The Lobster Thermidor Experiment

Hey!

So it was Sunday Feb 28, 2010 the day it happened. I am not referring only to the day the Canada Men's hockey team won GOLD at the Olympics, but to the fact that I demonstrated the ability to hunt and kill my own dinner. A very primal human concept to some, but something I really had not convinced myself I could really do.

Of course by hunt I mean I headed to the supermarket and asked for 3 two pound LIVE lobsters. My daughter was mortified that we had to transport these things in the car with her, after all "Mama what if they crawl out of the bag??". After showing her they were in fact tightly confined in 3 plastic bags the look she gave me was one of those "well if you say so..." looks but she still seemed hesitant. She then asked me if we could name them... " Honey we are not naming dinner." was my response.

So we get home and the lobsters go directly to the sink. I kept looking in thinking " I am so sorry I am going to do this". It seems wierd to have that feeling that you know you are going to end a life, even though they do taste relly good. I had to call upon my inner Ramsay and just go for it.

Now I had every intention of following Gordon's suggestion that the most humane way of killing lobster is to cut thier heads open. My wonderful man said " Honey don't be silly, just plunge them into boiling water". Although Gordon does say you can do this and I was exceptionally nervous to cut into them I had to agree the boiling water was a much better idea.

So the time came....

With a very heavy heart and a nervous hand I plunged the lobsters into the boiling water...

So it was done. I have hunted and killed my dinner. So I let them cook for 12-14 minutes until they were bright red. Then I had to remove the tails and claws. This was actually quite easy but word of advice, if you ever do this run the lobster under cold water for a few. Those suckers were HOT!

I then had to remove the meat from the tails. I started of using a knife to split the tail open on the bottom side. Ended up with my kitchen scissors, way easier...
I then pulled the meat from the tails, was all good till one of the darn things took vengence and I cut my finger open on the shell. OUCH!!!!

So I continued on with Gordon's Lobster Thermidor recipe after recieving first aid on my finger. Now I had to make the sauce. Seemed easy enough but the darn thing would NOT thicken. I had to add corn starch to it. SO a fail for me on that one.

I drizzled the corn starched sauce and grated parmesen on the meat in the clean tail shells and broiled as directed.

They looked pretty yummy to my surprise. Unfortunatly I over cooked the lobster so it was like chewing tire rubber. Not pleasent. I was angry. Very very angry. The saving grace to this meal, I had left the lobster claws intact and they were really yummy with garlic butter.

So over all I have to say that if I ever have the urge for lobster again I will head to a restaurant. It was a great learning experiance and maybe down the road I will try again but for now the urge is satisfied and onto the next recipe.

Talk to ya later!
J