BRUNSWICK

The day after the competition, Tyrrell Hunter is still not ready to rest.

In her kitchen, the Saturday afternoon light glows in the steam rising from a pot on her range top. It reflects off the marble island where Hunter prepares a “simple” lobster chowder.

A day earlier, her seafood cannelloni blew away the judges who named her the winner of the 2013 Maine Seafood Cooking contest at the Maine Lobster Festival for the second year in a row.

“I wasn’t going to compete,” Hunter said Saturday. “I won last year, so there’s a psychological piece to it; I figured I should give someone else a chance.

“I was lying in bed and the competitor in me thought, ‘Hypothetically, if I was going to compete, what would I do?’ The first lesson I learned was to feature lobster prominently.”

Hunter, a Brunswick resident with a background in marketing and interior decorating, said she draws on those skills to conceptualize and execute her award-winning dishes.

“The idea is really like a marketing stratagem,” she says.

To compete, cooks submit recipes that are reviewed by a panel that then selects the five most promising recipes and invites submitters to Rockland for a live cook-off.

“The first year I competed, I made salmon with a lobster mousse,” Hunter says. “I didn’t win that year, but one of the judges pulled me aside and told me my flavors were the best but that one of the judges hadn’t liked that the star of the dish was salmon.”

Hunter shrugged: “It’s a seafood cooking contest, technically. But I learned a lesson there: Lobster wins.”

Over the last three years, she said the winning dishes have all featured lobster and scallops.

“Obviously things need to taste good,” she adds, “And I taste things acutely. People’s tastebuds vary like voices vary. I smell acutely, too.

When I cook, I can smell when a cake is done. It’s really about using all your senses.”

Of her prize-winning cannelloni, she says: “It’s not for every day. It’s rich, it’s — well, I don’t want to say caloric, but it is — very caloric.”

“Then I wondered, ‘How do I feature lobster in a cannelloni?’” Hunter says, “First I decided I wouldn’t add any spinach; that would overwhelm the flavor.”

Then inspiration struck.

“The béchamel. I’d bump it up with lobster and anchovies and use that to soften up the filling a touch.”

Once the dish was conceptualized, Hunter says, “I roughed it out. The first time I made it, I cooked the lobster the day before. The second time I made a trial dish, I did it all in the same day.”

She says, “The second time, it wasn’t as good. There was too much moisture in the dish and I lost some of the lobster flavor. For the competition, I made darn sure that I prepared the lobster the day before.”

“The day of the competition is crazy,” she says. “You have to get there by 8:30 in the morning to unload at the site.”

Setup was the greatest challenge for Hunter. “There are five cooks, four tables, and three ovens. It’s a friendly competition, but I marked my space out with tote bags. Last year I was getting squeezed off the table.”

Competitors have two and a half hours to prepare their dishes. In this time, they also have to lay a table they’ve designed and present the dish paired with a beverage of their choosing.

“I thought I was so organized,” Hunter says, “but I forgot a measuring cup and a cutting board. Once you start cooking, you can receive no assistance.

“Some people do massive tablescapes, but I think the table shouldn’t overwhelm the dish,” she said. “It’s the dish that wins.”

Of this year’s five competitors, Hunter was the only female.

For Hunter, picking a winning dish is like decorating: “You start with one thing and build around it.”

Hunter said she usually plates on white dishes, to “make the food pop” but, she says, “with the pasta, béchamel and lobster, the food is all practically white itself” so, this year, she chose navy blue plates to make her dish stand out.

“To pair with the cannelloni, I made a salad of edible flowers and a light vinaigrette. I specifically chose the salad to pick up the navy and gold color scheme I had worked out.”

For her beverage, she chose Prosecco. “As I said, it’s a special occasion dish.”

Hunter first got the idea to cook competitively when she saw an article in the newspaper about the Maine Lobster Festival in July 2011.

It was a difficult summer for Hunter; after 15 years as owners and operators of a medical supply business, she and her husband had just been forced to close their doors.

“We were starting to dig out from this when the recession hit,” Hunter says. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was 60 years old and had been a business owner for 15 years.

“Cooking was a comfort to me then,” said Hunter, who comes from a family of talented home cooks. “It was cook or cry.”

ROSANNA GARGIULO is a correspondent for The Times Record. She lives in Brunswick.

