Cookery: roast lobster with vanilla butter.
To my mind the lobster is the king of the crustaceans and the best in the world come from Scotland, where the conditions for them to breed -- rocky areas with clean cold water -- are unparalleled. Now’s the time to buy them too, since the price rockets after September.
The older the lobster the heavier it will be, so choose one that weighs around 500-750g. One news story from 2009 told of a 9kg specimen estimated to be 140 years old, which was granted a compassionate reprieve from the pot in a New York restaurant after the campaign group Peta heard of its imminent fate.
A young female lobster that seems heavy for its size is the goal for a dish like this, so pick a few up and get a feel for them. You can tell a lobster’s sex by turning it on to its back -- a female will have a hollow in its belly.
Roast lobster with vanilla butter
Serves 4 as a starter
The lobster
2 live lobsters, 500-600g each
2tbsp olive oil
Salt and fresh ground white pepper
Kill the lobsters by piercing the centre of the head with a large knife and cutting down and through, quickly and efficiently.
Set the oven to 220C/gas mark 7 and place a large oven dish on the middle shelf.
Crack each claw with a meat mallet or the blunt end of a cleaver. Place the lobsters in the oven dish, spoon the olive oil over them and season with a little salt and fresh ground pepper.
Place the dish back in the oven and cook the lobsters for 10-15 minutes or until red, then remove them from the oven. When the lobsters are cool enough to handle, extract the meat from the claws by gently twisting the shell at the point where it is cracked. If the meat sticks to the shell, free it with a small knife.
Detach the tails from the heads by twisting them at the joint between body and tail, then discard the bodies. With a pair of scissors, cut the shell on the underside of each tail in half lengthways and remove the meat.
If there is any green protein at the top of the tail then remove it with the tip of a knife (you can whisk this into soft butter, use it to make a sauce or discard it). Cut the tail meat into 5mm slices. Place the claw and tail meat on a plate, cover with tinfoil and keep warm.
The sauce
150ml dry white wine
2tbsp white wine vinegar
4 shallots, finely sliced
5tbsp double cream
150g cold butter, diced
Half a vanilla pod, split in half
Bring the wine, vinegar and shallots to the boil and reduce the volume by two-thirds. Add the double cream, boil for 30 seconds, then lower the heat, gradually whisking in the butter until fully incorporated.
Pass the sauce through a fine sieve into a clean pan, then scrape the vanilla seeds out of the pod and whisk them into the sauce while gently warming it for a couple of minutes. Store at room temperature until ready to use.
To serve
1tbsp butter
500g baby spinach, washed
200g watercress
Melt the butter in a pan and add the spinach and watercress. Stir until the vegetables have wilted, seasoning them with a little salt and fresh ground pepper.
Arrange the wilted veg on a warm plate then place a lobster claw and a few slices of the tail on top. Finish with three or four spoonfuls of sauce over the lobster and serve immediately.
WINE MATCH
2008 Chablis, Premier Cru, “Vaillons”, Jean-Paul et Benoit Droin, Burgundy, WoodWinters (www.wood winters.com, 01786 834894), £19
Kicking off with a soft, aromatic taste, this chablis swiftly develops fresh fruit and mineral notes before ending elegantly.
Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond, Cameron House, Loch Lomond. Visit www.martin-wishart.co.uk or call 01389 722504.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article