Lobster Salad
Chef Katsuya Fukushima of Café Atlantico – Washington
D.C.
Adapted by StarChefs Yield: 8 Servings
Ingredients:
Lobster Salad & Vinaigrette
- 4 lobsters, 1 ½ pounds each
- Olive oil, to taste
- Sherry vinegar, to taste
- Salt, to taste
- 16 squash blossoms, torn in half
- 1 avocado, sliced into 8 wedges
- 2 oranges, segmented
- 2 limes, segmented
- 1 grapefruit, segmented
- Baby cilantro or cilantro leaves
- Salt, for boiling lobsters
Vanilla Oil
- ½ cup olive oil
- 3 vanilla beans
- Salt, to taste
Method: For the Lobsters and Vinaigrette:
Bring salted water to boil in a large pot. The water should taste
like the ocean. Drop the lobster into the pot. Cook for only a minute.
Wait for water to return to a boil and repeat with the remaining
lobsters. Snap off claws and cook each claw for an additional minute.
Allow the lobsters to cool before cleaning. Break apart heads
from tails, reserving any liquid. Scrape the tomale and brains out
with a small spoon and add to reserved liquid. Puree liquid, tomale,
and brains until smooth. Slowly add a small amount of olive oil,
sherry vinegar and salt. Reserve.
With a sharp pair of scissors, make two cuts on the underside of
each lobster where the soft shell meets the hard outer shell. Open
the flap and remove the lobster tail. Refrigerate until ready to
serve. Crack open the claw and carefully remove it from the shell.
Block off the claw, (meaning cut off floppy fingers and level off
bottom so that it will sit upright.)
Heat a small saucepan with olive oil and heat to 100F. Add claws
and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat but allow to sit in oil
until service.
For Vanilla Oil:
Split beans and scrape out the seeds. Add to oil, (both seeds and
pods). Heat to 105F. Remove from heat and steep for 1 hour. Remove
pods and put in squeeze bottle.
To Serve:
Slice each reserved lobster tail (tail only, no claws) into medallions,
half a tail and a claw per serving. Heat a large sauté pan
over medium heat.
Arrange 1 avocado wedge,1 orange segment, 1 lime segment, and 1
torn squash blossom per plate.
Sear lobster medallions and claws with olive oil the meat was reserved
in. Season with salt. Evenly distribute lobster tail meat on plates.
Place 1 drained claw on each plate. Drizzle with lobster vinaigrette.
Finish by drizzling vanilla oil and scattering cilantro leaves over
plates.
Wine Pairing:
Montes Alpha Chardonnay 2001
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