Jack Croft and Will Murray of London restaurant Fallow share the secrets of their incredible lobster crumpets. These luxurious crumpets use almost every bit of the lobster. Learn how to make them with this step-by-step recipe…
- From the menu: “This dish is on the menu at our restaurant, Fallow. We’ve used different seafood over the years: brown crab, spider crab, octopus… We decided to put lobster on it for summer because it’s an ingredient no one thinks of as being seasonal. But in the summer months lobsters migrate inshore so they’re easier to catch.”
- Make ahead: You can make the yogurt, cook the lobster and make the lobster butter up to a day in advance, keeping everything covered in the fridge.
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Ingredients
For the lime pickle yogurt
- 60g greek yogurt
- 40g lime pickle
- 1 tsp caster sugar
For the crumpets
- 40ml warm water
- 160ml whole milk, warmed
- 13g fresh yeast (or 6.5g dried)
- 1/2 tsp caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 135g plain flour
- Vegetable oil to fry
For the lobster
- 50g leek, roughly chopped
- 50g round shallots (about 2 shallots), roughly chopped
- 50g carrot (about 1 medium carrot), roughly chopped
- 50g onion (about 1/2 small onion), roughly chopped
- Bowl ice-cold water
- 1 live/raw lobster (about 750g – see Know-how)
For the lobster butter
- 240g unsalted butter
- 40ml cold-pressed rapeseed oil
- Pinch ground mace
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- Pinch kombu seasoning (see Cook smarter)
- Dash Worcestershire sauce
For the salad
- 20ml white wine vinegar (ideally chardonnay vinegar)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 80ml vegetable oil
- 2g fine salt
- 2g caster sugar
- 1/2 apple, finely sliced
- 1/2 fennel bulb, finely sliced
- Mixed herbs to garnish (Will and Jack use nasturtium leaves, Vietnamese coriander and other micro leaves)
Specialist kit
- Probe thermometer
- Kitchen scissors
- Nutcracker (optional)
- Muslin cloth (optional)
- Crumpet ring
Method
- To make the yogurt, put all the ingredients in a blender and whizz until smooth. Keep in the fridge until needed.
- To make the crumpets, whisk the warm water, milk and yeast in a mixing bowl using a balloon whisk. Ensure the water and milk don’t exceed 40°C (check with a thermometer) otherwise the heat could kill the yeast. Set aside in a warm place for 45 minutes to activate the yeast.
- In another bowl, mix the sugar, salt and bicarb into the flour, then whisk this into the milk mixture. Whisk well until the batter is thick and falls off the whisk in ribbons that slowly sink into the surface. Cover and set aside for 2 hours at room temperature to prove – you’ll see the bubbles forming.
- Meanwhile, cook the lobster. Add all the chopped veg to a large pan of water and bring to 90°C (a bare simmer). Set up the iced water alongside. If the lobster is live, use a large heavy knife to cut through its head, using the crease between the lobster’s eyes to guide you. This will instantly kill the lobster. (The legs may move a little after it’s been dispatched).
- Twist off the claws and set aside, then do the same with the tail (you may need to use a knife to gently separate the tail from the body).
- Push a teaspoon handle into the top of the tail, between the shell and the flesh, to keep it straight when it cooks. Using the initial cut you made in the head to guide you, cut through the rest of the body lengthways to halve it. Discard the antennae, gills and entrails. The feathery gills are at the sides, above the legs, and the entrails are near the head – they’re clearly different from the meat. You now have the tail, claws, legs and body/head pieces. Set the body/head and legs aside in the fridge to make the butter.
- Put the tail and claws in the simmering water. Lift the tail out after 6 minutes and the claws after 12-14 minutes (depending on their size), putting both in the iced water immediately. Once fully cooled, remove the lobster meat from the shells. Do this carefully; you want to keep the claws and tail in whole pieces. Use kitchen scissors or a small sharp knife to cut along the underside of the tail shell, then pull the meat out – remove and discard any tube-like pieces. Using scissors or a nutcracker, crack the claws to remove the meat. Keep the shells and transfer the meat, covered, to the fridge.
- For the lobster butter: put all the reserved shells in a blender or food processor and pulse a few times to break them up a little (or wrap in a clean tea towel and bash with a rolling pin). Add half the butter to a large pan over a medium heat; once melted, add the shells. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes until the shells are evenly roasted, then add the remaining butter, oil, spices and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer for 10 minutes, then cover and set aside, off the heat, to infuse for 1 hour.
- Strain the lobster butter through a fine sieve into a bowl. Ideally, strain it again through a muslin cloth to get it really clear. Discard the shells and put the butter in the fridge.
- By now your crumpet batter should be ready. Put a large, heavy (ideally cast iron) skillet or frying pan over a medium heat and coat the base with oil. Add an oiled crumpet ring, then ladle in enough of the batter to come up about halfway up the sides of the ring. Leave to cook, undisturbed, for about 5 minutes or until the top of the crumpet looks dry and has lots of little holes.
- Remove the ring, flip the crumpet and cook for 30 seconds, then set aside. Repeat to make 4 crumpets.
- To make the salad, put the vinegar and lemon juice in a small (ideally round bottomed) bowl, then gradually stream in the oil while whisking constantly. Season with the salt and sugar, then add the apple and fennel and lightly toss.
- Now it’s time to assemble the crumpets. Put two thirds of the lobster butter in a medium saucepan and gently warm through. You can reheat the lobster meat however you like – at our restaurant, Roe, we warm it on the barbecue, then drench it in the melted butter, but you can warm it in the melted butter on the hob.
- Put a crumpet on each serving plate and spoon over some lobster butter. Slice the lobster meat and arrange it on top, then pile on the apple and fennel salad. Add little dollops of the lime pickle yogurt, then spoon over even more lobster butter. Finish with the herb garnish.
FAQs
This method of preparing lobster is how we would do it in the restaurant. It’s a great way to test yourself and learn a neat skill – plus you get far more for your money when you prepare the lobster yourself. That said, you could simplify things if you wanted. You could just halve the lobster and cook it on the barbecue, then pull out the meat. You could boil it whole and extract the meat afterwards. It depends how much you want to test yourself and try out new skills.
The one thing we’d suggest avoiding is buying lobster pre-cooked. The real flavour of this dish comes from the lobster butter, and if you make it with pre-cooked shells they’ll have lost a lot of their aroma. It really is worth the effort of sourcing and cooking a raw lobster. If you’re not up for killing it yourself, the fishmonger will; just be sure to cook it on the same day
The crumpets are there because there’s no better vessel to soak up all that delicious butter. They’re like little sponges. Homemade crumpets are completely different from ones you can buy, and it’s a nice little technique to learn.
You’ll have some of the lobster butter left over and it’s a great thing to have in your culinary arsenal. Chill what remains until solid, then cut into cubes and keep in a bag or tub in the freezer for up to 3 months. The cubes can be used direct from frozen to enrich sauces or for frying fish and shellfish.
Nutrition
- 411kcals Calories
- 22g (12g saturated) Fat
- 21g Protein
- 32g (7g sugars) Carbs
- 2.6g Fibre
- 2.3g Salt
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