Lobsters are TASTY, and interesting creatures of the ocean: they taste with their legs, chew with their stomachs, they can regenerate their limbs, just to name a few (Source ). Heralded on the gourmet pedestal, they were once poor men’s chicken and even fed to pigs and goats, during colonial times ( Source I thought goats are supposed to be vegan!)

Affordable lobsters are the one of best things I love about New England Summers! I shamelessly admit, I once had a huge craving and devoured 2 lobsters with combined weights of 4lbs the summer of 2013. Cooking them as non-frequent summer treats, I have tried a few ways- using them in lobster salad/roll after steaming being the favorite go to. Lobster salad recipes are everywhere, a lot of call for mayonnaise. I’d suggest being very conservative with how much you use because it can overpower and mask the taste the lobster meat. The same goes for celery. I honestly think the lobster flesh is perfectly tasty on its own, does not need anything else!

I was once  inspired by Thomas Keller’s butter poached lobster recipe and cooked my lobsters sous vide in butter, but somehow overcooked it! Need to revisit the technique at some point. For now my mood is all set on the bonfire in my backyard. The contraption is actually a dryer drum left behind by a previous dweller of the house. It works beautifully for roasting marshmallows and enjoying the camp fire smell.

My bonfire lobster roasting trial: slit a the belly side of the tail, and stuff the lobster tail with butter; slowly roast the lobster on a skewer for about 6min until the tail can separate easily with the shell.

Dip in brown butter (made by heating butter in low heat for 10min, and filtering out the solid bits) to keep moist.

To complement  the lobster meat, I experimented with a simple salad of thinly shaved (with a truffle shaver) slices of celery stalk, cucumber and kohlrabi, simply dressed with lemon juice. This salad needs tweaking, did not work as well as anticipated.

The sauce was tomato puree cooked down to pasty texture and mixed with brown butter: this was a good idea and worth doing. Right before plating, lobster tail was brushed with brown butter and quickly heated over the bonfire, which lends a nice smoky touch to its delicate flesh.