Culinary School with Ally Phillips

Pony learns how to properly boil a lobster (avec lemon risotto).

Courtesy of Mushy Pony.com

Indulging isn’t always about breaking the bank. When shopping for the perfect lobster, we found that heading to Bill’s Lobster and Fish Market on Gerrard East (or the St. Lawrence Market) helped save a few bucks – at roughly $10/lb, who could complain? But cooking the lobster is a whole other issue in itself. Together with Sobeys recipe developer, Ally Phillips, the Cowgirls learned exactly how to boil it (in the most humane fashion), how to crack it, and how to serve it alongside a delicious tangy lemon risotto.

Courtesy of Mushy Pony.com

After naming each lobster after various exes and frenemies, we decided to let Ally remove one of the rubber bands for further inspection. Besides some crawling, which caused us non-chefs to scream and leap onto counter-tops, the lobsters remained fairly drowsy and placid. This was our sign that the lobsters didn’t need 5-10 minutes in the freezer to calm down. We then grabbed the biggest pot we could find, filled it with extremely salty water, and gradually brought it to a boil.

Courtesy of Mushy Pony.com

Next came the risotto preparation:

Ingredients:

Asparagus 1 lb.
(1 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of butter, 2 cloves of minced garlic, salt & pepper.)

Risotto 1 cup.
( 1 l. of chicken stock, 3 tbsp of butter, 1 shallot, 1/2 cup of white wine, 1 lemon zest, 1/3 cup Parmesan)

After breaking off the hard ends of the asparagus, chop them into inch-long segments. “If you cut on a diagonal, it helps add to the aesthetics.” Ally pointed out. We then heated the oil and butter in a pan, and cooked the asparagus for five minutes. Pouring in 1/4 cup of water, seasoned with salt and pepper we let it cook for an additional 5-15 minutes (depending on the size of the asparagus).

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For the risotto, we started by dicing the shallot. “If you leave one end of the shallot attached, it helps keep everything together. You can use this trick with any onion. We’re using a shallot today because it’s a little bit milder, almost like a herb.” We then moved to the stove, brought the chicken stock to a simmer and set it aside. In a saucepan, we heated two tbsp’s of butter, and cooked the shallot until soft. Next, we added the rice and stirred until it appeared translucent. We added the wine and a ladle of stock and continued to stir until it disappeared. Our lovely friend Sarah, continued to do this for the next half hour – stirring and adding a ladle at a time until the rice was nice and creamy.

Meanwhile, we had our friends to attend to. We took our first suspect by the tail and got ready for action. “If they’ve been out of water for a few hours, then you don’t need to put them in the freezer at all.” Ally said. “Put them head first into the pot and then put the lid onto the pot. The water must be fiercely boiling. It takes 10 minutes for one pound and 3 minutes for each additional pound.” Our head Cowgirl decided to give it a try, but made the sad mistake of tossing poor Pinchy like a football into his death where he made his big splash into lobster-heaven. Oops.

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“Make sure you are holding them by their body and not the tail.” Ally reminded us. We then went back to our risotto, which was ready for serving. We stirred in the asparagus, one more tbsp of butter, and tossed in our lemon zest and Parmesan. As each lobster was finished, we rested them on a platter covered in aluminum foil to keep them piping hot. Dinner served. Almost.

“Cracking the lobster can be difficult.” Ally added. “I tear off each loin, and use a cracker to break apart each joint. For the tail, use a large knife to cut along the bottom vertically and pry it open that way. We conveniently have all male lobsters today but that’s something to consider when shopping as the females tend to have eggs in them.” Well, we were man-eaters what can we say?

– The Cowgirls.