January 2006

Lobster and herb salad

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This is a very simple starter or even a light lunch. It might seem a little extravagant but for a special occasion it is just perfect.

The first thing that you need to think about it making some lemon scented oil. This is available in good shops for those who do not have much time but this is how we made ours. We took some very good olive oil and into it we put lemon rind. We gently heated this and left it over a very low heat for a couple of hours. We do not want to deep fry the lemon.

After a couple of hours we added some salt, and a bunch of kaffa lime leaves. Then removed the oil from the heat and let it slowly cool. When it was cool we strained out the leaves and left to one side until we needed it. This oil will keep for months as long as it is left in an air tight container.

To make the dressing for this dish we used some of the lemon oil and added in some very finely chopped dill and a little very finely chopped chilli. We did not use the chilli seeds as this would add to much heat and all we wanted was the flavour and sweetness. This dressing can also be made well in advance.

The salad was made using a selection of fresh herbs and some crisp young salad leaves. The choice of herb comes down to personal choice but I would avoid anything too strong or robust. We used dill, coriander, some flat leaf parsley, some baby spinach leaves and a few red chard leaves.

The lobster is actually quite a small one as then they are about the right size for one per portion and also it makes them a lot cheaper to buy. We simply dropped the live lobster into a large pot of salted boiling water, brought that back to the boil and then simmered it for about three minutes. We then removed the lobster and let it cool. Once it was chilled we carefully removed the shell. We used the main tail part, as well as one of the large claws.

These can be removed whole from the shell as long as you are careful when breaking the shell. We kept the tail, a few of the legs and the head as a garnish for the dish. All the contents of the head were removed and the shell trimmed a bit so it would sit better on the plate. The tail meat was then thinly sliced and arranged on the plate with the salad and the dressing. That was it. We served ours with a little extra lemon and a few spots of balsamic vinegar for show.

I hope that if you have a special occasion coming up, that maybe you will give this a try. Enjoy.

Enjoy!

Paul Vincent, Head Chef.