Grilled Lobster w/ Garlic Herbed Butter

How do you pass up live, fresh lobster that are being sold at $7.99/lb. Simple - you just don't do it. *Thank you, Chowhounders for the food news updates!!!* Just the week before, I picked up 2 live crab off a boat in Bodega Bay ($6.99/lb), and steamed it with ginger and scallions (Here's a recipe for it from one of my fave blogs - Appetite for China). After that episode of fresh seafood - I was desperately craving lobster!!! Yumyumyumyumyumyumyumyum....=D.



Lucky for me, it was my dad's birthday - so I had a 'real' reason to splurge! - not that I needed a reason for $7.99/lb lobster. I ended up buying 3 lobsters that were just under 2 lbs each. Look - they're staring at you..saying "If you put me in boiling lemony water - I will forever hate you - but you will be forever pleased with my sweet and juicy meat, so I don't blame you."


Most people just eat the tail and the big claws, but there's actually a lot of delicious tender meat in the head and their skinny little legs, so I just decided to cook the whole damn thing - why not, right?

Ingredients
Lobster (in this case, 3 whole)
1 whole lemon - cut in half
1/4 Cup of Butter (1/2 a stick)
1 sprig rosemary, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Lemon wedges for serving

Boil a big pot of water and squeeze the juice of a whole lemon into it. Throw in the lemon halves for flavor. Submerge each the lobster under the boiling water for 1-1.5 minutes - until the lobster has turned orange and stops moving. =( You don't want to fully cook the lobster at this stage. If doing one lobster at a time - make sure the water comes back to a boil before putting in the next lobster.

After boiling, run it under cold water or submerge into a bucket of ice water to stop the cooking. Peel off the large claws and set aside to get it out of your way. Using a large knife, slice each lobster length wise using the bottom side of the lobster as a guide - in between its legs and down the middle of the tail. Clean out the guts and rinse it out a bit w/cold water. Let the water drain.


In the meantime, prepare the herbed butter. Mix the minced rosemary and garlic in with the butter and put it in the microwave until all the butter is melted (30 - 40 seconds). This allows the flavors of the garlic and rosemary to seep into the butter. Brush the garlic herb butter evenly on the open sides of the 6 lobster halves. Place cut side down onto a HOT grill for 3-4 minutes until the the meat is browned. While the halves are grilling, also place the claws on the grill - they'll take a total of 6-8 minutes to cook (3-4 minutes on each side).


Before serving, crack the shells of the claws using a mallot, and serve with lemon wedges.