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FM Recipes: Boiled Lobster with Spicy Garlic Butter Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

  • One 2.5 lb. Hard Shell Lobster
  • Butter
  • Minced Garlic
  • Hot Sauce
  • Pepper
  • Salt
  • Water / Beer / Wine
  • Lemons for Garnish

How To Prepare:

  1. Fill your pot up with enough water to cover your lobster and bring it to a boil.
  2. Meanwhile, in a microwave-safe bowl add half a stick of unsalted butter, cover with hot sauce, add a tablespoon or two of minced garlic, a dash of salt and pepper. Add a dash of water or beer or wine. Insert bowl in microwave and cook on high for one minute. Cover your bowl to avoid splashing inside microwave. Leave bowl in microwave.
  3. Once water has come to a boil, add your lobster to the pot. Some people prefer to remove the protective rubber bands from the claws prior to boiling, but be very cautious as a live lobster claw can be very powerful! Some say that the rubber spoils the taste, but this isn't necessary and often goes unnoticed.
  4. General rule of thumb is it is 7 minutes for the first pound of lobster and an additional 3 minutes per pound thereafter. We used a 2.5 lb. lobster so by that methodology it would be a total boil time of 11 1/2 minutes. Your lobster should have the nice red color shown in the pictures above when done.
  5. Cut your lemons into quarters and place on your plate decoratively. The lemon aroma makes for a nice addition to any seafood dish.
  6. Turn your microwave on for an additional minute to further heat up your spicy garlic butter sauce.
  7. Carefully remove your lobster from the pot using tongs and place on a plate in between your lemon garnish.
  8. Now, add a beverage of choice and begin to dismember the lobster for delicious consumption!

ADDITIONAL TIP: If cooking multiple lobsters at once, allow for additional cooking time. Try not to cook more than 6-8 lobsters in one typical pot, but instead do it in multiple pots or repeat process for additional lobsters. If using a thermometer, you will want the inside of your lobster meat to be between 140 and 145 degrees F.

Dismembering The Lobster:

  1. Having a lobster cracker, lobster pick or any hard object to bust open hard shell lobsters will be helpful. We used the straight edge of a grill spatula to make a nice cut on each side of the claws. First thing to do is remove the claws from the body as shown in the pictures above.
  2. You can pick out the meat using a fork or lobster pick from the knuckles and claws.
  3. Twist your lobster tail off of the body. Using your fingers or a knife, make a cut or depress the sides of the lobster tail to crush the shell and the tail will be easily removable. Remove any of the additional materials that are red, green, or black. Some may even prefer to wash off of the tail with a hot water faucet. Remember to lift back the top of the lobster to remove all tomalley and other substances for optimal taste. Tomalley (from the Carib word tumale, meaning a sauce of lobster liver), crab fat, or lobster paste is the soft, green substance found in the body cavity of lobsters, that fulfills the functions of both the liver and the pancreas.
  4. The small legs can be delicious, but tedious to eat. Try using a small lobster pick to access the meat inside the legs.
  5. A fork and knife or just using your fingers to dip each succulent piece of lobster meat into your dipping sauce is all you have to do next besides enjoying every delicious bite of lobster.

FUN FACT: DID YOU KNOW THAT LOBSTERS WERE ONCE SO PLENTIFUL AND CONSIDERED NOT A LUXURY ITEM THAT THEY WERE FED TO JAIL INMATES?

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