I was visiting a couple of accounts and noticed across the street from one of them a place called "New England Lobster Company" in South San Francisco. I also noticed a sign that said "Open to the Public" so I said 'fuck it' and strolled in. They were primarily a wholesaler, but they had live lobsters and a reach-in freezer filled with different sized lobster tails. The 3-4 oz tails were a mere $5 each! the 4-5 oz tails were only $6! There were 5 total sizes, but i settled on a $5 and a $6 tail. The dude working at the place packed them in a bag with ice for me and $11 and 2 lobster tails later, i was on my way. 2 hours later, I got home, took the tails off the ice and put them in a bowl covered with seran wrap in the fridge and off to tennis i went. Done at 830, i stopped on my way home at Mr. Paul Mittendorff's house. We shot the breeze for a few and we talked lobster. "I think I'm just gonna boil and saute and serve them with quinoa and broccoli" I said. Paul wisely cautioned "Dude...you've got lobster tails..Maine lobster tails. Make something good like a pasta or a risotto." We brainstormed ideas, I said "ok" and to home I went to explore another uncharted culinary territory and the topic of today's entry: lobster risotto.
I knew I needed some sort of stock to make this risotto work, so I took the defrosted tails out of their shells and immediately placed the shells into a small pot of boiling water. I chooped up a quarter onion, 3 garlic cloves and 2 large broccoli florets. I also trimmed the ends of both tails off and chopped up 1-2 oz of the lobster. It looked like this:
Pardon the blurriness on the bottom part of the photo, but you can get an idea of the amounts. The chopped up lobster tail on the bottom right is the most important part. I ran out of the seemingly endless supply of shallots at my house so onion had to suffice for tonight.
The shells and legs were still boiling in the stock and i threw in a pinch of onions and a pinch of garlic along with some salt and pepper. Of course, there was olive oil in the stock pot from the start. This was an "emergency" stock of sorts since i only ended up boiling it for 30 mins where usually 2 hours would've yielded a better product.
In my medium pot, i poured some olive oil and as soon as it was heated, I chucked in the broccoli, onions and garlic with salt and pepper. After about 2 minutes of stirring, i threw in the lobster (keep in mind that I set aside the heartiest part of both tails for later.) I cracked a bottle of chardonnay and splashed some over the mixture which had sauteed for about 3-4 mins. I kept stirring and washed a heaping half cup of rice (alter all proportions based on how many people you're feeding). I squeezed some lemon in the pot and then added the rice and about a cup of the drained stock, which i just separated from the shells. I stirred the pot really well and added more salt and a dash of crushed red pepper. Brought it to a boil, then took it down to low and covered the pot. I placed the 2 remaining portions of lobster in the hot stock so they would slowly and lightly poach as the risotto cooked. In about 10 minutes, i added more stock to the risotto. In another 4 minutes, i added more. This is a technique my old man taught me about risottos. He always stresses that you need to keep adding liquid throughout the cooking cycle of the risotto. I guess this is what Italian dads teach their kids....I added the final stock at about the 17 minute mark and covered the pot for good.
I then cut the 2 hearty tail portions into 8 total chunks. I heated some olive oil in a small skillet, and threw in one small chopped clove of garlic.I threw the lobster chunks in the oil, sprinkled crushed red pepper, salt and black pepper and tossed them until done.
At about 24 minutes, i uncovered the completed risotto. I spread it on a plate and shaved some fresh parmesan over it. I scattered the lobster chunks on top and this is what I came up with:
Not bad, eh? A glass of the same chardonnay paired nicely. The result was perfect. The ends of the tails that i chopped into the risotto were surprisingly chunky and added a lot of lobster flavor to the rice. The broccoli cooked down and blended in nicely with everything. Expectedly, the chunks of lobster on top were the best part. Pretty solid meal. Happy eatin'!
Spinelli
YUMMY!
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