For many, lobster is the fillet steak of the sea, but did you know that the meat is high in protein (22%) and low in fat (1.5%)? More facts about these brilliant creatures include:
The elastic bands put on their claws by fishermen aren’t just to stop them nipping you, they’re cannibals too. Nice!
They use their large claw for crushing and their smaller claw for cutting
Most lobsters will be at least six years old before they’re big enough to land and sell legally
They’re sustainable – there is a system to put females back in the sea for breeding
If you fancy cooking a live lobster, pop it in the freezer for 2 hours before you cook it to numb its senses. Then plunge it in a large pan filled with rapidly boiling salted water and cook it for 10 minutes per 450g. Although thermidor is a classic recipe, to allow the flavour to really shine through you can’t beat homemade mayonnaise (below). When we make this in my cookery classes, there is a lot of genuine surprise at how much better the real thing is. It forms the basis of so many fantastic seafood sauces and has lots of great uses, for example, add harissa to make a dip. You can use olive oil, but I find the flavour is too overpowering for many seafoods so this recipe contains sunflower oil.
Best mayo for lobster
Ingredients
2 egg yolks
1 tsp dry English mustard
290ml sunflower oil
½ lemon
1tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and white pepper
Method
Put the egg yolks, a pinch of salt and mustard powder in a clean bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon.
Start adding the oil drip by drip and beat it into the egg mixture very thoroughly each time.
Continue to do this until about one half of the oil has been absorbed into the egg.
The mixture will be very thick and stiff.
If at any time it looks like the mixture is separating, squeeze a few drops of lemon juice in, beat until smooth and continue.
When half the oil has been used, give the lemon a good squeeze (a generous tsp) and beat it into the mixture thoroughly.
Then start to alternate between adding a little more oil and white wine vinegar, beating until smooth each time.
When all the oil and the vinegar have been added, add more lemon, salt and pepper to taste.
If the eggs are fresh, this mayo will keep in the fridge for a good couple of weeks.
Make sure the surface is covered with cling film so it doesn’t dry out.
