wild lobster

Wild lobster: Dinner time has just stepped up a notch. Image: Red Carnation Hotel Collection.

Wild lobster with gnocchi and brassica texture

For an elegant evening, prepre this succulent, flavour-packed wild lobster. It will put your culinary skills to the test!

wild lobster

Wild lobster: Dinner time has just stepped up a notch. Image: Red Carnation Hotel Collection.

Are you up for a cooking challenge? This wild lobster recipe is a piquant dish that will put your culinary skills to the test.

This is the signature dish of Executive Chef, Philippe Farineau at Ashford Castle, a hotel in Ireland. It is loved by guests and staff alike. Serve the wild lobster with Atlantic seaweed, brassica texture and Harenga caviar for an elegant dining experience.

This recipe includes a few tricks of the trade which you may enjoy to try out if you love trying new recipes. To cook the wild lobster, you first need to prepare court bouillon. This is basically 5 litres of water with salt lemon and orange zest, star anises, thyme, bay leaves, onion and 10 peppercorn. The wild lobster is then cooked in this mixture until it is soft, succulent and infused with appetising flavours.

Enjoy this unique adventure in your kitchen. If you have tried this recipe, let us know!

Wild lobster with gnocchi and brassica texture recipe

5 from 1 vote
Recipe by Dirnise Britz Course: MainCuisine: GlobalDifficulty: Moderate to Difficult
Prep time

1

hour 
Cooking time

1

hour 

30

minutes
Total time

2

hours 

30

minutes

Ingredients

  • ¾ kg ¾ baker potatoes, scrubbed

  • 1 cup 1 (or more) plain flour

  • 1 large 1 egg yolk, beaten

  • 1 teaspoon 1 sea salt

  • large pinch large pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

  • 1 tablespoon 1 olive oil

  • 3 tablespoons 3 fresh chopped seaweed (sea lettuce/pepper dillisk/nori) or dried seaweed

  • potato ricer or food mill

  • 1 large 1 broccolini

  • 600 g 600 lobster

  • purple broccoli

  • Cavolo Nero (a type of kale)

  • kale

  • zest of 1 lemon

  • zest of 1 orange

  • 2 2 star anises

  • thyme

  • 2 2 bay leaves

Method

  • Gnocchi
  • Preheat the oven to 205°C.
  • Pierce the potatoes in several places and bake until soft, about 1 hour. Cool slightly and cut potatoes in half.
  • Working in batches, scoop the hot flesh of the potatoes into potato ricer or food mill. Rice potatoes onto rimmed baking sheet; spread out and cool to room temperature. 
  • Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer the potatoes into a large bowl. Add 1 cup flour; toss to coat. Form a well in the centre of the potato mixture.
  • Add the egg yolk, sea salt, and nutmeg; stir with a fork until the mixture is evenly moistened (mixture will look shaggy).
  • Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead until the dough comes together, sprinkling dough with flour very lightly only if the dough is very sticky.
  • Form the dough into a ball and divide it into 4 pieces. Roll each piece between your hands and work the surface into a 2 cm-thick rope. Cut each rope into 2 cm pieces.
  • Place the gnocchi on a prepared baking sheet. 
  • Working in batches, cook the gnocchi in a large pot of boiling salted water until the gnocchi rise to the surface of the water.
  • Continue to simmer the gnocchi until cooked through and tender, stirring occasionally about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, carefully transfer the gnocchi to a bowl.
  • Drizzle the gnocchi with olive oil and toss to coat.
  • The gnocchi can be made up to 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. 
  • Brassica Texture
  • Use about 1 large full broccolini, cut the head and keep the small leaves and the stem.
  • Cook the green broccoli head for about 2 minutes in a large pot of boiling salted water. Then refresh the cooked broccoli in an ice bath to keep the nice green colour.
  • Drain the water and with a hand blender mash the broccolini.
  • Peel the stem of the green broccolini until all the fibre is gone and cook it in boiling water. 
  • For the purple broccoli, just cook for about 30 seconds, the same as the kale.
  • Lobster
  • For the lobster, prepare a court bouillon (5 litres of water with 200 g salt,1 lemon zest, 1 orange zest, 2 star anises, thyme, 2 bay leaves, ½ onion and 10 g peppercorn).
  • Leave the court bouillon to boil for about 10 minutes then add the lobster.
  • For a lobster of 600 g, you will need to cook it for about 6 minutes or you can also add the lobster to the court bouillon and remove the pot from the stove and leave the lobster to cool down in the court bouillon.
  • When the lobster is cooked, remove the shell.
  • You can make a lovely bisque (creamy lobster sauce with a tomato base) with the shell.
  • For the seaweed, the following works really well: sea purslane, samphire, sea fennel, sea radish and especially the truffle of the sea (pepper dillisk).

Notes

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