Spiny Lobster Demo Pics & Recipe

from our Food Editor, Katheryne Phillips

Glutonous amounts of lobster meat, duck fat, matsutake mushrooms, locally grown greens, white wine and a charismatic chef that’s about to show me what to do with all of it.  That’s what went down this week at our Surfas Culver City demo. A Sustainable Kitchen teamed up with Kim Thompson from Seafood for the Future, Edible Westside, and Chef Ray Garcia of FIG, Hotel Fairmont, for a demo that highlighted the beautiful, and sustainable California native spiny lobster.

Chef Ray Garcia and his team did a great job of showing the huge audience how to break down and cook the somewhat intimidating, hence its name, spiny lobster.  The Chef executed an amazing salad combining elegant, fresh, and local ingredients to create a beautiful plate layered with bright colors and rich flavors. While constructing his masterpiece, Chef Ray Garcia explained everything he was doing step by step, all while taking questions from the audience. He was awesome!

Not only did the audience get a great cooking tutorial, a lavish meal with wine, but they also got a quick lesson on the California spiny lobster and sustainable fishing from Kim Thompson.

Did I mention that all of this was FREE!

If you’d like to try to remake this meal yourself most of the ingredients are available at Surfas Culver City, Santa Monica Farmers Market, and Santa Monica Seafood.

Chef Ray Garcia’s recipe is as follows

Grilled Lobster:

2 California spiny lobster

1 in of ginger

1 clove garlic minced

The juice of ½ lemon

4 tablespoons olive oil

To Prepare:

Bring a large pot to a boil. Drop lobsters into pot, cook for 3 full minutes. Using large tongs, remove lobsters from the pot. When cool enough to handle remove tails with a firm twist and then cut the underside of the tails down the center, lengthwise.

Lobster Salad

2 California spiny lobster tails seasoned, cooked and grilled

5 Matsutake mushrooms

1 tablespoon duck fat

1 teaspoon aged soy sauce

2 pink lady apples

3 celery stalks with leaves

2 oz extra virgin olive oil

1 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice

8 oz chestnuts

Slice mushrooms around 1/8 thick, rub lightly with oil and season with salt and pepper

To Prepare:

·       Slice mushrooms around 1/8 thick on a mandolin. Rub lightly with oil, season with salt and pepper and grill.

·       Remove from the grill and place in a shallow baking dish. Melt duck fat and add to dish with aged soy

·       Cover with foil and bake in a 300 degree oven until soft. Around 25 minutes

·       Once cooked, uncover and allow to cool to room temperature

·       Put chestnuts in a pressure cooker with just enough water to cover. Cook until soft. Once cool enough to handle puree with a little bit of cooking liquid. As the blender is running, drizzle in some olive oil, and then blend until smooth

·       Season with salt and pepper

·       Slice the apples to thin disks using mandolin. Cut assorted sizes of celery and pick the celery leaves from the stalks

·       Toss apples, celery, and leaves with EVOO, lemon, salt and pepper.

To assemble the salad, lay some chestnut puree on the plate or a bowl. Arrange apple and celery on a dish. Add Matsutake mushrooms and drizzle a bit of the cooking liquid around.     

Special thanks to Seafood for the Future, Edible Westside, and Surfas.