Serves: 4
It’s one of the world’s finest and most glamorous ingredients. Here’s how to treat lobster the way it deserves…
Michelin-starred chef Julien Poisot embraces the terroir and uses the very finest local ingredients at Château de Mercuès, a 4-star wine-estate hotel in the Lot département. His passion is for transforming the produce while remaining faithful to its quintessential nature.
Here he shows us how to prepare lobster.
Ingredients
For the lobster
- 2 lobsters (weighing total of 800g-1kg)
- 100g butter
- 20 decent pineapple sage leaves
- Mixed shoots and herbs
For the lobster claw stuffing
- 50g garlic purée
- 1 carrot
- 1 celeric stick
- 100g daikon radish
- 100g courgette
For the squid ink ravioli paste
- 80g flour
- 27g lobster broth
- 8g squid ink
- ½ soup spoon olive oil
For the tuile au poivre
- 10g flour
- 20g olive oil
- 80g water
- Sichuan pepper
For the tomato achard with Espelette pepper
- 2 tomatoes
- ½ red pepper
- Garlic, thyme
- Salt, pepper
- Olive oil
- Espelette pepper
Directions
For the lobster
1Cook the lobsters in boiling salted water for 7 minutes. Take off the claws and continue cooking the rest for another 3 minutes.
2Plunge them into iced water to stop the cooking. Take the meat out of the tail and claws and set aside. With the heads and shells we are going to prepare a classic lobster bisque, but we are going to recover at the soft parts from the head and the coral to make the stuffing for the ravioli.
For the lobster claw stuffing
1Finely dice the vegetables and sweat them in butter without colouring.
2Add the chopped lobster meat as well as the coral and the soft part from the head, which have already been mixed together.
3Let them cook for around 10 minutes then add the garlic and check the seasoning.
For the squid ink ravioli paste
1Mix all the ingredients together to form a combined paste and leave to rest for 1 hour in the fridge. Roll out the paste and make 5 cm ravioli with about 20g of filling.
For the tomato achard with Espelette pepper
1Blanche and peel the tomatoes, cut them in 4 and take out the pips. Do the same with the red pepper.
2On a baking tray with asilicone sheet, lay out the pepper and tomatio, and season with salt, pepper, garlic cut in slices and thyme. Also the Espelette pepper and olive oil.
3Confit in on oven for 3 hours at 80°c, then cut them into fine dice, mix well together, add a little olive oil if the mix seems dry. The mix should be well seasoned to lift the flavour of the dish.
For the chilled lobster bisque with pineapple sage
1Bring the bisque to the boil, add the sage leaves and plce a lid on the saucepan. Leave to infuse 10 minutes, then add the butter, mix and parse through a fine sieve.
For the pepper tuile
1Roast off the sichuan pepper and infuse it 10 minutes in a mix of water and olive oil. Sieve the liquid and add it to the flour. Pour a small amount into a very hot non-stick pan to create paper thin tuile, and lightly colour on both sides.
Dressing the dish
1Pour the bisque into the base of the dish.
2Cook the ravioli for 10 minutes in the steamer.
3Then place the ravioli on the bisque. Top with the tomato and garnish with a few leaves and herbs.
