Lovin' the Lobster

It is important to note that this weekend heralds the advent of a month long celebratory period that marks Thanksgiving, Christmas and most importantly: Monkey Lauren's birthday. This holy trinity of holidays is annually marked by a glorious amalgamation of delicious, delectable dinners, mega marathons of apartment and tree decorating, and of course, the baking and decorating of cookies and consumption of cake.

We chose to open the joyous season with a meal of Singapore Style Chili Lobsters. It is always a pleasant surprise to us that seafood (particularly lobsters and crabs) are plentiful, large and cheap around this time of year. This dish is traditionally done with Mud Crabs (or Dunganess Crabs), but live lobsters (New York wild caught)

were $4.99/lb at the Asian Supermarket this week, and that was a deal too good to pass up. Plus, Melvin is very partial to lobster, especially after his Maine vacation, where he consumed 7 whole lobsters in as many days.

Anyway, below is the recipe we used, complete with pictures of the cooking process, so those of you not blessed with the innate cooking skills and instincts of Melvin Bear can attempt to reproduce the magical dish that is Singapore Style Chili Lobster.

Chilli Lobsters Recipe

Recipe adapted from Shai Coggins

Ingredients:

• 2 Lobsters (approx. 350 grams each)
• 1 cups of water
• 5 tbsp ketchup
• 2.5 tbsp white sugar
• 1.5 tsp cornflour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 4 cloves of chopped fresh garlic
• 2 chopped fresh green chilli (we used our home-grown Thai chilli peppers)
• 2.5 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 eggs
• 2 spring onions, chopped in to small pieces
• 1 tsps fresh lime juice

How to Cook:

1. Mix the sauce ingredients together first in a big bowl. Just put together water, tomato sauce, cornflour, sugar, and salt and mix them using a whisk until they’re dissolved.

2. Heat the wok and add the vegetable oil.

3. Sauté the chopped garlic until light brown (takes just a few seconds to a minute in a hot pan).

4. Add the chopped green chilli and sauté quickly until you can smell the spice.

5 Mix in the fresh chopped lobsters and fry them together until they turn red (orange-y color). The length of this will vary on the number of lobsters being cooked at the same time – and their sizes.

6. Once the lobsters are red, slowly add the sauce mixture in. Mix in the oyster sauce and the garlic powder. Stir and let simmer for about 10 – 15 minutes. Again, this will depend on the size and number. You’ll know when the lobsters are cooked by the shell’s color (turning orange).

7. While still simmering, add the eggs in (scramble before adding, the eggs will serve as a thickening agent to make the sauce heavier and more flavorful) by stirring around wok.

8. Then, add the freshly squeezed lime juice and spring onions. Stir.

9. Once cooked, put the lobsters in a big serving dish and drizzle the sauce on top.

10. Serve with stir-fried vegetable (e.g. Yu Choy cooked with garlic, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, and chilli garlic).

Finally! Time to eat!

Singapore-style Chilli Lobsters + Yu Choy

With Jasmine Rice, of course!

Bon Appetit!