My wife and I celebrated our 18th anniversary and ordered lobster for surf and turf. Don’t worry; your invitation probably got lost in the mail. Sorry about that. When you have a meal like lobster and steak, there aren’t usually going to be leftovers, but I was lucky enough to have children that don’t wholly appreciate lobster yet. They ate a good share, but there were leftovers. So, what do you do with leftover lobster? I decided I’d make a dish from my youth, Lobster rolls.
I grew up in different provinces across the amazing country of Canada. I was born in Ontario, and we lived in New Brunswick and Alberta growing up. I spent a short time living in a small town near Abbotsford, B.C., but outside of that, Edmonton has been my home for much of my life. While we lived in New Brunswick, I recall a summer trip to PEI. We stayed in a cabin and toured the island. I remember one meal where my dad and the other friends we were staying with picked up some lobster from a local retailer and we had ourselves a lobster boil. When we moved to Edmonton in 1989, I was so proficient at eating lobster that I could crack the body open and suck every piece of meat out of it. When we had lobster at home, we might have leftovers, and that’s when the delicious creature would transform into a magical dish known as the lobster roll.
For those unfamiliar with this dish, a lobster roll is leftover lobster meat mixed with mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt, pepper, celery, and onions. I used chives in this recipe, but a yellow or red onion would be ok too. Mix the ingredients and toast your bun with butter like a grilled cheese sandwich. One difference I noticed when we moved here was how the hotdog buns in Alberta are side-cut versus the top-cut buns in the Maritimes that I had become accustomed to. I took a little adjusting to get used to side-cut buns. Part of me wants to go back just for the top-cut buns. I could have also just made some buns and top-cut them, but it was lunchtime, and I was getting hungry.
So, if you have some leftover lobster and aren’t sure what to do with it, follow my recipe below and enjoy!
Lobster Rolls
Ingredients:
2 hotdog buns
3/4 lbs of lobster meat (tail and claw)
2 tbsp mayo
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp chives
2 tsp chopped celery
Salt
Pepper
Directions:
- Chop the leftover lobster.
- Mix and taste the lobster, mayo, lemon juice, chives, and celery in a mixing bowl.
- Add salt and pepper until you are happy with how it tastes.
- Let the lobster mixture sit for a few minutes.
- Preheat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.
- Butter the insides of the hotdog buns and toast them in the frying pan until they are golden brown.
- Allow the rolls to cool slightly, scoop half the mixture into each bun and enjoy.
