Cod wasn't the only fish that was in my freezer and after having a little lobster roll at Outside Lands, I wanted more. As with most festival food, it was smaller and more expensive than buying it at the store and I was going to need some more lobster to really make me happy. Let's be honest though - lobster is expensive. With Dan living with me, I do a lot of my protein shopping at Costco. They have really good quality meat and it's nearby. However, the only thing more expensive than a pricey protein - is that protein in bulk. So seeing a pack of lobster tails for $60 had my wallet sweating. Luckily, I looked over and saw a bag of giant lobster claws for $17. I bought the bag figuring I could toss it in the freezer until I had an idea of what to do with it. I had figured it would be a lobster bisque eventually but then the idea for a paleo take on a lobster roll dawned on me...
Even though this was a healthy take on the lobster roll, I still wanted the lobster portion to be really familiar and that meant putting some mayo on it. I did want to make it from scratch though and I thought this would be a good way to see what my new blender could do. I went with Nom Nom Paleo's Mayo recipe and the immersion blender method (even though I was using a regular blender). I combined my egg yolk, lemon, water, and mustard, and then poured in my avocado oil.
 |
| Oily goodness |
I put the cup on my ninja and pulsed it a little bit. It didn't seem to be working very well and the next couple of hours was a mess of trying different things to get my mayo to thicken...
In the mean time, I decided to prep my salad. I knew that there wouldn't be a replacement for the buttery goodness of lobster roll bread. My best plan was just to put the lobster over a bed of awesome veggies with great tastes and textures. I started with a bed of spinach and added some cucumber.
Next up were some fresh tomatoes. I used a kumato and an heirloom tomato. It's pretty common to hear me say that heirloom tomatoes are the best part of summer. I love them. They are so much meatier and more flavorful than your standard tomato. Speaking of flavor - many of the different colors have different flavor profiles. Farmers markets are good at tipping you off to them. The supermarket isn't so much so I get a nice surprise each time. This yellow one was a little more tangy and acidic which was a nice contrast to the sweeter kumato.
I put all of these onto my bed of spinach and decided to get to my lobster.
This is what the bag from Costco looked like if you want to get some. This was easily the most affordable lobser I've bought and it worked really well in this dish. I imagine it would be great for lobster bisque as well or anything else where the lobster is part of a larger dish rather than the star.
I realized I didn't have crackers so my lobster got thouroughly beat with a heavy knife as I helped it out of its shell.
I mixed the lobster with finely diced green onions, jalapeno, and celery. This combination adds nice flavor and crunch to the otherwise tender lobster.
The last step was to add the mayo. Unfortunately, this is what mine looked like. I read through the Nom Nom Paleo Mayo blog post and it explained that my mayo broke and had some tips on fixing it. It was too bad this wasn't in the book I was referencing last night.
The good thing though - it was still really delicous. It was basically a light lemony vinagrette. I decided to splash some on my lobster anyways and it ended up making an awesome dressing. I definitely want to try making this again with proper paleo mayo to figure out which is better because I may have stumbled upon a happy kitchen accident instead!
My finished product was beautiful and delicious! I served it with some of my gluten free Brazilian cheese bread (made for the first time with grass fed cheese - amazing improvement over something already good) and took a wine break with some Ace cider.
I'm really happy with the way this turned out. As I mentioned above, I'd love to see how it tastes with the mayo. I think it might also be awesome with Sriracha mayo since the jalapenos were way milder than I expected. You can also change it up by putting different veggies in your salad. I picked some of my favorites but carrots, bell peppers, apples, or just a different leafy great could also be great.
Lemon Vinagrette Mayo Failure:
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 cup avocado oil
salt & pepper to taste
This makes way more dressing than you need. No need to look at this and think "omg a cup of oil is not healthy."
- Mix them all together in blender. Blend on high. Blending slowly might result in mayo and who wants that...
Lobster "Roll" Salad
2 cups spinach or leafy greens of choice1 large hierloom tomato or 2 small for variety (optional)
1 small cucumber (optional)
1 jalapeno (optional)
1 green onion
2 small celery stalks
2-3 large lobster claws
Makes about 1 salad with leftover lobster (for another salad later or just to eat on its own!)
- Overnight - thaw lobster claws in fridge. While prepping, keep claws in lukewarm bowl of water to make sure they aren't still frozen.
- Bench of leafy greens and cut into smaller strips. Add to serving bowl.
- Cut heirloom tomatoes and cucumber into small pieces - about 1 cm. Add to serving bowl
- Break open lobster claws and add meat to large mixing bowl.
- Finely dice celery, jalapeno (be careful about getting on skin), and green onion. Add to large mixing bowl with lobster meat.
- Add a few tablespoons to lobster meat mixture. I would suggest adding a little and then adjusting if you think it needs more flavor. You can also add some salt and pepper if you want a little more flavor.
- Scoop about half of the lobster mixture and add it to the top of the salad you started in your serving bowl.
Enjoy!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment