Our oceans are under immense pressure from overfishing, climate change and pollution. If you’re buying seafood in a supermarket or restaurant, choosing sustainable seafood is a really simple way for you to support our oceans and keep them full of life.
Prep time
80 mins
Cooking Time
20 mins
Serves
4
Ingredients
- 4 x 500–600-g/1 lb 2-oz–1 lb 5-oz live lobsters (use 2 lobsters for a starter)
- 2 litres/3½ pints/8½ cups court bouillon, or enough to cover the lobsters, or salted water
- 40 g/1½ oz/3 tbsp butter
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 4 passion fruit
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- Finely grated zest and juice of ½ lime
- 4 tbsp double (heavy) cream
- Handful of coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped
- Salt and pepper
Court Bouillon
Ingredients for about 4 litres / 7 pints / 8 ½ US pints
- 4 litres/7 pints/8½ US pints water
- 250 ml/8 fl oz/1 cup white wine
- 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 onions, roughly chopped
- 1 carrot, roughly chopped
- 1 leek, trimmed, green parts removed, and roughly chopped
- Handful of flat-leaf parsley
- 2 bay leaves
- 10 peppercorns
- Salt
Method
- Put the lobsters in the freezer for 1 hour to render them unconscious.
- Remove from the freezer and leave for 15 minutes to come to room temperature.
- Bring the court bouillon or salted water to the boil in a large pan, add the lobsters and boil for 8 minutes. Drain and lightly rinse them under cold running water. You can either remove the lobster meat from the shells now or let your guests do it at the table.
- Heat the butter in a frying pan (skillet) and fry the shallots over a medium heat for 3–4 minutes until softened, making sure the shallots do not brown as this could give the sauce a bitter flavour.
- Cut the passion fruit in half, scoop out the flesh and add to the pan, stirring it into the shallots. Reduce the heat to low, stir in the mustard and then the lime juice, followed by the cream. Bubble until the sauce reduces by half, stirring constantly. Add half the coriander (cilantro) leaves and season with salt and pepper.
- Add the cooked lobster to the sauce or pour the sauce over the lobster meat. Serve garnished with the remaining coriander leaves and the finely grated lime zest.
Court Bouillon
Court bouillon is perfect for cooking shellfish.
- Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Turn the heat down to medium and leave to simmer for 20–25 minutes. Strain the bouillon through a fine sieve. It is now ready for use.