Cooking the lobster tail sous vide in this traditional salad like recipe ensures you’ll have a firm meaty bite without the rubbery texture that comes with over cooking.  The real gem in this recipe, though, is the souls vide poached egg.  Cooking the egg in its shell for 45 minutes at 145°F gives you a yolk that is a warm gooey custard and a white that is just barely set.  Breaking the egg over the salad and letting the flavors meld together produces something really luxurious and rich.

Ingredients – Serves 6

• 2 medium sized lobster tails
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 medium shallot, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons of chives, finely minced
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 tablespoon of crème fraiche
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 6 eggs (at room temperature)
• 1 large bunch of parsley, tough stems discarded
• 1 cup of roughly chopped frozen Philo dough

 

Preparation

Lobster Salad

• Heat a water bath to 135°F with an immersion circulator
• Vacuum seal each lobster tail in its own bag with a half stick butter each.  Try laying the tails on their sides so that any spiny edges don’t pierce the bag.

• Cook the lobster tails in the water bath for 45 minutes.  The butter will act as a natural baster for the lobster, particularly as it picks up the flavor from the cooking shells.
• Once finished, remove each tail from its bag and cool it in ice water.  You can reserve the lobster butter for another use or discard.
• Once the lobster is cool enough to handle, remove all the meat, rough chop, and place in a bowl.
• Add the shallot, chives, lemon juice, crème fraiche, and salt and pepper.  Mix well, cover and refrigerate until ready for serving.

Parsley Water

• Fill the bottom of a blender with just enough water to barely cover the blades.
• Add the parsley and blend on high until a homogenous mixture of parsley and water is formed (about 1 minute).
• Store the parsley water in a squeeze bottle in the refrigerator until ready for service.

Final preparations

• At 45 minutes before service time, heat a water bath to 145°F using an immersion circulator.
• Gently place the eggs (in their shells) into the water bath being careful not to crack them as they hit the bottom.  Let cook for 45 minutes.
• Heat a pot of oil or deep fryer to 325°F (see my review of induction burners to help maintain temperatures).
• At 10 minutes before service, plate the lobster salad using a ring mold and dot the edges of the plate with the parsley water.
• At 5 minutes before service, place the philo dough in the oil and fry until brown and crispy (about 30 second).  Remove and place on a paper towel lined plate to dry.  Salt generously.
• Gently remove the eggs from the water using a slotted spoon.  Gently crack the rounder end of the egg and remove the shell to form a wide whole.
• Tip the egg shell into a bowl to allow the egg to fall out.  Remove the egg from the bowl with a slotted spoon, allowing any unset whites to remain in the bowl.
• Place the egg alongside the lobster salad and season with a bit of salt and pepper.
• Garnish the plate with the fried philo dough and serve!