Seafood Rice: lobster spices it up

I love to spice up my rice with delicious and healthy seafood, especially lobster meat! This recipe is very useful around the holidays--it's a simple dish that can be adjusted based on what you have available. Below I prepare this recipe with clams and lobster meat, but you could certainly do this with crabmeat, fish, scallops...almost any type of seafood would be perfect.

Fancy Seafood Rice
2 to 3 cups uncooked rice
optional: 1 tablespoon Spanish Rice seasoning (may be called paella)
1 bunch live clams, scrubbed clean
1 cup chicken broth
½ cup white wine
1 teaspoon minced garlic
½ red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
optional: 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
½ pound cooked lobster meat, roughly chopped
salt to taste

First start out by cooking the rice according to the manufacturer's instructions. Usually, 1 cup of rice requires 1½ cups of water and cooks for 20 minutes. I recommend preparing 2 cups of rice. If you like Spanish rice seasoning, add it now to the rice before it is cooked.

When the rice has 5 minutes left to cook, prepare the seafood.

Place the scrubbed clams into a medium sauce pot over medium high heat. Add in the chicken broth, white wine, minced garlic, chopped red bell peppers, parsley, and optional butter. Cook everything together with a tightly fitted lid until the clam shells open, or about 2 to 3 minutes. Once they do, turn off the heat. Discard any clams that did not open.

By now the rice should be finished cooking. Transfer the rice into a large bowl along with the clams and all its juices. Add in the chopped lobster meat. Toss everything together until it is well combined. Taste and correct with salt. I recommend about ½ teaspooon of salt. Serve immediately.

Lobster Croquettes

Croquettes can be created from your favorite ingredients and once you learn the technique, it’s easy. I like to use a food processor to mix my croquettes; it saves a lot of hand chopping time. In this recipe, I use lobster, but you could also try: scallops, tuna, salmon, rockfish, shrinmp, or crabmeat!

Croquettes can be assembled ahead of time and frozen. If you are baking from a frozen state simply add another minute or two until they are cooked through.

I suggest making a dipping sauce on the side. If you like hummus, that's a great place to start, but the sky is the limit here and so be playful in the kitchen. Other great options are a mixture of equal parts tartar sauce and cocktail sauce to create my favorite: sunset sauce.

Lobster Croquettes
Makes 6 servings, 2 croquettes per serving

For the fried croquettes:
¾ pound fresh lobstermeat, finely chopped
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1½ cups cooked white rice
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup of your favorite finely chopped fresh herbs (I suggest: cilantro, flat leaf parsley, curly parsley chives, chervil)
2 eggs, whisked
2 cups olive oil

For the coating:
1½ cup breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro (or your favorite herb)

For the sauce:
¾ cup store-bought Hummus
1 tablespoon chili sauce

In a food processor combine the lobster, cheese, cheese, rice, garlic, salt, cilantro, and eggs and pulse until a paste is formed. Scoop out the shrimp mixture and make 12 equal balls, or about 1 heaping tablespoon each.

In a small shallow bowl pour in the breadcrumbs and cilantro and mix.

Pour the olive oil in a medium sauce pan and heat it to 350F.

Meanwhile, dip the croquettes into the breadcrumbs (roll it around until it is well coated) and place them on a clean plate.

Fry the croquettes in batches in the olive oil for about 2 minutes or until they turn golden brown. The croquettes should be completely submerged. Also, make sure to carefully move them around in the oil so they fry evenly. When they are done, remove the croquettes from the oil and place them on a paper-towel lined plate to drain.

While the croquettes are frying prepare the Hummus dipping sauce by combing the hummus and the chili sauce and mixing until blended.

Serve the croquettes warm with the dipping sauce. If you really like it spicy, just adjust the sauce to taste.

Lobster Cobb Salad Wrap

Lobster Cobb Salad is wonderful served at fancy dinner parties as an appetizer or over a casual lunch. It can be as sophisticated as you would like it to be. To dress this wrap up even more, consider adding in a sprinkle of inexpensive caviar moments before rolling up the wrap.

Lobster Cobb Salad Wrap
Makes 2 Servings

For the salad:
4 romaine lettuce piece, washed, dried, and chopped into bite-size pieces
¼ cup washed and dried watercress, roughly chopped into ½-inch pieces
1 bacon slice, fried, drained on paper towels, and roughly chopped into ½-inch pieces
1 hard-cooked egg, peeled and roughly chopped into ½-inch cubes
½ pound lobstermeat, roughly chopped
1 tomato, roughly chopped into ½-inch cubes
2 tablespoons blue cheese, crumbled
2 large wraps

For the dressing (Bob Cobb’s original recipe):
¼ cup water
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
¾ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon dry English mustard, such as Coleman’s
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
¼ cup full-flavored olive oil
¾ cup salad oil (vegetable oil)

In a medium bowl combine the lettuce, watercress, bacon, egg, lobster meat, tomatoes, and cheese and mix until well combined. Set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing. In a medium metal bowl, prepare the dressing by combining the water, vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, minced garlic, olive oil, and vegetable oil. Whisk the dressing vigorously, until it is well blended.

Assemble the wraps. Place the wraps on a clean surface and evenly divide up the lobster cobb salad between the two. Drizzle the dressing over the filling and roll up the wraps. Slice the wraps in half and serve immediately.