Last Thursday I got the most random an amazing holiday present from a woman in my office- Lobster. At first I was excited but almost viewed this gift as a burden- what am I going to do with two lobsters in an office at 7:30 in the morning? Things started looking up when I peered into the festive bag and discovered that the two lobsters had already been steamed and sealed shut in heavy duty plastic bags. All I had to do was hide them in the back of the work fridge, hope that no sea juices leaked out and develop a plan of attack for after work.
Bringing the lobsters home I knew that reheating them was out of the question, my pops claims that you can microwave previously cooked lobsters for a minute and they should be heated through but I don’t have a microwave and if I did, I’m not sure if I would ever use it for lobster. My philosophy is that if you don’t have the luxury of mowing on lobster as soon as it comes out of the steam pot then the only way to go about eating it is to extract the meat and make a brand new dish.
I decided on lobster mac and cheese. I know it may sound like a cliche and boring route to take but honestly I have never made or tasted lobster mac and cheese so I was excited to enter uncharted territory with my local crow pals Mo & VBar.
Mo and I stared on shucking the lobsters and extracting the meat while VBar shredded some fontina and began the bechamel. We decided to jazz it up a bit with onions, garlic and cayenne pepper. We melted fontina and mozz into the bechamel, these happened to be the ones we had on hand but feel free to experiment with any your favorite melting cheeses. We combined our hodge podge of al dente cooked pasta, cheese sauce, and small diced lobster chunks and distributed them into two casserole dishes. We sprinkled the top with bread crumbs and grated pecorino romano and baked them on 375 degrees for around 20-30 minutes. The top didn’t get as crispy as we would have preferred but we decided to take them out to avoid the lobster taking on the attributes of rubber. To shy away any chance of contracting gout from the lobster decadence and tasty beverages we whipped up a quick salad of mixed greens, shredded carrots, onions and chopped walnuts topped with a simple mustard, honey and white wine vinaigrette.
We all got together to exchange presents but more importantly we got to spend time together before parting ways for the holidays- hanging out in the kitchen, whipping up new creations and sharing them with the rest of our friends. This recipe ended up being a perfect way to share two lobsters with 6 close pals.
