Lobster Season

A Lobster Guedille

When I was a child, the fishermen would come down in caravan passing by our  house early in the a.m., rumbling down the gravel road that ran adjacent to our property on their way down to the beach at the bottom of our hill.  The phone would start ringing, sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m. as the fisherfolk called to consult with my father before heading out to lay and check their traps.
At least once a week my father came home with a couple of lobsters each.  Every time there was a big storm, the neighborhood kids would walk along the beach, trawling for washed up traps, and we'd roast the big green suckers up by tossing them into bonfires right there on the side of the ocean, smashing their charred and steaming carcasses open with rocks and clawing out the flesh and jamming in our mouths, searing hot, sand and all.

We ate so much lobster at that time of year.  So much lobster every week in the summer, that by the time I came to Montreal, I could barely stand the look of it.  Lobster, you know, poor man's food; lobster, that made great fertilizer for the garden 100 years ago.

Lobster, we'd boil it, crack it, soak and slop it around in searing and heavily garlicked butter and slurp it down, day after day after day.  The leftovers were done up in lunches for the rest of the week, soused with mayonnaise, and squished into guedilles and sandwiches.

So, naturally, every lobster season, my inner Gaspesian awakens.  It's time to feast on the blessed bounty of blue bugs from the bay.  Now the best time to pick these suckers up are mid-way through the season.  The flesh is sweet after they've had a chance to fatten up from the lean winter months, but their shells are still thin from their molting.  The earlier one's are a bit leaner and less tasty; the later ones are less bang for your buck, with thicker shells.  Mid-season lobster, that's what I'm after, and it's right now.

This season I grabbed a big one, a 5.5 lb monster.  I dunno why, but the big ones, they're always glaring at me with a challenge in their eyes and I can't resist them.  They don't taste better, so much as the oodles of flesh they yield is so convenient.

Butchering the Lobster

So, that 5.5 lb monster, I butchered it while it was alive, I sliced it in half.  When you’re embarking on a project like this, whatever you do, don't boil it first, you'll ruin it.  All that awesome flavour will render into the boiling liquid and you'll just toss it.  Where's the point in that?  Save the shell of the torso for simmering in that dashi stock for the risotto.  I've got that one listed below.

In the meantime, halve the lobster.  Dismember it.  Save the torso for that stock and the innards for the tapenade.

Lobster Ceviche, blue corn chips, apple confit, brussel sprouts and cashews, green olive tapenade, red pepper salsa, radish slaw

Lobster tail

1 Tbsp Miso Glaze

Slap the miso glaze onto the lobster tails.  You won’t need it all, so save the rest for other dishes, like future eggplant dishes.  Grill the lobster tail on the BBQ and serve it with the following side dishes, alongside the ceviche.

Miso Glaze Recipe

1 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons red miso
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

All of the ingredients in a sauce pan on a med-high heat for 5 minutes, until consistent.  You’re done.

Green olive tapenade

In this recipe, the bright green lobster goop, the tomalley, that is essentially the lobster liver, replaces the anchovies in a regular tapenade. 

Now, be careful, lobster tomalley can contain high levels of shellfish toxins, however, previous FDA warnings for Maine lobster have mostly been the result of red tides.

20 small green olives (1/4 cup chopped, lightly packed)
1/2 tbsp chopped capers
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 lemon squeezed
1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsps tomalley or to taste pan fry green shit in butter and olive oil.

This bit is easy.  Chop everything up finely and mix it together with that deliciously fried up green stuff.

Red Pepper Salsa

2 roasted red peppers
3 cloves roasted/bbqd garlic
1/2 tsp roasted whole cumin
1/2 tsp pomegranate molasses
1/2 tsp paprika (really a dried ground red pepper, making the sauce more red, more rich and earthy, which complements the lobster nicely)
salt to taste

Roast your red peppers on a grill or in the oven.  Roast your garlic: slice the top off the bulb, smear some butter on top and along with the red peppers at around 400F roast until it is soft and brown.  For cumin roasting, cook’er up in a pan on a medium heat until the colour goes a bit brown and the smoke wafts very lightly off, then grind it in a mortar and pestle.  Toss this all in with the peppers in a blender with the paprika and a sprinkle of salt and you have a lovely middle-eastern salsa for the lobster.

Brussel Sprouts and Cashews

1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup cashews
8 brussel sprouts
2 slices of well-smoked bacon, thick
4 sprigs thyme

Finely chop that bacon and render the fat out on a low heat, fire it up to a high heat when you add the brussel sprouts and let them brown nicely as the bacon crisps up.  The cashews  can’t brown, so put them in part way between crisping and browning of the sprouts.  The thyme, whole sprigs, throw them in with the cashews, you don’t want them burning.

Radish Slaw

8 radish
3 green onion
1 tbsp mayonnaise
6 slices of cucumber pickle
10 capers

Shred the radishes, finely chop the green onion, the cukes, and the capers.  Add in the mayo and you’re good.

Soy-Butter Glazed Eggplant

4 small eggplant
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsps soya sauce
1-2 green onions
Olive Oil

Slice your eggplants in half and brush them with olive oil. Reduce the butter and soya sauce for 5 minutes on a high heat and pour over the eggplant.  Finish the eggplant on the grill with the soya mixture and garnish with the green onion.

Lobster Ceviche

1/3 cup lime juice
1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1 clove garlic, chopped
Leaves of 1 sprig thyme
1 green onion
1/4 cup of chopped chervil (about 4 sprigs)
1 tsp black salt
1 large claw

Toss all of these together and let them sit overnight.
Garnish with:
Baby spinach
handful grape tomatoes
2-4 roasted jalapeno
1 bulb Roasted garli
Handful of black beans
Handful of hominy
Half a bell pepper, julienned

Lobster Stock

The shells from the claws, all the little legs, the lungs,  and the remaining claw, simmer, do not boil, them in 4 cups of dashi for 30 mins.  Use the arms from the claws for the ceviche above.    

Dashi Recipe

1 large (6") piece of kombu
2 cups katsuobonito shavings
4 cups water

Making dashi is easy.  Let the kombu soak in the water for at least 1 hour.  Raise the temperature of the water until bubble begin to form and remove from the heat.  Add the bonito shavings and let sit for 30 mins.  The leftover stock, if any, can be used for miso soup, with some cubed tofu and green onion.

Risotto

1 pinch of saffron dissolved in a bit of the hot stock
3 shallots finely chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bay leaf (fresh)
1 cup of rice until the water runs clear through it
1 cup vermouth
1/2 lb lobster claw meat
1/4 cup parmesan
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp chervil, finely chopped
1 sprig of tarragon, finely chopped

Begin by softening the saffron into a few tablespoons of dashi and, I use a blender, but you can mash it in to the stock until dissolved

Add the olive oil to a pan and on a medium-low heat soften the onion, cook until very lightly browned and then add the garlic cook until softened.  Add the rice, arborio preferably.  Cook for a minute or two and add the bay leaf. 

Slowly add the liquid, letting it absorb until the rice is cooked.  Because this risotto is one of the liquidy risottos, timing is very very key.  You want the flavours to meld, but you do not want the rice to become soft.  Start with the vermouth, so that the alcohol evaporates, then the stock. 

Finish the risotto with the parmesan, white pepper, lobster claw meat, and the herbs.  Add the herbs and cheese first.

Sundaes, Yay!