Mark McEwan: A lobster Cobb salad that tastes like summer - Toronto Star

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Every Saturday, Chef Mark McEwan, one of Canada’s most celebrated chefs, serves up everything you need for a special weekend meal, including a recipe and expert at-home cooking tips.

The Cobb salad is one of those dishes that everyone is always trying to make their own. I don’t recall the single best Cobb experience I’ve ever had, but the Four Seasons in New York would always impress with their latest take on the Cobb salad in the ’90s and early 2000s. (I also enjoyed seeing how crazy expensive they were!) I’ve had endless variations of the Cobb, and I think the crème fraîche dressing really sets my version apart. It’s bright and creamy without being overly rich. Champagne is the ideal pairing for this salad — it balances the dressing perfectly. 　

Chef tips

The lobster should be lively — almost angry — with no questions about it being alive. Size is important: 2 lbs is always a good weight for proper meat yield. You can go slightly smaller for this recipe.

If you’re uncomfortable with cooking your own lobster, the best option is to buy a cooked one from a good local fish market. You can have them remove the meat from the shell as well.

If you don’t have garlic butter handy, simply fry the croutons in ordinary butter with 3 to 4 smashed cloves of garlic sharing the pan.　

Lobster Cobb Salad with Bacon and Blue Cheese

1 slab (5 oz / 150 g) top-quality bacon cut into 1/4 inch (5 mm) lardons

2 tbsp (30 mL) vegetable or olive oil

3 tbsp (45 mL) garlic butter

4 thin slices of baguette cut diagonally

1 head Bibb lettuce

12 sweet cherry tomatoes, halved

1/4 red onion, sliced

3 radishes, thinly sliced

1 cup (250 mL) crème fraîche dressing

1 avocado, cubed

2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

5 oz (150 g) Saint Agur or other top-quality blue cheese, crumbled

1 live lobster, about 1 1/2 lb (750 g), cooked and shelled, chilled and cut into bite-size pieces

1/4 bunch chives cut into 2 inch (5 cm) lengths

Slowly cook the bacon in the oil, without allowing it to get excessively crisp. Set aside to drain on paper towels. Spread garlic butter on the baguette slices and fry them gently until golden in a separate pan. Set aside on paper towels. Put 12 to 16 whole leaves of lettuce, the tomatoes, onion and radishes in a large bowl and toss with half the crème fraîche dressing. Place the largest four leaves of lettuce concave side up at the centre of four chilled plates. Follow with a judicious scattering of the dressed tomato, onion, and radish, along with avocado, egg segments, lardons, blue cheese, and lobster. Repeat the layers with lettuce leaves of diminishing size until each salad is three or four layers tall. Finish with an extra drizzle of dressing, baguette croutons and chives.

Par-cooked lobster

1/2 cup (125 mL) white vinegar

1 live lobster, about 1 1/2 lb (750 g)

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Bring 8 quarts (8 L) cold water to a boil in a pot large enough to accommodate the lobster. Add vinegar and remove from the heat. Add lobster, cover, then 2 minutes later, remove with a pair of tongs. With a kitchen cloth, twist off its claws and return them to the pot for an additional 5 minutes. Detach the tail from the body. Twist off the tail fan, insert a thumb, and push out the lobster meat. Remove knuckles from claws. Pull down the pincer and move it from side to side. It should detach with the cartilage attached, leaving the claw intact. Crack the claw shell and remove claw meat. Cut knuckles with kitchen shears and remove knuckle meat. Refrigerate the lobster meat until needed.

Crème fraîche dressing

1 scallion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

Leaves from 4 sprigs parsley, finely chopped

1 cup (250 mL) crème fraîche

2 tbsp (30 mL) buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp (7 mL) cider vinegar

1 tsp (5 mL) Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper

Whisk all ingredients together. Makes about 1 cup.

Crème fraîche

2 cups (500 mL) 35% cream

1/4 cup (50 mL) buttermilk

1/4 cup (50 mL) lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, cover and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. The mixture should be thick. Cover tightly and keep refrigerated for up to two weeks.

Chef Mark McEwan is a Toronto-based chef, entrepreneur, mentor and writer of best-selling cookbooks. He is a freelance contributor for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @chef_MarkMcEwan

June 19, 2021 at 05:00PM
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Mark McEwan: A lobster Cobb salad that tastes like summer - Toronto Star

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