Live Jumbo Lobster

We were wondering through Central City in Surrey and came across Live Jumbo Lobsters on sale at the supermart. Picked up a four & a half pounder and headed home on the skytrain.

While organizing the ingredients & equipment, we let Lucas the lobster out of the bag to chill out in the kitchen sink.

Fun time's over, it's time to get down to business. Put the lobster in the freezer for half an hour to sleep. Take him from the freezer and turn him over onto a chopping block; cut right down the middle from head to tail. Kitchen shears are handy for cutting through the shell. De-vein, but keep the rest of the greenish/mustard coloured stuff around the head area (it's pretty tasty after cooking; discard only if you are really not into eating it); rinse with cool water, then detach the claws. If you're not up to cutting up & cleaning a lobster, get the market to do it for you.

We place the two large claws (notice they are different - the fatter one is a Crusher Claw, the slimmer one is a Pincher Claw) onto a baking tray, and the two body halves onto another tray. For the body half at the top, we spread on a butter, mustard, garlic & honey sauce; for the other, we use a black pepper sauce with onion bits. Place the tray with the claws below the other tray and Bake for 20 minutes, followed by Grill for 5 minutes.

To accompany our Jumbo Lobster, we tossed a salad and made toast to soak up the lobster gravy.

The claws were so tough I broke a knife trying to cut through them. Brought out the chisel & mallet to crack them open !
It was delicious, but we couldn't finish the whole lobster.

So we picked out the meat and made lobster rolls with the leftovers for lunch another day . . . a second tasty lobster meal . . . double delicious !

Mmmmmm . . . . .

Easy & Tasty Breakfast Ideas

Weekends are when I like to try and make a special breakfast to enjoy. So here's what I've come up with the last few weekends . . .

Salmon Cheese Wrap - Found open packets of wraps and smoked salmon in the fridge. Using these as the starting point, decided to select sliced cheese and lettuce to add to the mix. Start by warming a piece of wrap on a pan; flip it over and put bits of cheese on top, around the middle of the wrap. Finally, transfer onto a plate and top off with chopped lettuce and slices of salmon, in which ever order you like. If you don't have these exact ingredients, go ahead and modify the recipe by substituting with whatever vegetable and meat you have on hand.

Garlic Bread - Now here's a perennial favourite that you can customize to suit you own tastes. Simply mix your garlic butter spread with ingredients you like, select your preferred bread, spread and grill/toast. The pics above show two variations - on the left, I've mixed butter, finely chopped garlic, stone ground mustard seed paste, a bit of extra virgin olive oil and some tarragon flakes; spread onto slices of batard bread and toasted. For the version on the right, I've mixed butter, chopped garlic, parsley flakes, a bit of paprika powder and a dash of sesame seed oil; spread onto a halved baguette.
I like to use a small toaster oven as it does the job quickly and efficiently. As I prefer my garlic bread crispy and golden brown, I place the prepared slices face up into the oven toaster and set the timer for three minutes; after about 2 minutes, I monitor thru the glass window to watch when the garlic butter mix starts to sizzle and the bread starts to brown before turning the toaster oven off. For extra crispy all the way thru, you can even pre-toast the bread for about a minute before applying the garlic spread and toasting fully. Should you like your garlic bread with a soft center, then put two slices of bread together with the garlic spread in between to toast; this will achieve a crispy exterior with a soft center, just the way my wife likes it.

Chocolate on Toast - Another way to enjoy toast is with melted chocolate! Just take some of your favorite chocolate, toast it with the bread you like, then spread it after melting and allow to cool a little before enjoying this tasty breakfast. As usual, I toast my whole wheat slices for about a minute first, then flip it over and place chocolate pieces on top to toast for another minute in order to achieve a fully crunchy texture all the way thru the entire piece of toast. Pics show milk chocolate toast on the left, and dark chocolate on toast at right. My all time favourite is Cote d'Or Dessert Noir; what's the chocolate you love?

Omelettes - This regular breakfast favorite is easy to make, and you can add just about anything to eggs and make your very own one-of-a-kind omelette. Pic on left shows this creation with garlic, herbs, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes. A bit of sherry or red wine and black pepper in the egg mix will add extra flavour. Another one I often like to make is ham & cheese; slice ham into thin strips and fry with garlic or onions, then add beaten eggs, flip over when the bottom side is done and put bits of cheese (I like Swiss Emmental) onto half the omelette, then fold the other half onto it and allow the cheese to melt. I've also tried using bacon, beef, crab meat, prawns, sausage, scallops and other leftovers I've found in the fridge on various omelettes over the years and have yet to be disappointed, so go ahead and see what wonderful omelette creation you can come up with.

Enjoy your delicious weekend breakfast . . .  ; )