Lobstah!!!

I woke up early to stand in line at the lobster tent sale. I waited patiently in line, reading a novel on my phone and stepping up as the line slowly moved along. The woman behind me in line seemed really antsy to get her lobster and kept moving up in line along side me. I’m a bit of a stickler for the way lines work, if your behind someone in line, you wait behind them, instead of inching up. It doesn’t make the line move faster after all. I side-stepped over in front of her, my boot making a subtle, yet firm, resounding click on the pavement. Announcing in no uncertain terms, my place in line. The smell of lobsters cooking wafted throughout the crowd from the tent. After about an hour and a half, it was my turn. I smiled and said, “Four cooked lobsters, please!” This event only happens once a year (and they are pricey) so in this post you will find three recipes derived from these four lobster. They range from supremely simple to more complex, hope you enjoy.

First Recipe

Lobster with Drawn Butter

Ingredients

• 2 cooked lobsters

• 1 stick of butter

Method

Drawn Butter

Start by making the drawn butter. Place the stick of butter in a appropriate-sized pot or pan and heat over low heat. Once melted, remove from heat and allow to cool. Remove the solid layer of butter that forms on the top and wah-laa! Drawn butter. Heat it up again to serve with the lobster, over low heat.

Lobster

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Once in full boil, drop in the lobsters. Cook for 1 minute then remove and place on plates. Serve lobster with drawn butter for dipping. Save the shells for the lobster stock required for recipe number three. I forgot to photograph the lobster from this recipe, was too busy cracking away after they were done.

Second Recipe

LOBSTER ROLLS

Serves 2. Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

• Meat of 2 cooked lobster, rough chop
• 2 french sandwich rolls
• 2 tbsp butter, more for rolls
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup scallions, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1/3 dried tarragon
• 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper, or to taste

Method

Heat butter over low heat. Remove from heat and remove solids from top. Allow to cool a bit then dunk the chopped lobster in the butter, mix up then place back in the fridge in a bowl. Whisk together mayo, scallions, celery, lemon juice, lemon zest, tarragon, salt and pepper.

Hollow out French sandwich rolls and toast until mildly golden. Slather the toasted rolls with butter, then load them up with the lobster salad! Absolutely delish, my favorite way to enjoy lobster, hands down.

Third Recipe

As you may have gathered, if you have made it this far through my humble lobster post, we made fast work of the lobster in the above two recipes. Recipe three is a delightful, seafood bisque made with a stout lobster consommé and shrimp. This recipe has two parts, the lobster stock followed by the bisque. Ya need the stock for the bisque to work, in other words.

lobster Shrimp BISQUE

Lobster Stock

Makes 12 cups stock. Time: Prep 15 minutes. Cook: 1-6 hours.

The longer it simmers the more flavor it gets. If you are short on time, use less water. This makes more than required for the bisque recipe, so you can freeze some for later. Can also use the instant pot with significantly less water on the soup/broth setting to fast forward the whole seafood broth making process.

Ingredients

• shells of four lobster, rinsed thoroughly ( I omitted the heads just due to challenges with fully cleansing them. They throw off the flavor of the consommé)
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/2 red onion, large slice
• 1/2 white onion, large slice
• 2 celery ribs, large chop
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed with a rough chop
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tbsp peppercorns
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 12 cups water
• 1 tsp tomato paste

Method

Place a large stock pot on the burner and add butter, heat to medium. Add onion slices, celery and smashed garlic cloves. Stir frequently and cook about 5 minutes. Add cleaned lobster shells and cook another 3-4 minutes in the butter. Add vegetable stock, water, peppercorns, minced garlic and bring to a boil. Make sure the water covers the shells by at least an inch (depending on the size of your stock pot, you may require less or more water.) Bring to a boil, then add tomato paste and stir. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for at least 1 hour, preferably 4-6 hours.

Lobster Shrimp Bisque

4-6 servings. Time: Prep 20 minutes. Cook 45 minutes.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 cups onion, fine chop
• 1/2 cup celery, fine chop
• 1 tbsp shallot, minced
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 Roma tomato, chopped
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 3-4 tbsp flour
• 1 cup white wine
• 1/3 cup cream sherry
• 4 cups lobster stock (recipe above)
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp smoked tabasco, optional (I cook spicy)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne, or to taste
• 3/4 tsp dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups shrimp, cleaned, deveined, rinsed and chopped
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• salt and fresh cracked pepper

Method

Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Sauté onion, celery and shallot for about 3 minutes, then add garlic and Roma tomato. After about one minute, stir in the tomato paste. Sprinkle flour 1 tbsp at a time, stirring in between. Deglaze with wine and sherry. Add lobster stock, paprika, tabasco, cayenne and thyme. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Using a submersion blender, blend all ingredients. Next add bay leaves and allow to simmer another 30 minutes. Add chopped shrimp, the trick is to try to avoid overcooking them, about 10 minutes. Check for doneness. Then add heavy cream and salt/pepper to taste. Serve immediately.