Recipe courtesy of Muriel's Supper Club
Butter Poached Lobster Tail with a Lobster Claw Cake in a Citrus Butter Sauce
- Level: Intermediate
- Yield: 4 servings
- Total: 1 hr 5 min
- Prep: 20 min
- Cook: 45 min
Ingredients
4 (1 1/2 pound) Maine lobsters
Lobster Pancakes:
2 ounces grape seed oil
2 leeks, cleaned and julienned
1 cup chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
3 whole eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 shallot, minced
2 tablespoons minced chives
1 tablespoon minced parsley
Poached Tails:
3 pounds butter, melted
2-ounce petite sorrel, cleaned
Citrus Butter Sauce, recipe follows
Citrus Butter Sauce:
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 small shallot, minced
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 pound butter, large diced
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 orange, juiced
1/2 lime, juiced
Salt and pepper
Directions
- Split lobsters, reserve tails, and season. Steam claws and shock in an ice bath. Clean claw meat to be free of all shell and shell fragments, chop, and reserve for the pancake mix.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a saute pan, heat oil to smoking hot, saute leeks until translucent. Add chicken stock, and reduce liquid until nearly dry. Season with salt and pepper.
- Melt butter in a small saucepan. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and sugar. In a separate bowl, beat eggs slightly, add melted butter, and buttermilk. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture, and fold together, adding half-and-half to make it a pancake batter consistency. Add shallot, chives, and parsley, and season with salt and pepper. Be careful not to overwork the batter.
- Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Set ring molds in the pan and spray well with nonstick spray. With a small ladle, add approximately 1 ounce of the batter in the bottom of the ring molds. Place the braised leeks and some of the chopped lobster on top of the batter, and add more batter on top of the lobster. When browned on the bottom, carefully invert the pancake, to brown the top. Cook for about 1 minute, and then place in the oven until the center is done. Test doneness by placing a toothpick into the center of the cake. It should be dry when removed.
- In a saute pan, add 3 pounds melted butter and on a low-medium flame heat the split tails flesh side down until flesh cooks enough to become firm. Turn tails over so that the shell side is down to finish cooking (remember not to cook too high of a heat so that milk solids in the butter evaporates too quickly-otherwise you "fry" the lobster tail rather than poaching it).
- Place sauce in middle of plate. Place lobster pancake in the pool of sauce. Wrap the 2 cooked lobster tail halves around themselves to hold each other in place on top of pancake. Garnish with petite sorrel.
Citrus Butter Sauce:
- In a saute pan reduce white wine and shallots until nearly dry. Add heavy cream and reduce to a thick consistency. Slowly add butter whisking continuously on medium heat. Do not bring to a boil. Add juices and season with salt and pepper. Strain.