Butter-Poached Maine Lobster with Pommes Maxim and Beet Essence

I killed my first lobster today.

Actually.. my first two lobsters.

I'd like to start out by saying that I was so traumatized by this experience that I took absolutely NO pictures, until I had all of the meat out onto a plate. The only thing that got me through the execution of this dish was the fact that I actually ate it at Per Se in NYC last year. When I got my cookbook I literally started jumping up and down with joy when I saw this recipe. The thought of this got me through the hard part....

My lobsters arrived at 2pm today and I already had my water boiling on the stove. I put them in my sink, which was plugged with a stopper.... put on my headphones on full blast (I didn't want to hear the screams!!!), and poured the boiling water over them.

WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

After about two minutes, they were dead. DEAD (honestly, is anyone still reading?) I detached the tails, claws and knuckles, and then removed the meat from all of them. It looked like this:

After my lobsters were done, I shed a tear.. got over it.. .and then put two yukon gold potatoes through my mandoline on the thinnest possible setting:

They went onto my Silpat with a thin layer of melted butter and into the oven. When they were finished they were crispy and golden brown. One piece of my pommes maxim looked like this:

Then, I sliced the white and light green parts of some leeks:

Blanched them:

... And sauteed them with some brunoise, chives and tomato diamonds.

It was then time to introduce myself to an old friend named BUTTER. The conversation was short: "Hello Butter"... "Hello Jen, I am here to make your food delicious... and your ass fat." "I love you butter."

I made the beurre monte, which is basically an emulsified butter, by taking two pounds of butter with a tablespoon of water and making an emulsification until it looked like this:

I went to my local juice bar and asked them to juice some beets for me. I reduced my beet juice into a small amount of glaze and added a bit of the buerre monte to make a sauce:

And finally, added my lobster pieces to a saucepan and covered with SOME MORE buerre monte. Have I mentioned yet that my lobster was poached in butter?!?!?!?

The final product looked like this:

If you think it looks delicious, you should have smelled it. My entire apartment smelled like a vat of butter exploded.... definitely a good thing. We had some friends over for dinner (thanks Jen and Eli!) and definitely had no problem finishing it all off....

This dish lived up to the hype.... I never thought I could be more infatuated with lobster than I already was.... uh oh.

Food Sources:

Speciality Cookware: A Cook's Companion, Brooklyn, NY

Grocery Items: MET, Brooklyn, NY

Lobster: Fresh Direct