Chili PEI Lobster by Chef Alex Chen

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

  • 2 x 1.5lbs PEI lobsters
  • 18g Vegetable oil
  • 75g Lee Kum Kee chili garlic
  • 45g rice vinegar
  • 125g Heinz ketchup
  • 10g fish sauce
  • 80g Thai crab paste in oil
  • 30g sugar
  • 4g kosher salt
  • 4g ginger - diced
  • 40g garlic - minced
  • 25g shallot - diced
  • 50ml water
  • 2 eggs - beaten

Directions:

1. Split the lobster in half with a cleaver.
Remove the stomach sack from the lobster’s head and cut each half of the lobster body into 3 pieces. Crack lobster claws with a cleaver.

2. In a wok style pan, heat up vegetable oil until light smoke appears.

3. Add lobster to pan and fry the lobster for about 30 seconds. Remove lobster from pan and put aside.

4. Add in shallots, garlic and ginger, sweat for 30 seconds. Add in crab paste and chilli garlic, cook for another 30 seconds. Add in rice vinegar, ketchup, fish sauce, salt, sugar and claws and cook for 3 minutes.

5. Add in water, add in the lobster body and cook for 2 more minutes. Add in egg, stir lightly. Cover for 30 seconds to finish cooking.

6. Serve hot with toasted sliced baguettes. Ensure each serving is accompanied with a generous helping of sauce.

Do You Know Lobster?

A freshly laid lobster egg is the size of the head of a pin (1/16").

True – Lobster Eggs Are Tiny

Lobster eggs are indeed about the size of the head of a pin. A female lobster carries about 8000 eggs inside for 9-12 months, then another 9-12 months under her tail. Fishers have to return lobsters to the water that have visible eggs under their tail as part of fishery conservation methods. And from every 50,000 eggs, only two lobsters are expected to survive to legal size.