Monday, September 23, 2013

Lobster Rolls from a Naked Lobster

 

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Earlier readers may remember my Quest for the Best Lobster Roll in Maine a couple years ago.  Since then, I’ve been meaning to recreate my own lobster roll at home.  But the idea of buying and cooking a live lobster still freaks me out.  Then J. sent me this article about a company that has special equipment that can shell lobsters, while keeping the body of the lobster intact! They call it the “naked” lobster.  (The article has a picture of the naked lobster – it’s a little disturbing and intriguing at the same time).  The company uses steam pressure to extract the meat without breaking the meat.  This makes it so it is cheaper to freeze and transport Maine lobster.

Coincidentally, the day after J. sent me the article, we went shopping at BJ’s, and found this intriguing product.

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It cost about $20 at BJ’s and since we were intrigued to try it out, we bought a box to try to recreate Maine lobster rolls.

Inside the box, there were two plastic packages of lobster meat.  These were cut up into pieces and not whole as described in the article. (They do sell the “naked” lobster, though).

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But you can see that there are two claws, legs and knuckles

To make the lobster rolls, I made sure to keep it simple – I chopped up the meat into bite size pieces, mixed it up with some mayo and a squeeze of lemon juice in a bowl.

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I toasted hot dog buns and slathered the mixture into the buns.  I served them here with a salad.

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The lobster meat still isn’t quite the same as a fresh lobster.  It was a bit fishier and not quite as firm as a freshly cooked lobster.  But I really liked the convenience of not having to cook the lobster myself.  Yes, I know you can ask your seafood department at many supermarkets to steam cook the lobster for you, but I liked being able to just pull these out of the freezer, defrost, and eat. And by my estimation, one $20 box of lobster makes about 4 lobster rolls, plus hot dog buns, and mayo = about $5.25 for a lobster roll! Not a bad price. 

Incidentally, J. and I will be going to Maine in about two weeks, so we’ll be able to have some fresh lobster rolls soon!

Note: I was not compensated for this review.  I just really like lobster.

Maine Lobster Rolls

Serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 1 package Shucks Maine Lobster meat (or about 3.5 ounces of cooked lobster), defrosted and chopped into small pieces
  • 1 Tbs mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 2 hot dog buns

Method:

Mix mayonnaise, lobster meat, and lemon juice in a bowl.  Lightly toast hot dog buns in a toaster oven.  Spoon lobster mixture into buns.