This year, we had lobsters from Maine for Thanksgiving. They arrived live in a Styrofoam box. We prepared the lobsters early in the day so that at Thanksgiving dinner, we would not have to struggle extracting the meat from the shell. We decided to steam the claws and bodies and then butter poach the tails in sous vide. I cut the head/body portion in half with a heavy chef's knife sending the lobsters off quickly. I then removed the claws. I steamed the claws (for 12 to 14 minutes) and the halved body sections (7 to 8 minutes) in a Dutch oven with a steamer basket. I also steamed the tails briefly (3-4 minutes) and then removed the tail meat. I discovered that it was almost impossible to remove the tail meat from the shell if I did not either quickly boil or steam them. I found that the meat would not come off from the shell cleanly and a lot of it otherwise got left behind. My wife and I then worked together to remove all the claw meat, even from the legs (my wife did this using a small wooden roller). I kept the body sections in the refrigerator until dinner (two had roe or corals). I stuffed the sections with crab meat in Bechamel sauce and baked/grilled them (a modification of what I posted before). I also made lobster bisque from the shells of the lobsters as usual.
We did not take any pictures at Thanksgiving dinner. We had champagne (H. Blin Champagne Brut NV, which was just OK). We served cucumber and the lobster meat (mostly claws) dressed in a Japanese "Kimisu" 黄身酢. Then, we had the lobster bodies stuffed with the crab meat and Bechamel sauce. Finally, we had the sous vide butter poached lobster tails with sautéed asparagus. This time I used a lower temperatures (55C) for the sous vide. The lobster came out better than when it was cooked at 60C.
Since we had a good amount of left over lobster claw meat, at my wife's suggestion, the next day, I made this crab stuffed Japanese omelet.
Instead of using the regular Japanese broth, I used my lobster bisque to season the eggs (I used three eggs and 3 tbs of lobster bisque). I also made an emulsified butter sauce of reduced lobster bisque, soy sauce, finished with pats of cold butter. We had this omelet for lunch the next day. Since we were still within the Thanksgiving holiday, we had a glass of chardonnay (Foley 2012).
Ingredients (for one omelet):
3 eggs
Lobster meat, Whatever amount you can roll in (#2)
Lobster bisque (#1).
Directions:
Like "U-maki" or other stuffed Japanese omelets, I used a rectangular Japanese omelet pan. I poured the egg mixture in thin layers and lined-up the lobster meat about half inch below the top (farther end). When the egg mixture was almost set, I started rolling the omelet. I repeated the process of pouring the egg mixture (to make sure it flowed under the omelet) and rolling until all the egg mixture was used (#3). When you cut it you can see the lobster meat (#4).
We knew lobster and eggs go well. Since I flavored the eggs with lobster bisque and made a sauce with reduced lobster bisque and butter, everything tied together with a wonderful lobster flavor. This was a good use of leftover lobster and much better than having leftover turkey. It was also a good way to enjoy the afternoon rather than try to go out a fight "black Friday" traffic.
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