So I happened to be at the local Asian market on Sunday, stocking up on inexpensive fruits & veggies for the week. As is tradition, I always check the prices of whatever seafood they have, and guess what?! LOBSTERS were ridiculously cheap! They had small (1lb-ish) lobsters for $5.79 / lb! You simply cannot beat that, so that's what's for dinner! I bought 3 lobsters for approximately $18.Yup!
So if you have never cooked live lobsters before, you need to know a few things up front.
#1 always cut the rubber bands off their claws - they make the water taste rubbery if you don't.
#2 a splash of vinegar help make sure the meat is nice & firm. It helps bind up the proteins so you don't get mushy meat.
#3 it's incredibly sad to have to kill these little guys, so be prepared emotionally. Also always put them in quick & head first so they don't suffer.
# 4 the meat starts to degrade immediately as soon as the lobster dies, so buy them fresh or live & cook them the same day. Usually lobster night is a happy surprise around here :-)
Beyond those few tips, cooking lobsters is pretty straight forward. We typically boil them (least cruel way to cook live lobsters.) but they can be steamed, grilled or fried too. These are instructions for boiling.
Get your biggest pot & fill it up with enough water to completely cover your lobsters (approximately 3 quarts of water per 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of lobster). Put in a splash of vinegar and bring the whole thing to a boil - you can also add sea salt if you want to. About 1/4 cup of salt per gallon of water.
(covering the pot with the lid helps speed up boiling....). Once your water is really boiling, add the live lobsters one at a time, and start timing immediately....remember put them in head first.
Here is the formula for cooking time (we cooked our 3x 1lb-ers for 13 minutes).
13 minutes for the first 1 - 1 1/2 lbs of lobster, and add 2 minutes per pound above that. (cook based on the individual weight of the lobsters, not the total for all your lobsters).
Once your lobsters are cooked, pull them out & let them rest for a few minutes since they will be really too hot to handle. Then serve with butter & lemon!
We needed our veggie too, so we did a little bok choy with oyster sauce. You can find the recipe in salads and sides.
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