11 Years, a Two-Year Old, and a Couple of Lobsters

March 19 is a special day.

On March 19, 2007, my husband and I decided to give our relationship a “go” and become an official couple. We were friends for years before we took this life altering leap, and it was simply the best decision I’ve ever made. Falling in love with your favorite person on the planet is a pretty cool experience, and it’s been an amazing ride ever since.

Fast forward nine years later and on March 19, 20016 my beautiful nephew was born. At the time, I was in the midst of my battle with cancer and every day my sister would bring him over during her maternity leave to be with me. He was the light in a very dark time and I appreciate him more than he’ll ever know.

So to mark this very special day, my husband I decided to cook a very special dish: lobster thermidor. We enjoyed this delectable meal on our honeymoon in Anguilla so decided to re-create it ourselves. We found a recipe on AllRecipes.com and it was incredible. Super rich so we balanced with some roasted veggies (cauliflower and brussels sprouts).  It’s definitely a special occasion dish as it took some time to prep (not difficult per se, just time consuming) but we just poured some wine and enjoyed the time together in the kitchen listening to our favorite playlist and dancing when the right song hit.

We also bought two 1 1/4 pound lobsters instead of the one 1 1/2 pound lobster the recipe called for so the recipe below reflects what we did. Click here for the original.

Enjoy!

AllRecipe.com/Kate’s Lobster Thermidor

Ingredients: 

• Two 1 1/4 pound live lobsters
• 2 1/2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 shallot finely chopped
• 2 1/2 cups of fish/seafood stock (found at Whole Foods, the other grocery stores didn’t have)
• 1/4 cup of white wine
• 1/4 cup of double or heavy cream
• 3/4 teaspoon of hot english mustard (Colman’s brand)
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice + 1 whole lemon
• 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
• Salt and black pepper
• 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
• 4 stalks of celery

Directions:

• Bring a very large pot of salted water to a boil – add celery and 1 whole lemon cut in half.
• Once the water is boiling, add both lobsters head in first.
• Once the water comes back up to a boil, cook for 7 minutes. Remove carefully with tongs and place on a cutting board to cool.
• When they are cooled, remove the legs and claws. Eat the legs (yum) but take the meat out of the claws and place on a cutting board.
• Next, take a very big and sharp knife and cut the lobsters in half by stabbing straight down to the middle of the lobster and rolling the knife sharp side down in between it’s eyes. Then, do the same with the tail end. You should be left with two symmetrical halves of each lobster.
• Take the meat out of each of the halves and place it on the same cutting board as the claw meat. Chop up all the pieces and then place back inside the lobster shells. Place on a baking sheet. See here.

• Meanwhile, preheat your oven’s broiler.
• Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot; cook and stir until tender. Mix in the fish stock, white wine and cream. Bring to a boil, and cook until reduced by half. Mix in the mustard, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper.
• Spoon the sauce over the lobster meat in the shells, and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
• Broil 3-4 minutes just until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Makes 2 servings.