Lobster Thermidore

Recipe by: Aishling Moore

The trickiest part of this recipe is in the dispatching and preparation of the lobster before it can be smothered generously in a punchy sauce and gratinated. I’ve included step-by-step instructions below on how to tackle cooking and handling a whole live

Lobster Thermidore

SERVES

2

PEOPLE

PREP TIME

31

MINUTES

COOKING TIME

12

MINUTES

Ingredients

  • 2x lobster (each 600g-800g)

  • 2tb unsalted butter

  • 1 shallot, finely diced

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced

  • 75ml white wine

  • 100ml cream

  • 1 pinch cayenne

  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard

  • 80g cheese

Method

  1. To prepare the lobster, bring a large heavy-based pot of water to a rolling boil. Season with sea salt.

  2. To dispatch the lobster, place the tip of a sharp chef knife right behind the eyes of the lobster, press down and glide the knife through the head of the lobster.

  3. Add the dispatched lobster to the pot, lower the heat and cook for 8-12 minutes until the lobster turns bright red.

  4. Remove from the pot and chill in a bowl of ice water for 3 minutes to stop the cooking.

  5. Place the lobster belly-side down on a chopping board.

  6. Twist the claws to remove them from the body.

  7. Crack the shells with a knife to remove the claw meat from the shells. Set aside.

  8. Using the previous incision from earlier (right in between the eyes) cut in half, lengthways, from the head right down to and through the tail.

  9. Free the tail meat from the shell and remove and discard the intestinal tract from the meat. Set aside.

  10. Remove the stomach sac from the lobster. Remove the liver and any roe from the head and set aside for use in the sauce.

  11. Transfer the cleaned frame of the lobster to a baking tray.

  12. Cut the claw and tail meat into chunks and return to the shell making sure there is a mix of both in each half of the lobster.

  13. To make the thermidor, melt the butter in a small pot and sweat the shallot and minced garlic over a low heat until softened.</p><p>Add the white wine, turn up the heat to medium-high and reduce until almost completely evaporated. Add the cream and reduce by half.

  14. Add the cayenne pepper, Dijon mustard, cheese and mix well to melt the cheese.

  15. Remove from the heat and stir in the reserved liver and roe.

  16. Preheat a grill to high, spoon the thermidor sauce over the lobster meat-filled shell halves and grill for 3-4 minutes until golden.

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