Lobster Rolls

 This has been an East Coast summer so far. With the exception of a few hot days two weeks ago, it’s mostly been rainy and chilly. It’s vaguely annoying, because this winter was so awful; I was really ready to be hot for a few months. No sense in dwelling on it though; when life gives you lemons, right?

In honour of our Newfie blood, and in honour of this rainy evening, I decided to make lobster rolls. It’s never really occurred to me that I could make these at home, because it seems like one of those restaurant foods. Or at least a food you want to eat while you sit in the sun and stare out at a wharf. But they’re actually dead easy to make. They’re on hot dog buns, for the love of Pete! You can do this.

So, us LadyGirls once attempted lobster on this blog before. Perhaps you followed this hilarity, perhaps you’ll read that for the first time and wonder why you ever trusted us to guide you in the kitchen. (Important Editorial Note: Kelly now owns a whisk. In fact, I am pretty sure that thanks to that blog, she received one from every member of our family for her birthday.) But today we are not going to poach our lobster, because that was lovely for that meal in which lobster was the main feature, but there’s no need for that here, because we are going to drench our lobster here with mayo and put in on some Wonder Bread, so let’s not overly trouble ourselves.

You could certainly get a whole lobster (or several) and cook them up and go with that, but I didn’t do that for several reasons. The main reason that I wasn’t emotional prepared to put any crustaceans to their death on this particular evening. Secondly, de-crusting said crustaceans seemed also like a lot of work on this day (I work, after all.) So again, we aren’t going to be doing that kind of thing on a Monday night. What I did do was buy some tails and steam them. Easy! When they turn bright red, they’re ready. Take the flesh out and chop it up. Put the bits into a bowl.

Now, we are going to add a few shakes of Old Bay, one chopped stalk of celery, one chopped green onion (or two, depending on how much lobster you have) a healthy tablespoon or two of mayo, dash of hot sauce (I used Grace Hot Pepper Sauce, but I encourage you to experiment) some salt and pepper, and a squeeze of citrus. Lime was on hand in this house, but clearly lemon would be just fine. Take those soft, white, processed to infinity and beyond buns (don’t roll your eyes at me- this isn’t some kind of fancy adaptation of lobster rolls, just put them on the damn hot dog bun) a toast them ever so SLIGHTLY under the broiler (like, way slightly. Like, just a hint of colour) and then butter them lightly. For a little freshness, add some lettuce and then nice big scoops of your lobster mixture.

Now THAT is a meal worth having on a Monday night!