5 Lobster Meat Recipes to Make This Thanksgiving
With turkeys hard to come by this Thanksgiving, we’re counting on our lobster to make it a special holiday this year, and we’ve got 5 knockout recipes using our perfectly cooked, ready to eat lobster meat. With these lobster meat recipes, we promise you won’t miss that dry turkey.
It’s all about the apps and sides. Start out the day with a baked lobster dip. You can prep it in advance, keep it in the fridge, and bake it off when your guests arrive for a warm, cheesy, comforting dip that pairs nicely with a beer, if we do say so ourselves. In this lobster meat recipe, we just fold in mayo, shredded Monterey jack cheese, chives, lemon juice, and our lobster meat into a shallow baking dish. Stop there if you’re prepping early, or pop it right in the oven for 15 minutes at 375F until it’s brown and bubbly, and top with some crunchy potato chips for some texture.
Who doesn’t love stuffing, and Lobster Cornbread Stuffing at that? For everyone’s favorite side dish, we boiled 4 lobster tails, and saved the lobster broth for later. Then sauté some pancetta, garlic, carrot, celery, and onion, remove from the heat, and add cubed cornbread, sourdough bread, and parsley, and mix to combine. From there, remove the cooked lobster meat from the shell, cut into ½ inch pieces, and add to the cornbread mixture. The easiest way to remove the meat from the shell is to cut the shell in half lengthwise with a sharp knife, and pull apart the shell with your hands to remove the meat. Add ⅓ cup of your lobster broth from earlier, a beaten egg, and ⅓ cup half and half to the mixture. Season to taste, stir gently, and transfer to a baking dish to be baked for 25 minutes until the top is brown and crispy.
While traditional Mainers might use whole live lobster for their Lobster Stew, we love this shortcut of using our lobster meat for this classic Maine dish. Start by melting 6T butter and sauteeing a small diced onion. Lower the heat, and add fish stock and heavy cream, being sure not to let it curdle, so bring it up to a simmer very slowly! After 5 minutes, add the lobster meat, to just heat through, and top with chives before serving. This dish rings of holiday cheer or just winter comfort.
Risotto is already a decadent crowd pleaser, but we like to add our lobster meat to our Winter Risotto to give it an extra boost, along with butternut squash and leeks to round out some fall flavors. We start by combining seafood stock and white wine in a large saucepan. To prep the lobster meat, make sure it has been fully thawed overnight in the fridge, then let it sit in a strainer to let excess moisture drain. Don’t rinse the lobster meat — it’s where the flavor is! Bake off cubed butternut squash cubes in the oven with olive oil and salt until tender and brown. Sauté onions, leeks, and garlic until soft and translucent, and season to taste. Add Arborio rice, parsley, and tarragon to the mixture and stir. Then add the stock/wine mixture one cup at a time, stirring constantly, and allow each cup of liquid to be almost completely absorbed in the rice before adding the next cup. When the all the stock mixture has been added, the risotto should have a creamy texture, and the grains should be fully cooked and seasoned. Add the roasted squash cubes and lobster and gently fold in the risotto until combined evenly. Garnish with some lemon juice and chopped parsley.
While we’ve got lobster meat recipes for days when it comes to sides and apps, this main dish of Broiled Lobster Tails with Scallop Stuffing is a real showstopper. This pescatarian recipe starts with our lobster tails fully thawed, then using sharp kitchen scissors or a chef’s knife, cutting through the center of the tail shell lengthwise, being careful not to cut through the meat. Gently pry open the cut shell and pull the meat through to the rest of the top of the shell. At the base of the tail by the flippers, the meat should remain connected to the shell. We use our Scallop Cornbread Stuffing to stuff the inside of the shell right beneath the tail meat (though you can use whichever stuffing recipe you like), and then brush the tail meat with melted butter, broil under the lowest heat setting until it’s golden and translucent, about 5 minutes.
Give some of these lobster meat recipes a try, and you’ll be sure to impress your guests this holiday season. Our ready to eat lobster meat makes it easy and takes out the guesswork, and cooking with raw lobster tails couldn’t be easier, we promise.
