Happy 4th of July and lobster rolls!
/Happy 4th of July!
Along with hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, fireworks, slices of watermelon, and kids running around the lawn, nothing screams summer like lobster rolls.
There is one lobster roll that really sticks in my memory. I was up in Massachusetts hanging out with my cousins. They drove us up to Maine, stopped to have lunch at Robert's Maine Grill in Kittery, and then picked up fresh lobsters for dinner on the pier in Gloucester. It was an amazing seafood weekend.
There are two camps for lobster rolls: warm and buttery or cold with mayo . I'm in the latter camp. I always find the buttered ones to be dry, and the Robert's lobster roll certainly confirmed this in my mind.
For the most part, I'm a fan of local, sustainable, low carbon footprint, and all that crunchy granola stuff. I like to know the farmer who grows my meat and my vegetables. I buy produce from a farm and pickle or make jam, lining up pretty jars and enjoying it year round. Sometimes I make my own butter from the cream of local grass-fed cows. But there is something to be said for getting high quality seafood from its source of origin every once in a while.
For the 4th, I wanted blue crabs. We've been buying from The Crab Place in Crisfield, Maryland for years. Their crabs are really delicious, and they pack them really well for shipping. I've always been happy with my order. You can get the crabs live or steamed. I find that it's less stressful for me -- and the crabs are fresher since they are cooked earlier -- if they steam them for me.
It's taken a few years, but finally like Old Bay. Back when we first started ordering blue crabs, I asked for them without any Old Bay and served them Chinese-style with black vinegar and julienned ginger or clarified butter the way I grew up having them. They are good both ways. :)
Our friend Jaime is from DC. She used to pick up crabs every time she drove through DC, so I invited her over to partake in our crab feast. And that's when she mentioned lobster rolls. Well, that sounded like a mighty fine idea indeed.
We can find lobsters in Atlanta, but you might be surprised how much of a challenge it is to get good ones. You want to buy live lobsters from a tank, and you have a find an employee who feels like helping you with this adventure. That can sometimes be a challenge. I prefer female lobsters for the roe. I'll have to walk through how to tell the girls from the boys another time because I forgot to take pictures. You want your lobsters to be snappy and active. This means you might need to go through a lot of the lobsters in the tank to get the ones you want. It has taken a lot of time and patience in the past. If you buy lobsters live at the store, make sure the bag is open so they can breathe and make it home. You can put them in a brown paper bag in the fridge when you get home to keep them. It makes them sleepy. The most humane way to kill a lobster is to shove the sharp tip of a knife through their head before cooking them.
Or, take the easy way out and buy just the tails. That's what I did. Click! -- and I added four Maine lobster tails to my order.
The tails arrive frozen. They came in on Saturday, and our feast was planned for Sunday, so they went into the fridge to defrost. A kitchen towel underneath prevented any pools of water.
If you are wondering about the crabs, I put them in a nice handy plastic see-through bins from Restaurant Depot for the night. I use those things for everything.
They look pretty good, don't they?
I planned to cook the lobsters ahead of time, chill them, and mix them up right before serving. I did a lot of research for lobster rolls, but directionally preferred the simplicity of the recipe on Bon Appetit.
I grabbed a pot, put about an inch of water in it, added a generous amount of salt, and set it to boil. Then I put in my lobster tails in a single layer, covered the pot, and let it cook for eight minutes.
When the lobster was cooked, I pull them out and ran them under cold water to stop the cooking. I should have pulled the meat from the shell right then, but I don't do this too often. Next time, I'll know. You can cut the shells so that the tails don't curve, but I wasn't too concerned about that.
I pulled out the meat with some difficulty, but for the most part, they came out pretty well. I put them into the fridge to chill. I saved the lobster shells for future stock. Lobster bisque is one of my favorites.
When Jaime and Eric showed up, I chopped up the lobster and added the lemon juice, chives, mayonnaise, diced celery, salt, and pepper.
I had pre-ordered rolls from H&F Bread Co, explicitly requesting split-top hot dog buns for lobster rolls. Josh had to take a trip out Sunday morning to pick them up. But when they arrived, they looked just like regular hot dog buns! That is, until I realized that, duh, I could just cut them through the top. Brilliant.
I left butter out that morning to come to room temp so it was smear-able. I slathered up the sides of the bun and heated a cast iron griddle, then browned the buns on both sides. See, if you cut them through the sides that are browning, they would look like your everyday hot dog buns.
Once they were browned, I pulled them off the heat and piled them high with the lobster mixture. They were absolutely delicious. We are definitely doing these more often.
Oh, if you are wondering about those blue crabs, they were pretty awesome, too. There were full, happy bellies all around.
Lobster rolls
Adapted from Bon Appetit's Ultimate Lobster Rolls
Ingredients:
4 6-7 oz Maine lobster tails
Celery, diced. If you like celery, one stalk. If you don't, like me, go half a stalk. The less you like it, the smaller the dice.
3 tbsp chives, chopped
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 tbsp mayonnaise -- I like Duke's
Unsalted butter, taken out in advance to soften
4 split-top hot dog buns, 4 1/2" long
Preparation:
Lobster mixture
1. Fill a pot with about an inch of water and salt generously. Bring to a boil.
2. When water is boiling, add lobster tails in one layer. Cover. General rule of thumb is two minutes per ounce, but err on less cooking time. Mine were done and shells were red in eight minutes.
3. Pull the lobster from the pot and run under cold water to stop the cooking.
4. When lobster is cool enough to touch, pull the lobster meat from the shells. Use kitchen shears to cut through the carapace. You can chill the lobster meat for up to a day.
5. When ready to serve, cut the lobster into chunks.
6. Mix celery, half the chives, lemon juice, and mayo with the lobster, adding salt and pepper to taste. You may not need a lot of salt, so taste before salting.
Buns
7. If buns are not split, cut through so the sides of the bun are exposed. If you are using regular hot dog buns, stand the buns up and slice down the sides so more of it is exposed.
8. Heat up a pan, preferably cast iron. Butter the sides of the buns generously with unsalted butter.
9. When the pan is hot, add the buns, buttered side down. When brown, turn them over with tongs to brown the other side.
10. Remove all the buns from the heat while you fill them.
11. Fill each bun with 1/4 of the lobster mixture. Top with chopped chives. Enjoy immediately.