Lobster salad with slow cooked tomatoes and fennel

Lobsters and other shellfish are especially prized for their sweet flavour. The lobster’s tail contains the most meat and it is easy to lift this out when eating a grilled half-lobster. Extracting the flesh from the claws is more difficult but the flavour is richer as the lobster makes the muscles in its claws work harder.
  • 4 persons
  • cooking time: 30 min
  • difficulty

Ingredients

  • 2 lobsters from 500-700 gram each
  • 5 liter broth (or water)
  • ½ bunch parsley, whole laves
  • 1 tbsp crème fraîche
  • ½ tbsp mayonnaise
  • 25 gram Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1 splash of white wine
  • 12 cherry tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove, cut into thin strips
  • 6 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 2 tbsp white wine vinigar
  • 1 small shalot, chopped
  • 1 quarter of fennel
  • 400 gram of different lettuces
  • 4 big leaves of parsley
  • pepper
  • salt

How to prepare

When you cut a lobster in half you’ll see its two claws are not identical. Look carefully and you’ll notice one claw is long, thin and sharp – the lobster uses this to cut and tear – while the other is thick and blunt – for squeezing and cracking. This thicker claw has far more meat so if you share lobster on a first date you know who should get the bigger claw. A brilliant little recipe with cooked lobster meat is this super simple salad with slowly cooked tomatoes and fennel.

Preparation

  • 1 Cook the lobsters for 5 minutes in broth (or water). Let the lobsters cool down.
  • 2 Cut the lobsters open in the longitudinal direction. Take the meat out of the shell. Make four portions.
  • 3 Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and put them on a oven dish. Drizzle some olive oil over it and place the garlic next to it. Put some salt and pepper on it and put in the pre-heated oven for 8 minutes on 120 °C.
  • 4 Blanch the basil leaves for 15/20 seconds in boiling water. Take the leaves out of the water and let it cool down. Put the basil, mayonnaise, crème fraîche, Parmesan cheese and a splash of white wine in a food processor. Pulse until basil is finely chopped and all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Add pepper and some salt.
  • 5 Make the dressing by mixing the sunflower oil, vinegar and shallot.
  • 6 Cut the fennel with a mandolin. Mix the dressing with the salad and fennel.
  • 7 Take the tomatoes out of the oven and let them cool down. Drizzle the lobster with olive oil.
  • 8 Put the salad and tomatoes on the plates and place the lobster on top. Finish it with pepper and salt. Serve with the mayonnaise and garnish with parsley.