Spiny Serindipity

Coming home from my walk on Thursday morning, a neighbor was parked near our house and asked if we wanted some lobster. Like, "Who wouldn't?" He was selling them after a night of Lobster Diving. I bought two, each were about 1.5 pounds. These are spiny lobsters, not New England Lobsters, so they have no big claws and there is also meat in their bodies. You cannot buy these lobsters in any stores here, you have to know or meet a diver.

Lobster season here is from September 1st through April 31st. There is no spearing allowed and there is a minimum size of 3 1/4 inches carapace (head portion.) My personal rule of thumb is that if they are not alive and moving that I do not buy them. Many fishermen have an aerating pump that they keep going in a cooler filled with sea water to keep them alive.

Simple is best when it comes to lobsters. I like to either boil them and serve them with crackers and picks or par-boil them, cut them in half and put them on the grill to finish cooking with some olive oil to hold in the moisture.

If you buy an extra one or two, then you can save the extra meat for something like pasta with lobster. In this case, I just boiled them, cut them in half, grilled them for a few minutes and served them with clarified butter, a salad and garlic bread. It does not get much easier or better than that. Of course one of the great things about lobster is Lobster Bisque a few days later. That is coming up.