One of the things on my Things to Do in Boston Before I Move list was cooking lobster. I probably should have re-phrased that, though, to read “Make Mr. X cook me lobster” because when it came down to it, well, I wussed out. There is just something about those things that gives me the heebie-jeebies, even after they’re dead. But I’ve got myself a pretty great man, and when I told him I wanted lobster, he took on all the heavy lifting of this particular cooking project without complaint. He even bought an extra lobster so I could make lobster risotto later in the week.
Boiled lobster feels like a quintessential New England thing to me. I know people eat lobster all over the world, but my first lobster experiences took place here in Massachusetts, and I think the two will be forever associated in my mind. I expect that will be good for some nostalgia in the future.
Cooking lobster really seems quite simple, if you can bring yourself to get close enough to this guy to pick him up:
You’re basically just boiling a really big pot of water, cutting up some lemons, and going to town. Once the water is boiling (which can take awhile: It has to be a really big pot of water), you throw the suckers in there and let them cook for about 10 minutes. There’s not much meat in them, so they don’t need a lot of time to cook. Once they’re bright red and, well, dead you’re ready to proceed with the part of this endeavor that is actually challenging: separating the edible bits from the non-edible bits.
I really do have it good: Mr. X took this step on as well, which is great news for me because I hate getting messy, and this is a very messy process. From my clean distance, I could see that he first took the tail off, and broke it apart to pull the tail meat out intact. Then he used the dull side of a knife blade to bang on the claws until they cracked and he could pull them apart, and pull out the (delicious) claw meat within. We did not bother with the skinny little lobster legs.
After all of this arduous labor, you’re left with, well, not a whole lot of lobster meat. But it is so rich and so wonderful, especially when it’s dipped in melted butter, I certainly felt like I had my fill. But just to round out the meal, and because they also seem so perfectly New England, I made potatoes.
These were simple, and probably some of the best potatoes I’ve ever made. I just boiled some small red potatoes (I cut the larger potatoes in half) for about 5 or 6 minutes. Then I tossed them with olive oil, salt, and a little lemon pepper and roasted them for about 25 or 30 minutes at 400F. When I pulled them out they were just beginning to brown, and had a perfect crusty shell and creamy insides. Dipping them in melted butter made them feel like even more of an indulgence.
Oh, and did I mention lobster risotto? Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you all about it.