Coconut-Stuffed Lobster Fry with Cilantro Lime Rice

Yay!!! Its the Seafood Road Show Event at Costco!! Translation: A very happy ME - I stuffed by fridge with Crabs, Scallops, Lobsters, and Shrimp. The sad part is that my hubby cannot stand seafood. He can do fish and chips but that is about it. The good part is that there is now more, more than enough for me. This recipe calls for a perfect marriage of coconut, onions, cilantro, and lime (HEAVEN) which my second mom Ushama used to use to make Bombil or Bombay Duck! She refreshed my memory today and my tastes bud with her amazing Indian style green curry recipe. We dont get Bombay duck in Delaware but what the heck we have LOBSTER!!

PS: Although the recipe that follows has a different order, I would suggest you cook the paste first, then the rice, and then the lobster.

Ingredients and Method:

Half of a 8 inch lobster tail

1 cup onion, chopped

1/8 cup shredded coconut

2 small green chillies

1 clove of garlic

1 tbsp coarsely chopped ginger

1/8 cup cilantro

2 to 4 spinach leaves

Pinch of turmeric

Salt to taste

Lime

1/8cup Flour (I used wheat)

1/8 cup Semolina (Makes the lobster crispy)

1/2 cup Basmati Rice

Some olive oil

Salt and Pepper for seasoning the rice

Start out by pulling the lobster meat out of the shell. I used half of a lobster tail. Butterfly cut the lobster i.e. cut the lobster sideways without running the knife through the through the  whole thing. Leave the other side intact because we will be stuffing the coconut paste. Clean and pat dry the lobster. Season it lightly with salt and pepper.

Coconut paste: In a blender combine all ingredients from the chopped onions to the spinach leaves. Grind coarsely. Add some salt. In a wok, heat oil. Add a pinch or two of turmeric. Let sit for a few seconds and now add the paste. We have to cook the paste at this time. So keep stirring constantly while adding 1/8 cup water at time. Let the water evaporate add some more. Keep doing this until the paste turns from light green to dark green color. Set aside. Squeeze 1/4 wedge of lime juice and mix.

Heat some butter in a pan.  Now, have the flour and semolina mixture ready.  Open the lobster (like a book), dab both sides in this mixture and put the lobster open side down to cook. Cover covered for a few minutes. Flip the lobster and cook covered for a few minutes on medium flame. Now uncover and flip the lobster again as we have to stuff the lobster at this time.  Add half of the paste in the lobster and spread it out evenly.  Close the lobster's other half as though you were closing a book. Sear the lobster a little more adding some butter if necessary. This is to get that seared crispy look for the lobster. You may want to cover the lobster for a few minutes if you want it cooked a little more.

Now using the other half of the paste. Put it back in the blender and this time grind it to a fine paste (Remember for the stuffing we used a coarse paste). Heat some olive oil in a pan. Add the paste and add a little water. Keep stirring.

Cook the rice in a microwave making sure it is not sticky.  You can add some olive oil and salt to the rice before cooking it to make sure you do not have sticky rice. Remove the rice from the microwave, add some olive oil, salt (if you did not do so earlier), pinch of black pepper, garlic powder, and lime.  Add the fine paste we made to the rice and stir.

Serve with the lobster!! Enjoy!!!

Note:

1. If you have about 1/2 cup of rice, just add a few tsps of the paste. You dont want to overpower the taste because we have the same paste in the lobster. You can choose to skip the "Adding the paste" to the rice step completely. Seasoning the rice as stated above and a dash of lime should be enough.

2. I ended up having some leftover paste, but hey I am not complaining!!