Christmas Lobster

I hope all of you had a fantastic Christmas with lots of family time. We were blessed with a white Christmas this year. Just enough snow to make it feel like Christmas!

In our family, ’tis the season for more parties! As I mentioned, we had our traditional Mexican Christmas Eve meal with great friends. For Christmas, Mary usually likes to try something new. This year we happened to find a deal on Lobster tails at Costco. With inspiration from Jacques Pépin, we were set on making artichoke bottoms stuffed with sautéed mushrooms, topped with Lobster tails…umm yum. As it turned out, the artichoke bottoms ended up too small, so we did the mushrooms in the artichoke bottoms and kept the lobster tails separate. Since BF is a native Mainer, he took charge of the lobster tails, giving me a great lesson in the keys to great preparation. One word: grilling. They came out sweet and perfectly cooked. Add to that some spicy lemon butter and you have a great complement to the lobster. Kick things off with some roasted tomato bruschetta and you have a great Christmas meal! What did you make?

Merry Christmas and a very happy new year to you all!

Kelly

Grilled Lobster Tails with Spicy Lemon Butter

Adapted from Bobby Flay

Spicy Lemon Butter:

1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon clover honey

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

Crushed red pepper to taste (about 1 tablespoon)

Kosher salt and freshly grounded black pepper

Grilled Lobster Tails:

Kosher salt

6 Maine lobster tails

Canola oil, for brushing

Freshly ground black pepper

For the lemon-red Fresno butter: Put the lemon juice in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until reduced to 1/4 cup. Stir in the honey. Add the butter, lemon zest, red pepper, salt & pepper.

For the grilled lobster tails: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the lobster tails and boil for 4 minutes.

Remove and drain well.

Split each lobster tail lengthwise down the underside with a heavy knife, taking care not to cut through the back shell, so that the lobster is still in one piece but the inside is exposed.

Next, carefully remove the legs and under shell to expose the meat to easily season.

Heat a grill to medium-high heat. Brush the lobster flesh with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the tails flesh-side down on the grill and grill until slightly charred, about 3 minutes.

Flip over, brush with a generous amount of lemon butter, and continue grilling until just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes, brushing with butter throughout. Remove from the grill to a platter, flesh-side up. Top with a little more butter.

Serve with mushroom stuffed artichokes and salad.

Enjoy!

“There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?” ~Love Actually