Last night The Girl suggested that we make Lobster Thermidor. An interesting choice, as I have to hold my hand up and admit to you that I have never made it before. So, I pulled a few trusted cookery books down off the shelf, and did some research.
There are all sorts of variations on the theme. Essentially, it's chopped lobster flesh bound in a creamy Hollandaise type sauce, put back into the shell, and then grilled with parmesan cheese. Some recipes use egg yolks, others don't; some recipes use chopped parsley, some use cayenne pepper, all seem to use mustard; you get the drift.
Here's what we came up with. It worked extremely well, and was easy to prepare. First we bought Australian lobster tails from Waitrose. We removed the side fins, and cut off the bones, which run across the top. The lobster flesh then came away easily, and was put to one side, while I made the cream sauce. This was straightforward. I chopped up two shallots, and cooked them in butter, until soft.
Next, I poured in a decent amount of dry white wine, with a dash of cognac, and bubbled it away to burn off the alcohol. I then added about a cup of fish stock, and a similar amount of double cream; turned the heat up, and reduced the sauce by about a half, to thicken it up. Next, I added a teaspoon of English mustard, salt and pepper, chopped chives, and a squeeze of lemon juice.
It was then a simple matter to warm the chopped lobster in the sauce (so that the lobster was slightly cooked), pour the mixture back into the cleaned lobster tails, sprinkle it with freshly grated parmesan, and grill it in the oven.
After about five minutes under the hot grill, the slightly browned lobster mixture bubbled up nicely with the melted cheese, and the lobster shell turned an attractive deep pink colour. Overall, a resounding success...
