Still catching up on things I made for holidays past, but at least now I’m up to 2023. 11-11: Lobster Thermidor isn’t just the grand meal we had for Christmas 2023 (XMAS 23), it’s also the final recipe I have for the Fish & Seafood chapter, as well as a famous fancy dish you make in the Sims. I feel like finally making it (and posting about it) is quite the celebration in and of itself.
It’s a very indulgent dish, and took us a while to put together as it became difficult to find whole lobsters for a while, at least out here on the west coast of the US. Once we finally found a frozen cooked pair at Costco, it was game on.
They’re not kidding–it’s a fairly hard and expensive recipe. No wonder it took me so long to get around to making it.
Ingredients. There they are, the most recent chest freezer evictees. I’m skipping that whole “make the fish stock” thing (like I usually do) and going with my trusty fish bouillon cubes instead.
So much easier and less messy–this whole thing is already going to be messy enough as it is.
They already were partially disassembled to fit onto the seafood tray from Costco. Ugh, this is already getting a little tough for me–I am not a crustacean disassembler.
I had to bring in a backup who has an entire background in lobster disassembly (as he originally came from New England) for the splitting and real messy parts. I stuck to taking pictures.
No coral in either one of them, but we did scoop out all the rest.
This is about as clean as we could get them, on average.
Working on breaking down the rest of the lobster pieces–good thing we had tools for it.
Another cleaned out half.
The tomalley we were able to salvage from both lobsters.
Making the roux base for the sauce.
Adding the tomalley from earlier into what is essentially a Béchamel sauce base…I even added a little off-script nutmeg.
Finishing it by whisking in the dry mustard, salt, and pepper.
Here’s what got pulled out of the lobsters themselves that’s now going to be stuffed back in.
Ooh la la, so fancy. I guess.
I put them into hotel pans to keep them contained, especially when we start adding sauces and cheese.
Starting with the sauce…
…and then topping with the cheese. Into the broiler they go!
After broiling. I mean, any cheese and sauce looks good broiled, but I still could do without the legs and tails.
Final plating, along with some stuffing and potatoes. It was good, but not worth the work. At least it’s finally done. Stay tuned for our desserts!
Grade: B+
