Ingredients
Lobster
- 4rock lobster tails
- or 2 whole rock lobsters
- Jasus lalandii
- fresh or frozen
Garlic butter
- 150 gbutter, softened
- 6garlic cloves, crushed
- a handful of parsley, chopped
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 teaspoonpaprika, optional
- salt and black pepper
To serve
- lemon wedges
- crusty bread
- a green salad
- a crisp white wine
Directions
- Put the live lobster in a freezer for a time. It must be quick and decisive. Take it off the moment it is opaque. It also bastes the meat and keeps it moist. Set a tail shell side up on a board. Cut it lengthways down the middle.
- Use heavy kitchen scissors or a sharp knife. Rinse the split tails under cold water. Pull out the dark digestive tract. Pat them all dry well afterwards. Pull it out with the point of a knife.
- Beat the softened butter in a bowl. Add the crushed garlic to the butter. Add the chopped parsley and lemon juice. Add the paprika if you are using it.
- Season it with salt and black pepper. Cold butter will not mix with the garlic. Leave it out an hour beforehand. Wait until the coals are covered in grey ash.
- Spread the coals into an even bed. Set the tails shell side down on the grill. Spread garlic butter over the exposed meat. Cooking them takes a few minutes. Let them cook for about six minutes. Baste them with more butter as they go. Adding more keeps the meat moist.
- Baste them two or three times. Some cooks turn them for a minute at the end. Take it off a moment early rather than late. Heat the oven to two hundred degrees. Set the tails on a tray shell down. Spread garlic butter over the meat. Bake them for about ten minutes. A minute under a hot grill browns the top.
- Set the tails out on warm plates. Spoon over any butter from the tray. Serve crusty bread alongside them. Serve a green salad alongside it. It does not keep at all well after. Cook and eat it on the same day.
Technique
- The fishery is managed by a total allowable catch, a defined season and enforced minimum sizes, and that management is what keeps it going: rock lobster populations have been under pressure from historic overfishing, and the Benguela system periodically produces low-oxygen events that kill large numbers.
- Lobsters are increasingly recognised as able to feel pain and some countries now regulate how they are killed; dropping a live lobster into boiling water is no longer accepted practice in those places, and chilling followed by a single decisive cut lengthways through the head is the recommended method. Buying frozen tails, which is how most exported rock lobster is sold, avoids the question entirely.
- Rock lobster meat is lean and delicate and overcooks extremely fast into something rubbery and dry, so judge it by appearance rather than a clock: take it off the moment it turns opaque, since it carries on cooking afterwards.
Substitutions
- Frozen tails are what most home cooks will use, thawed slowly in the refrigerator.
- The oven at two hundred degrees works where a charcoal fire is not possible.
Variations
- Some cooks turn the tails briefly at the end to colour the cut surface.
- Paprika is added to the garlic butter in some versions.
- Bread to mop the butter from the shell is much of the pleasure of it.
History
Jasus lalandii is fished off Lüderitz under strict seasonal quota; the fishery has anchored the town’s economy since the early twentieth century.
Frequently asked questions
What is Lüderitz rock lobster?
Lüderitz rock lobster is a main from Namibia: cold-water crayfish grilled with garlic butter on the southern coast. Jasus lalandii is fished off Lüderitz under strict seasonal quota; the fishery has anchored the town’s economy since the early twentieth century.
How long does Lüderitz rock lobster take to make?
Lüderitz rock lobster takes 20 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Lüderitz rock lobster?
Yes, within limits. Frozen tails are what most home cooks will use, thawed slowly in the refrigerator. The oven at two hundred degrees works where a charcoal fire is not possible.
What is the most important thing to get right in Lüderitz rock lobster?
Put the live lobster in a freezer for a time. It must be quick and decisive. Take it off the moment it is opaque. It also bastes the meat and keeps it moist. Set a tail shell side up on a board. Cut it lengthways down the middle.
