CookEat Recipe
Poached Spiny Lobster with Lemon and Olive Oil
A whole spiny lobster poached in aromatic water, chilled and split for serving with olive oil and lemon.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 1 whole spiny lobster, about 1 kg, legally sourced and freshly prepared by a fishmonger for immediate cooking; Half an onion; 1 small carrot, about 60 g; 4 parsley sprigs; 2 bay leaves; 2 tablespoons wine vinegar; Salt; Enough water to cover the lobster in a snug pot, about 3 litres; 3 tablespoons olive oil, including a few drops for the shell; Juice of 1 lemon.
Step 2
Use a whole spiny lobster with its long antennae and without large front claws, freshly prepared by a reputable fishmonger. Keep it at 4°C or colder and cook promptly. Tie the tail gently underneath with food-safe kitchen string if needed to keep it curved during cooking.
Step 3
Put the onion, carrot, parsley and bay leaves into a snug pot with the water, vinegar and a little salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes to flavour the water. Add the lobster, return to a gentle boil and cook until the thickest tail meat is opaque and reaches 74°C; begin checking after about 20 minutes, allowing longer for a larger lobster.
Step 4
Cool the lobster promptly with some of its strained cooking liquid in a clean shallow container set in an ice-water bath. Stir the liquid and replenish the ice so both lobster and broth cool quickly, then refrigerate at 4°C or colder within 2 hours. Do not leave a large hot pot on the counter to cool. Allow about 60–90 minutes for active cooling, checking the temperature.
Step 5
Drain the chilled lobster well, gently pressing the curved tail to release trapped water, and pat the shell dry. Remove the string and rub the shell with a few drops of the measured oil. With kitchen shears or a sturdy knife, open the shell lengthwise from head to tail so the meat is easy to lift out. Discard the stomach sac, intestinal tract, gills and soft green or brown digestive tissues; serve only the clean firm meat.
Step 6
Serve chilled, dressing the extracted meat with the remaining olive oil and lemon juice. Alternatively, offer about 60 ml commercially prepared mayonnaise made with pasteurized egg, or a ready-to-use piquant sauce, separately instead of the simple oil-lemon dressing.
Step 7
For a lobster-and-egg sauce, reserve about 30 g clean cooked white body meat, excluding all digestive tissues; if there is too little body meat, complete the amount with tail meat. Finely chop it with 1 hard-boiled egg yolk (boil an egg for about 10–12 minutes until the yolk is firm, cool and peel it) and 1 teaspoon parsley. Season with pepper and little or no salt, then mix with 3 tablespoons olive oil and the juice of half a lemon, or about 1 tablespoon wine vinegar, to make a spoonable sauce. These sauce ingredients replace the simple serving dressing. Keep the sauce chilled and serve promptly with the lobster. Use chilled lobster and sauce within 1–2 days.
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