Recipe of the week: Trio of lobster

Some people may be afraid to cook lobster, but this recipe demonstrates how to do it, and do it well. This luxurious dish uses three imaginative ways to showcase some of the best seafood that the British Isles has to offer; the trio of lobster includes lobster thermidor tail, lobster and prawn pie, and crispy lobster claw with a tomato and brown shrimp salsa. It is guaranteed to impress at any dinner party.

Ingredients

Serves 4

2 x 700g lobsters

Lobster tails

85g gruyere or comte cheese
2 x large king scallops

Fish cream sauce

1 fennel bulb
1 clove garlic, 1 stick celery, 1 onion
200ml white wine
200ml fish stock
35ml brandy
2 star anise
400ml double cream

Thermidor sauce

2/3rds of fish cream sauce (prepared from above)
10g English mustard

Lobster and prawn pie

70g Greenland Prawns
35g capers
2 Maris piper potatoes (peeled, chopped and mashed with 25g unsalted butter)

Crispy claws

1 egg (beaten)
1 tbsp plain flour

Salsa

35g brown shrimp
6 blush tomatoes (finely chopped)
1 red onion (finely chopped)
5g coriander, 10g dill, 10g basil (finely chopped)
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Directions

Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Preheat fryer to 180 C
Preheat oven to 200 C

To prepare the lobster

Stab lobsters through the back of the head and then add to boiling water for eight minutes.

Remove and run under cold water until cold.

Cut each lobster in half, directly through the back of the lobster, discarding the brain and the tract pipe.

Crack the claws and arms and remove the meat – keep the claws whole.

Remove the tails with the meat inside the shell.

Once completed on all the lobster halves, flip the tails over so the red tail meat is showing.

For the fish cream sauce

Peel and slice the onion, fennel bulb, garlic and celery.

Cook for 5 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally so as not to colour too much.

Add the wine, fish stock, brandy and star anise, reduce by half and then add the double cream.

Bring to the boil, season well and drain.

Divide the sauce into two pans, one third in one (Fish cream sauce) and two thirds in the other (for the Thermidor sauce).

For the thermidor sauce

Add the mustard to the pan with the two thirds fish cream sauce and bring to a boil.

Set aside.

For the lobster tails

Chop the scallops into quarters.

Remove the meat from the lobster tail shell and chop into three nuggets.

Place the meat back into the shell, alternating with the scallop quarters.

Add the cheese onto the lobster tails.

Pour over the thermidor sauce and top with the Panko breadcrumbs and set aside until needed.

For the lobster and prawn pie

Use a small dish, approximately 5cm x 5cm.

Put the capers, prawns and two nuggets of the arm meat from the lobster in the pie dish.

Add a few drops of the fish cream sauce and top with the mash.

Place into a preheated oven for 4 minutes, then place the tails in the oven too and cook for a further 6 minutes.

For the crispy claws

Flour the claws, shells removed, then coat in the beaten egg and then the Panko breadcrumbs.

When the pie comes out of the oven, pop the claw into the fryer and cook for 3 minutes.

For the salsa

Mix all the ingredients together

Plate as pictured.

Serve with the leftover thermidor sauce.

Thank you to David Moss, Co-owner and Chef at The Wensleydale Heifer for the recipe.

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