Jambalaya. You can reserve the lobster heads from the seafood boil, clean them out and use them for garnish.
By Michael Araj
We had a lot of leftover Lobster Boil. With fall being the season of transformation, we deiced to transform the boil as well. I had also been craving food from my adventures in New Orleans after coming across some Beignet mix from Cafe du Monde. Few dishes symbolize the festive city as much as jambalaya with its unique cajun flavors, smoked Andouille sausage, and fresh sea food. Here, we play off those key characteristics to transform one great dish into another.
8 cups of seafood stock (if you have leftover broth from the boil, you can use this)
1 small can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp Cajun Spice (we make our own with cayenne, dried basil, salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and dried thyme)
Cilantro, chopped for garnish
Lime wedges, for garnish
Directions:
For preparation, take the leftover seafood boil and separate the seafood out into a bowl. Take the mussels out of their shells, take the tails off the shrimp, shell any remaining lobster.
Take the corn on the cobs and cut the corn off the cobs and add the corn to the seafood bowl.
Take the sausage links that are left over and cut them into slices and put them in a separate bowl. If there are leftover onions or garlic, you can add these to this bowl also.
In a large pot, sauté the onions, sausage and garlic in heated olive oil over medium high heat.
Once the sausages are caramelized after approximately five minutes, add the rice.
Stir well and toast the rice for approximately two minutes.
Add all the remaining ingredients except the seafood and bring the stock up to a boil before reducing to a simmer.
Once simmering, cover the pot and cook for 20 minutes. Test the rice. It should be tender yet with a bit. Cook longer if needed.
Add the seafood, stirring it in gently. Cover off heat for 10 minutes. Fluff with fork.
Garnish with chopped cilantro and lime wedges. Serve immediately.
It was my birthday last week, and my parents surprised me with a cooler of live lobsters. Those who know me know that I try to cook with new ingredients often (read: at least weekly) so I can learn about new ingredients and methods of cooking (and just in case I ever make it onto Chopped on Food Network). Despite this, I had difficulty a month back finding anywhere in my vicinity that sold live lobsters, but my parents came to the rescue in a big way.
I opted to make a Lobster Boil as I had been informed we would be having company over, and the recipe below follows. Few meals are as inclusive as a seafood boil – friends and family huddled over a mass of shared, delicious food can be the ultimate comfort food experience.
I then used the shells to make a lobster stock for Jambalaya, and that recipe will be posted later on separately. I did also take one Lobster and make a Lobster Curry, and I’ll share that recipe as well. I also apologize for the lack of photos – this was not originally intended to be on the blog, but enough people have expressed interest in how to do it that thought I would share!
Before we get started though, I want to say hello and thank you to our new followers. We’re happy to have you here!
So here where the lobsters that starred in the show:
Pictured here: Loki, Thor, Paul, and Dean, chilling on some ice and getting some rest.
Later on, we grabbed the pot and started pouring the liquids and first ingredients:
Add the onions, garlic, potatoes and the rest of the ingredients from Step 1 to the pot.
Next came the corn:
Due to the unseasonably hot weather here, we still have corn available!
Then, it was time for the seafood:
The heat started to open the mussels fairly quickly.
Let the feasting begin!
LOBSTER BOIL
INGREDIENTS:
2 medium onions, quartered
1 head of garlic – all cloves peeled and crushed (not chopped)
8 Yukon Gold Potatoes, halved
3 Thai chilis, sliced
3 Mexican Style Beers of your choice (If you don’t want to use alcohol, you can substitute seafood stock).
2 links of Turkey Sausage (We had some dietary restrictions with our company, but you could easily substitute Andouille or Kielbasa sausages, and if you eat pork, would recommend doing so). Cut these into about 1.5 inch pieces.
4 ears of corn, husked and cut into 3 pieces of each for a total of 12 small cobs.
5 live medium lobsters (about 1-1.5 pounds each)
4 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp toasted coriander seeds
4 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
2 pounds of mussels, scrubbed and cleaned
2 pounds of shrimp, under 16, cleaned and deveined (alternatively, use frozen but make sure that they are cleaned and deveined as well)
3 tbsp cilantro, cleaned and chopped
Limes
DIRECTIONS:
Place the onions, garlic, potatoes, chili peppers, and sausages in a large pot. Place 4 cups of water and both beers on top.
Place pot on medium high heat to bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce to a simmer. Add the corn. Cover pot and cook for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix the cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper together. You may want to make a double batch so you can sprinkle the mixture on top of the boil later.
After 15 minutes has elapsed, add half the spice mixture over the ingredients already in the pot, then add the lobsters. Cooking time for lobsters will vary. We followed these guidelines to make sure that we treated the lobsters humanely before putting them in the pot: https://www.thespruceeats.com/ways-to-kill-a-lobster-1808804.
After you add the lobsters, cover the pot. For the lobsters, you will need about 20 minutes for the first pound, and about 7 minutes per pound after. So after 20 minutes, add the mussels and shrimp and cover the pot again. Add the rest of the spice mixture. The liquid should be simmering and steaming during all of this.
Cook for about 7-10 more minutes depending on size of lobsters and check on pot. Mussels should be open at this point (discard and do not eat any unopened mussels) and shrimp should be pink and opaque.
Strain the pot and make sure to reserve the broth. Lay out the seafood wonders onto prepared newspaper or parchment paper. Garnish with chopped cilantro, more of the spice mixture, and lime wedges. Serve immediately.
The Comforted Table 