Serves: 4
Preparation time: 55 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Ingredients needed to make Lobster Salad:
- 2 Maine lobsters, 1 ½ lb each
- ½ cup celery, diced
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 10 fresh parsley sprigs
- 4 fresh thyme sprigs
- 2 tsp frsh chives, minced
- 2 tsp fresh tarragon, minced
- 4 lemons, plus more sliced into wedges for serving
- 2 cups canola oil
- ¼ cup champagne vinegar
- 4 tsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp hot sauce
- 2 eggs
- 3 bay leaves
- 15 black peppercorns
- 1 tsp Hungarian paprika
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- Butter lettuce leaves, for serving
Cooking instructions for Lobster Salad:
- Leave the lobsters in the freezer for 20 minutes to make them inactive and easier to handle.
- To prepare the poaching liquid, pour a gallon of water into a large pot and throw in the thyme, parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns.
- Sprinkle the paprika as well as red pepper flakes into it and squeeze out the juice of 4 lemon halves into it.
- Throw in those lemon halves and sprinkle enough salt into the pot to make the mixture heavily salted.
- Cook the mixture over moderate heat until it starts boiling and bring it down to a simmer.
- To kill the lobster, push the tip of the knife right through shell at the middle, dorsal part of the head.
- Twist the tail off from the body of each lobster and drop it into boiling mixture.
- Poach them for 3 minutes and twist off the large claws to add them to the poaching liquid.
- Cook them further for 8 minutes and drain them out into a bowl; set aside to cool them completely.
- To make the aioli, dump the egg yolks into a food processor, along with a dash of hot sauce, mustard and vinegar.
- Throw in the garlic clove and sprinkle 1 ½ tsp salt into it.
- Blitz them thoroughly into a smooth paste and drizzle the canola oil into it gradually in a thin yet steady flow, while the processor is still running, until all of it is incorporated into the mixture to form a thick and creamy sauce.
- Spoon it into a bowl and keep aside.
- Remove the shells of the lobsters and pull out the meat from them.
- Remove any thin cartilage, sticking out from the meat and chop the meat into bite-sized chunks.
- Toss them into a large salad bowl and throw in the celery, chives and tarragon.
- Pour in ¼ cup of the prepared aioli and toss them all together until well coated with the dressing.
- Spoon it onto the lettuce leaves and garnish with a sprinkling of extra chopped chives on top.
- Serve right away alongside lemon wedges.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
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