Lobster Étouffée is adapted from Northern Soul: Southern-Inspired Home Cooking from a Northern Kitchen: A Cookbook by Justin Sutherland. This is our new favorite southern creole style cookbook, which the chef switches up from his upbringining in Minnesota. It’s a top notch book. We found ourselves loving lots of the recipes from this book, which is not often the case.
Northern Soul: Southern-Inspired Home Cooking from a Northern Kitchen: A Cookbook is available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Indigo.ca.
Lobster Étouffée
6 tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter
2 cups (320 g) diced white onion
1 cup (150 g) diced green pepper
1 cup (120 g) diced celery
4 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup (31 g) all-purpose flour
2 cups (390 g) uncooked white rice
2 quarts (1.9 L) shellfish stock, seafood stock, or fish stock
1 (15.5 ounce / 439 g) can whole tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons (36 g) Cajun Seasoning
1 tablespoon (15 g) habanero hot sauce, such as Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce
1 tablespoon (2 g) fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons (28 ml) Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup (59 ml) fresh lemon juice
8 ounces (225 g) frozen and thawed lobster claw meat
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 small to medium lobster tails
4 lemon wedges
SERVES 4
Étouffée means stuffed or smothered. This dish is smothered in deliciousness, not to mention topped with a whole lobster tail. This ain’t your grandma’s étouffée.
I N ST R U CT IO N S
- In a large skillet or Dutch oven, melt 4 tablespoons (55 g) of the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. Whisk in the flour until a roux just begins to form, 2 to 3 minutes more.
- Cook the rice according to the package instructions and keep warm, if necessary, until it is needed.
- Add the stock to the vegetable-roux mixture and stir thoroughly, taking care that there are no lumps in the roux. Add the tomatoes, 2 tablespoons (24 g) of the Cajun Seasoning, hot sauce, thyme, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the lobster meat and cook for 5 minutes more. Add some additional stock if the sauce is too thick. Add salt and pepper to taste and keep the mixture warm over low heat.
- With kitchen scissors, cut a slit in the top of each lobster tail from the front to the end of the tail. Using a fork or spoon, pull the tail meat out through the slit and let it rest on top of the shell.
- Preheat the broiler to 500°F (250°C). Meanwhile, transfer the tails to a broiler-ready sheet pan. In a separate pan, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons (28 g) of butter. Brush this butter onto the lobster tail meat and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon (12 g) of Cajun Seasoning on top. Broil the tails for 6 to 8 minutes, until the meat is cooked through.
- Divide the rice among 4 plates. Pour the sauce over the rice and top each serving with a lobster tail. Serve with lemon wedges.