Recipe
1 lobster tail (add more if you like lots of meat)
2 sprigs of scallions
1 teaspoon seasalt
1 red habanero pepper (for heat)
1 cup of small diced carrots
1 cup of small diced red bell peppers
1 cup of small chopped chinese celery (substitute with regular celery)
1 baking potato small cubed
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
4 cups of fresh coconut milk (substitue with canned coconut milk)
1 large shallot thinly sliced
1 piemento pepper (optional for flavor)
1 roma tomato cubed
1 teaspoon freshly grated garlic
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
First prepare the lobster meat. Remove the meat from the shell of the lobster tail. cut into 1 inch chunks. In a mortar and pestle, grind the scallions, seasalt & habanero pepper into a fine paste. Season the lobster meat with this. Cover and set in the refridgerator to marinate while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Cut and prepare all your ingredients ahead of time before cooking. As it will go fast once we start cooking.
In a medium cast iron pot heat the vegetable oil, add shallots and saute until tender, about 1 minute. Add in the ginger, garlic and piemento. Saute for another 30 seconds.
Now add the flour and keep stiring. Let the flour cook in this for 2 minutes, continously stiring. Do not burn the flour and we do not want it to turn dark. It is simply to thicken the broth.
Add in after 2 minutes the chopped, potato, celery and carrots. Combine and add in the coconut milk at this time. Let this come to a simmer. After 5 minutes of cooking in the milk, add in the tomato and the sweet pepper. I am adding this in later because they cook faster than the other vegetables. Let your broth continue to simmer on medium heat until it just starts to thicken up slightly, then turn heat down to low. Add salt and black pepper. Taste…adjust seasoning at this time. Lastly we are going to add in our lobster meat. After 90 seconds turn off your stove. If you cook it any further your meat will be too tough. A no no with lobster of course.
Serve hot with a nice chunk of warm crusty bread.
I served mine Thanksgiving morning with freshly baked bread and ham!
Note***
I know most people won’t know how to go about getting fresh coconut milk but this is what makes this chowder different and delicious.
To get fresh coconut milk, you have to buy the brown (dry) coconut from the grocery and cut this in half. The jelly inside it will be hard. That is good. If you are doing it in a blender then you have to remove that hard brown shell on the outside. Chop the white part of the coconut into mall cubes and blend in the blender with a few cups of water.
Then you are going to strain and squeese out the milk from this pulp. No pulp should go in the milk. This is all it is to fresh coconut milk.
Now I do not do mine this way as I have a coconut mill that I simply have to crack my coconut in half and grind. Within 2 minutes or less I have fresh milk.
