Lobster Tails Thermidor
I used this recipe with just claw meat and made a sauce out of it which I then put over grilled beef filets and broiled everything to brown up the sauce. Excellent!
I used this recipe with just claw meat and made a sauce out of it which I then put over grilled beef filets and broiled everything to brown up the sauce. Excellent!
- 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon parmesan
- 4 (6-8 -ounce) lobster tails shell jumbo shrimp or prawns can be substituted
- 4 tablespoon butter divided
- 1 small white onion finely chopped
- splash dry sherry or dry white wine
- 1/2 cup milk eyeball it
- 1/3 cup white cheddar grated
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika or crab boil seasoning recommended: old bay
- 2 tablespoon bread crumbs
- handful parsley leaves mixed with 2 cups baby greens for garnish
- lemon wedges wedges
- Carbohydrate 25.9887395833333 g
- Cholesterol 43.463125 mg
- Fat 17.0685177083333 g
- Fiber 2.95821873374283 g
- Protein 8.290421875 g
- Saturated Fat 10.1914027083333 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (108g)
- Sodium 694.405625 mg
- Sugar 23.0305208495905 g
- Trans Fat 1.24106958333334 g
- Calories 281 calories
Step-by-step
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, 3 or 4 inches deep. Add lobster tails to the water and boil 7 to 8 minutes. Drain and shock under cold water to cool. Use kitchen scissors to cut away soft underside of tails. Remove meat and save the shells, arranging them in a shallow casserole dish. Chop the cooked meat on an angle into chunks.
- Preheat your broiler to high.
- Heat a medium skillet and a small saucepot over medium heat. To the small saucepot, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add finely chopped onion and cook 3 to 5 minutes until very soft. To the skillet, add remaining 2 tablespoons butter. When the butter melts, add chopped lobster meat and saute.
- Add flour to sauce pot with onions and cook together another 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in wine or sherry, then milk. Remove sauce from heat and stir in cheddar cheese and paprika or crab boil. Season sauce with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over lobster meat and stir to combine. Pour lobster into and over the shells in a casserole dish and top with Parmesan and bread crumbs. Broil on high until golden, 2 or 3 minutes. Serve each tail, spilling over with lobster bits in sauce, on a bed of mixed baby greens and parsley with wedges of lemon along side.
- To make this dish with jumbo shrimp, cut up peeled, deveined raw shrimp. Saute the shrimp in butter, as with cooked lobster. Cook until pink and firm and proceed with method. Place the shrimp and sauce into a small casserole, then spoon completed shrimp Thermidor over bed of greens and parsley leaves.
Did the dairy split because the heat was too high before the cheese went in? Boiling crustacea for seven to eight minutes before extracting the meat prevents the center from remaining raw while the exterior overcooks, but precision matters when transitioning that protein into a cream sauce. White cheddar brings a sharper profile than traditional gruyere, yet its higher oil content demands careful temperature control during melting to avoid an oily separation in the skillet.
Freezing and Make-Ahead Mechanics
Assembling this casserole twelve hours in advance requires refrigeration rather than freezing, because raw dairy sauces with flour thickening agents tend to weep water crystals upon thawing. Baking from a chilled state adds roughly five minutes to the final high-broil phase, requiring close observation until the bread crumb topping turns deep golden brown. Keeping the reserved shells intact provides structural support in the casserole dish while conducting heat evenly through the base during the final browning step.
Texture Preservation
Overcooking the lobster during the initial boil yields rubbery chunks that refuse to absorb the sherry-infused velouté. Sautéing the chopped tail meat in butter for precisely ninety seconds revives moisture without toughening the delicate fibers. Using kitchen shears to cut the soft underside rather than cracking the shell guarantees clean extraction without embedding sharp chitin fragments into the flesh.
