It’s getting cold out there. Warm up with a thoroughly comforting dish of lobster mac & cheese from chef Andy Husbands. Not content to merely throw a few chunks of lobster into your standard cheese sauce, this recipe doubles down on seafood goodness, infusing the lobster flavor into the sauce itself by making a lobster Mornay (don’t worry – it’s not nearly as hard as it’s fancy French name makes it sound). Take care not to overcook the lobster when par-boiling it though – you don’t want it to get tough during its 30 minute stay in the oven.
Lobster Mac & Cheese
Details
Ingredients
- 3 lobsters 1 1/2 pounds each
- 4 1/4 cups milk
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
- 1 cup Swiss cheese, grated
- kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- 1 pound elbow macaroni, cooked al dente
- 2 cups Ritz crackers, crushed
- 1 cup chives, minced
Directions
- Place the lobsters in a large pot of boiling water and cook for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove the lobsters from the pot and cool down in ice water until cold. Crack the lobster tails, claws and knuckles and remove the meat, rough chopping it into bite-sized pieces. Refrigerate the chopped meat until needed.
- Split the lobsters shells open and remove the tamale and all insides including the head.
- Place the cleaned lobster shells and milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat and simmer (do not boil) for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a 2-quart heavy-bottomed sauté pan melt the butter over medium heat. When melted, add the flour and stir with a fork until the roux (that's what you've just made), has a slightly nutty smell, about three minutes.
- Strain the milk (reserving the milk and throwing out the shells) and slowly add the milk while continually whisking into the roux. Simmer the sauce for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon frequently so as not to let it burn.
- Add the cheeses to the sauce and season with salt and pepper. You have now made lobster Mornay sauce.
- Place the cooked macaroni, lobster meat and Mornay sauce in a large mixing bowl and mix well.
- Place the mixture in an oven proof-baking dish, top with the Ritz cracker crumbs and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool for ten minutes. Garnish with the minced chives and serve.