Grilled Lobster with Orange Chipotle Vinaigrette (Page 338)

RECIPE #1235

• Date: Friday, October 15, 2010 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Dining Companions: Dave, Karen H, Helen, Charles, and Clara
• Recipe Rating: B
  

My in-laws, Karen and Dave, like lobster, so we made this dish for them when they came to visit last month. I started by plunging live lobsters into boiling water and partially cooking them. I then took the tails and claws off the bodies, discarded the bodies, and halved the tails lengthwise. I prepared a vinaigrette of orange zest, orange juice, white wine vinegar, chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo, sea salt, brown sugar, olive oil, and basil. I reserved some of the vinaigrette in a pitcher and brushed the lobster tails with some of the remaining vinaigrette. My special gentleman grilled the claws and the tails, brushing the tails with more vinaigrette as necessary. We served the lobster with the pitcher of reserved vinaigrette. The tails are pictured above and the claws are pictured below:


I admit, I am not really a lobster person. I can understand why people enjoy it, but I just don't get too excited about lobster. That said, this preparation seemed perfectly fine. Preparing the dish was very easy, but the end result was plenty flavorful. Everyone seemed to like it well enough, but no one was wowed by it. Although I liked the flavor of the orange chipotle vinaigrette, I couldn't help but wonder if the dish would have been more successful had the grilled lobster just been served with melted butter. As it was the vinaigrette was tasty, but it didn't complement the lobster as well as one might have hoped. I would have preferred to dip my lobster in butter!

The recipe is here.

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What a lovely holiday weekend! On Wednesday after I taught my class (yes, I am the kind of professor who doesn't cancel class the day before Thanksgiving!) we drove down to Columbus, Ohio, where my in-laws live. This was our first road trip with our cats, and I was a little nervous about that aspect of it. The drive is only about 4 hours though, and they did really well. They whined in their crate for a long while, but they didn't have any accidents or get carsick so I will call it a success! On Thursday we had a big Thanksgiving dinner at my special gentleman's aunt and uncle's house. It was a bit dramatic: there was a fire in the kitchen. The house filled with smoke. Thankfully the food survived -- although everything had a slightly smoky flavor! Regardless, it was a lovely meal.

On Friday we cut down a Christmas tree then put it up in Dave and Karen's house -- a day-after-Thanksgiving tradition in their family! Yesterday we watched a lot of college football. With Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Stanford all good this year, there were a number of games yesterday that someone felt invested in. We spent the rest of the weekend eating wonderful meals, playing cards, catching up, playing with the kitties... it was extremely restful. Indeed it was just the break I needed before these last couple weeks of the semester! This morning we left Ohio early so we could make it back to East Lansing in time to go to the basketball game. We cheered the Spartans on to another victory! And now I am working, trying to catch up on some of the work I had planned to do over the holiday, but didn't. Whoops! I don't feel too guilty about it. I needed a break!