Cooking Frozen Lobster Tails
How to cook frozen lobster tails and
whole live lobster and how to crack them.
For Frozen Lobster Tails.
Let the frozen lobster tails thaw
out in the refrigerator 24 hours
before cooking. Cooking unthawed
tails will result in the meat being tough.
A faster thaw can be achieved by placing
them in a plastic bag and immersing them
in water while in the refrigerator for a few hours.
Easy Way To Cook Lobster Tails;
The best cooking way is to steam cook them.
Steaming them will curl the tails so before steaming,
run a wooden skewer through them to prevent that
from happening. Use 1 quart or 4-5 cups of water
and bring water to a full boil. Place up to 4 average
size tails in top steam colander and cover the pot.
Lobster will turn red and the flesh becomes white. Allow to steam 1 and 1/2 minutes per ounce . Once cooked, take the steam colander to the sink and run cold water over them which stop the cooking process and allow you to rinse-wash the tails.
Serve each person some melted butter in a small cup plus some lemon wedges.
* Optional; After you steam cook the lobster you can brush butter on them to barbecue grill or broil them keeping in mind they will dry out quickly and the flavor will be destroyed so only barbecue or broil them for a minute or so...Seafood requires shorter cooking times than beef, lamb or chicken, and because most species of seafood have a low fat and high water content they can easily be overcooked. Only buy cooked shellfish if you intend to eat them without further cooking other then gently warming them using low heat, otherwise buy the Seafood uncooked because double cooking only toughens the flesh.
If just broiling lobster without any boiling, allow 5 to 6 minutes per pound.
Another simple way to cook the lobster tail is to split the shell down the top, pull the meat most of the way out of the shell and let it lay it on top of the shell. Place it in a pan with a little water and cover the pan. Cook on a medium high heat until the meat turns white, then baste with butter and season with salt and pepper. Again, as with any food, avoid the temptation to overcook it. Long cooking toughens the lobster so cook only until the meat is thoroughly heated.
Frozen seafood can be superior in quality to fresh seafood products. Frozen spiny or rock lobster tails have clear white meat, no odor, and should be purchased hard-frozen and kept hard-frozen until ready to thaw, cook and eat.
Cooking a Live Whole Lobster and How to Crack it.
Live lobsters should be cooked live and placed in boiling water head down the same day they are purchased.
Fill a very large stockpot or lobster pot half way with water. Add a generous amount of salt. Bring water to rapid boil. Add lobsters one at a time, head first. Return water to a boil. Cover and boil for 12-14 minutes until lobsters are a bright red and the long antennae can be pulled loose with ease. Remove lobsters with tongs and place in a colander to drain.
Serve each person a cooked bright red whole lobster plus a bib, some melted butter, a wet napkin for cleaning hands and a nut cracker.
Put on the bib. The bib is because water can squirt at a least expected moment.
The head and intestines is not edible. Now twist off the claws, crack each claw and knuckle with a nut cracker. Remove the meat.
Separate the tail from the body and break off the tail flippers. Extract the meat from each flipper then insert a fork and push the tail meat out in one piece. Remove and discard the black vein that runs the entire length of the tail meat.
Separate the shell of the body from the
underside by pulling them apart.
The green substance is called the tomalley, the
green tomalley is excellent, it is the liver
of the lobster, do not hesitated to
eat it ( It is a delicacy used in sauces.)
Open the underside of the body by cracking it apart in the middle, with the small walking legs on either side. Extract the meat from the leg joints and the legs themselves by biting down on the leg and squeezing the meat out with your teeth.
Serving the lobster plain is the simplest, some prefer it with a dip made from a mixture of salt, pepper, vinegar or lemon juice with a little of Worcestershire and olive oil or just dipped in clarify melted butter.
The American Lobster is found on the east coast of North America, from Newfoundland to North Carolina.and is found in warm waters off Florida, in the West Indies, off southern California but the most abundant is the New Hampshire "Maine" lobster. In France this lobster is called homard.
CLARIFY BUTTER: Better Restaurants serve Clarified Butter as a dipping for Seafood's such as heated Lobster, Crab Meat, Shrimp, etc. Clarified Butter is less apt to give your stomach a greasy after effect as melted regular butter could.
To Clarify Butter; Melt 2 stick (½ lb.) butter under a medium-low heat in a fry pan then let it sit for a couple of minutes, then slowly pour out the clear butter (it will come out first from the frying pan) into a cup or small bowl and STOP pouring when you see the leftover white milky fat at the bottom of the pan (discard that part.)
MainRecipe.com
Photo from Gorton's
New-Zealand lobster Sales
