Lobster Thermidor

My Lobster Thermidor is inspired by the classic French dish created at Café de Paris by Leopold Mourier, an assistant to Auguste Escoffier. It’s base is a creamy mushroom sherry sauce, loaded with plenty of delicious Maine lobster.

Recipe provided by

Ingredients

4 (1 ¼ -pound) Maine lobsters or 1 pound frozen lobster meat Shop

4 tablespoons butter
¼ pound trimmed and sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika
Maine Sea Salt
½ cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon sherry
2 egg yolks

Serves: 4

Directions

In a large pot, bring 6 cups of salted water to a boil. Lower the lobsters into the pot headfirst and tightly cover the pot. Cook for 5–7 minutes. Remove the lobsters and reserve ½ cup of the cooking liquid and keep it warm. Once the lobsters are cool, remove the meat from the claws, discard the claw shells, separate the head from the tail, and discard the head. Using scissors, cut the tail in half and remove the meat. Rinse and reserve the empty tail shell halves. Chop all of the lobster meat into ¾ -inch pieces.

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add the mushrooms and cook until browned. Add the paprika and season with salt. Add the half-and-half and sherry and simmer for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks with ½ cup of the reserved lobster cooking liquid. Add the yolk mixture and lobster meat to the mushroom mixture and stir to combine. Spoon the mixture into the reserved shells. Preheat the broiler too high. Place the lobster meat side up on a tray and broil until just bubbling, about 4–5 minutes. Spoon any remaining sauce over the top before serving.