My visit couldn't have been timed better to enjoy a very generous wedge still warm from the oven. That cheesecake brought me back to Villa Roma several times after my review visits, it was that good.

    A year end review of reviews, though, calls for some big finish, the payoff ranking of the best, that place I would recommend you visit if you had only one meal left to enjoy. It's a difficult task to name that place, assign it the label of “the best” restaurant on Cape Cod. With hundreds of places to grab a bite on this island, it's impossible to have visited each one in only a single year. It's a purely subjective opinion, too . . . . so many different types of restaurants and so many of them very good at what they are but not lending themselves to fair comparisons, apples to apples. A shack on the beach at Wellfleet Harbor (Mac's Seafood) vs. an upscale Italian spot in Orleans (Nauset Beach Club)? How do you fairly compare places like that?

    I decided, then, to report my favorite dining out meal, rather than “the best.” I revisited Gracie's Table, in Dennis, last night, and am confident in recommending it to you once again. On the first time around, I gave it our highest rating, Four Cods, and after its first full year of operation I found it hasn't lost a step. Read my first review here, and then come on back for the rest of the story.

    There are 22 items on the Tapas menu, and I've sampled more than half of them. Every one is a worthy entry, well turned out, beautifully served, and representative of the authentic cuisine, or should I say cocina. The chicken with pistachios and pine nuts, a classic Moorish dish, was a boneless leg stuffed with the nuts and prunes, pan roasted with onion and garlic, finished with blackberry sauce and served with mashed potato. The fish preparation of the day was pan-roasted haddock served in a roasted pumpkin wedge along with roasted brussel sprouts, corn, onions and carrots, with fresh rosemary, and topped with a cranberry pecan butter. Both of these dishes were works of culinary art presented almost too wonderfully to disturb by eating, but eat them we did. I wasn't sure there was room for dessert until I tasted the maple crème brulee, and sure enough, there was just enough room for every single spoonful of it.

    Gracie's Table gets the nod as my favorite dining out place from the past year. The room, the service, the attention to detail, the music, the ambiance, the friendly and cordial greeting at the door - - - Gracie's Table simply does everything right.  This web site maintains a very extensive statistics package that keeps track of how many visits it has each day, and the most frequently read columns. Over the past year, of the restaurant reviews posted, Gracie's Table has been read more than any other. I'm going to guess a goodly number of those readers have found at Gracie's Table what I have found - - - a really, really good dining out experience, the one I rate above all others in the last year.

    There you have it, then, the first year in review. In case you were wondering, I still weigh 172 lbs, just as I did when the year began. I've enjoyed the many guests who've joined me on my tour of the Cape dining scene, and with hundreds of places still to visit, I'm anxious to begin year number two. Cape Cod has many wonderful places worthy of your attention . . . make sure you get out once in a while. If you have any question about where you should go, come on back to Cape Dining Out, the Cape Cod word on where to eat.