Advent Lobster: Really?

During Adventide many parishes light an Advent wreath each week leading up to Christmas, and I know many families who do the same in their homes. It’s a great way to count down the days till Christmadtide, when waiting is overcome by the joy of Christ in our midst.

Light, as you know, is such a wonderful metaphor for anticipating the birth of the word’s one true light, Jesus Christ our Lord. The Scriptures, and by extension, the corpus of Patristic texts, are overflowing with this metaphor, so it’s certainly fitting for this dark time of year, when Christ provides that much needed glow. Or, if you’re in the North like me, light is a metaphor for much needed warmth, too. Christ is indeed the radiant source of all true light and splendour.

However, when I think of candles burning in front of me, I must confess: I usually dream of lobster and that little candle for heating the clarified butter! Can you say glutton or what? So if the joy of Christmas is swallowing up your Advent, and you just can't wait any longer, allow me to sweeten your Advent anticipation with a splendid but simple recipe for lobster tails poached in a shallot butter.

Lobster Tails Poached in Shallot Beurre

What you’ll need:

6 Large Cold Water lobster tails, with the meat removed in one piece from the shell. (I buy mine at Costco; however, they only have them on the weekends. Usually they’re from New Zealand or Brazil, and they’re simply fabulous. You don’t have to break the bank to have good lobster – Maine is overrated, overpriced, and undersized for my taste. The best way to get the meat out is simply by running a very sharp knife under the shell and thing wiggling the meat out without tearing it.)

4 tbsp. diced shallots

2 lbs. unsalted European butter (calm down; I know that’s a heap of butter, but you’re poaching in it, not drinking it!)

Maldon sea salt

Telicherry cracked peppercorns

¼ cup fresh chopped chives

Fresh lime juice

¼ cup dry white wine (stuff you’d drink – not cooking wine!)

Instructions: Clarify your butter by slowly heating the butter in a sauté pan on medium heat, making sure it neither burns nor boils. Once the milk solids form, turn off the heat and let stand for five minutes. Scrape off the milk solids and discard. You now have clarified butter, which is necessary to poach.

Place the shallots and white wine in the butter mixture and let stand for 2 hours. When you’re ready to cook the tails, heat the butter on medium heat until its barely boiling. Slightly increaseing your heat to keep a low boil moving, add the tails, lime juice, and chives and poach till lobster is tender (usually just a five or so minutes, depending on the size of the tail. Don’t overcook or they’ll be really dry. You can always put them back in for a few moments if they’re undercooked). Remove the lobster from the pan, top with salt and pepper, and place on top of my risotto recipe, which I posted back in October.

Bon appétit and have a blessed Advent!

Yours in the Coming One,

CDW