Last night our friends the Halls called and said they had gotten four live Maine lobsters, but didn't know how to cook them. Would I cook them if they gave us two? Of course I said, but honestly I had never cooked live whole lobsters before. I usually just buy the tails and grill them, but I thought I would give it the old college try. In normal times we would have had them over for drinks and dinner, but of course we are social distancing, so the plan was for me to cook and prepare a carry-out dinner for them and a sit down for us.
Step one when I am going to do something I haven't done before is to open up the Joy of Cooking. This wonderful book precedes every section of recipes with an "About" section. For example "About Lobsters", which described different types of lobsters, where they come from, size needed per person, how to store them, and how to handle and prepare them for cooking. Then the book moves on to describe several methods of cooking the lobster, including steaming, boiling, grilling or broiling. Next came a number of recipes for using the meat of the lobster. For example, lobster thermidor and lobster newburg, etc. etc.
I went with steaming the lobster. It is the simplest way to cook a whole lobster, and the lobster does not contain the excess moisture that you get if you boil it. Broiling or grilling are options as well, but I went with the simplest approach.
An hour before dinner I put four potatoes in a 400 degree oven to bake. Fifteen minutes prior to dinner I drizzled some asparagus spears with extra virgin olive oil and put them into the same 400 degree oven. Steaming the lobster goes like this:
Ingredients:
4 - 11/2 to 21/2 pound lobsters
2 sticks melted butter
lemon wedges for serving
Preparation:
Put about an inch and a half of water in a large deep soup or pasta pot. If you have a steamer basket(see photo above) set it in the top of the pot, or use a rack that will hold the lobster above the water. Bring the water to a furious boil. Reduce the heat and add the lobsters to the steamer basket. Cover and weigh down the lid of the pot to hold in the steam and the lobsters. For pound and a half lobsters, steam about 12 minutes. Add an additional two minutes for every half pound of weight. Serve with lemon wedges and melted butter. This may be just about the simplest dinner you can
make. Most of the fun is in the eating. Enjoy!