Tyrell Hunter’s winning recipe: Spectacular Seafood Cannelloni

Ingredients (Serves 5-6):

FILLING
4 each 1 1/4 lb. lobsters, cold water cooked
method (see below), shucked. After removing
the tail vein, cut the tail and claws into 1/2 inch
chunks, mix with knuckle and body meat. Save
the shells and bodies of two lobsters but discard the tamale. Refrigerate all until needed.
1 lb. Large Sea Scallops with muscle removed
1 Tbl. Unsalted Butter (need total of 10 Tbl. for
complete recipe)
1 Tbl. Olive Oil
1 tsp. Garlic, minced
2 Tbl. Onion, finely chopped
1 Tbl. Fresh Parsley, washed, dried and chopped
1 Tbl. Fresh Basil, washed, dried and chopped
1 Tbl. Sun-dried Tomatoes – packed in oil, drained
and chopped
1 tsp. Anchovy Paste
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp. White Pepper
SAUCE
Lobster Shells and Bodies
3 1/2 cups Whole Milk
2 cups Heavy Cream
8 Tbl. Unsalted Butter
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tsp. Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp. White Pepper
1/8 tsp. Nutmeg, grated
1 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated (divided in 2
each 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup Pecorino Cheese, grated (if you can’t find
Pecorino, you can increase the Parmesan by
1/2 cup)
PASTA SHELLS
12 each No-Boil Lasagna Noodles

Directions:

Early preparation, even a day or two in advance:

Lobsters – Next time you cook lobsters, try starting them in cold, heavily salted water (about 2 Tbl. for large pot). Turn on heat to high (we use a gas turkey fryer outside) and bring to a rolling boil. This should take about 20-30 minutes, depending on how many lobsters are in the pot.

For this recipe, you want to take four lobsters out as soon as they come to a boil and plunge them into cold water to stop their cooking. You want the lobsters under-cooked because the meat will finish cooking in the Cannelloni.

(We cook other lobsters to eat that evening by boiling those lobsters just two more minutes for a traditional boiled lobster dinner. We use the partially cooked lobster in a variety of recipes, such as this Cannelloni recipe, over the next few days. The beauty of the cold water method is the meat is very tender because all the lobsters cook at the same temperature and the lobsters weren’t shocked entering hot water.)

About 1 1/2 to 2 hours prior to serving:

To Make the Lobster Sauce:

Thoroughly strain any liquid that may have accumulated from the lobster shells. In a large saucepan on medium-low heat, steep the milk and cream with the lobster shells (without tamale!) for 1/2 hour, stirring a few times. Strain, reserve the milk mixture and set aside. Discard the shells and bodies.

In the same large saucepan over medium heat, melt 8 Tbl. unsalted butter; then stir in 1/2 cup flour. Stir for 1 minute to slightly cook the flour. Stir in the nutmeg, salt, and white pepper. Wisk in the hot milk/cream mixture and wisk for 5-7 minutes until the sauce is thick and smooth. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan and set aside off heat.

To Prepare the Pasta Shells:

Soak the no-bake lasagna noodles in a large bowl of warm water for about 8-10 minutes or just until they are pliable so you can bend them easily. Take out of water, pat dry, cut each noodle to 5 1/2 to 6 inches long, then stack between paper towels.

To Make the Filling: (Preheat oven to 375º while making the stuffing)

In a large sauté pan on medium-high heat, melt 1 Tbl. butter with 1 Tbl. olive oil. Sprinkle the scallops with salt and pepper. Add scallops and onions to the pan and quickly cook the scallops about 20-30 seconds per side; add the minced garlic and sauté for 30 seconds more. Cut the scallops into quarters or eighths (about the same size of the lobster tail cut-up pieces; the scallops will not be completely cooked at this point). Stir in the lobster meat, sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and sauté for one minute to combine flavors. Drain off any accumulated water/juices. To 2/3 cup of lobster sauce, stir in the anchovy paste. Then add this sauce mixture to the seafood and mix gently to combine. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if needed. Take pan off heat.

To Assemble and Bake Cannelloni:

In a 13 inch by 9 inch pan, pour 1 1/2 cups of the sauce and spread to cover the bottom of the pan. Put 1/2 cup of the filling mixture across the short side (about 3 1/2 inches) of a pasta shell and roll up, putting it seam-side down in the pan. Repeat with the other shells, leaving a little space between the shells. Pour the remaining sauce over all the shells, covering completely, and sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan and 1/2 cup Pecorino. Dot with an additional Tbl. of butter cut into small pieces. Cover pan and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 20 minutes. If needed, lightly golden brown under the broiler just before serving.

Suggest serving with a crisp salad and toasted garlic bread.

(Can be prepared in advance of final baking and refrigerated for up to 24 hours; let sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour, then bake for 30 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered, lightly brown under broiler if needed.)

Enjoy!