Last Updated on August 23, 2023
Try this amazing recipe for lobster fried rice that comes directly from the chefs at James Beard Award-winning restaurant Eventide Oyster Co., a must-eat destination in Portland, Maine.
Adding the lobster meat to the rice before serving is key to this dish. This is accomplished in minutes with a watchful eye and a couple of turns in the wok. As the meat cooks evenly in the bed of warm rice, it drops more lobster juice which evaporates and imbues the fried rice with even more lobster flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 scallion
- 1 jalapeño sliced
- 1 1” chunk ginger peeled and minced
- ¾ cup jasmine rice, uncooked (or 75 grams)
- ¾ cup water (or 75 millilters)
- 2 eggs beaten
- 3 mustard greens thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon sesame seed lightly toasted
- 8 ounces Cold Cracked Lobster
- 1 fat pinch bonito flake
- 1 pinch Espelette pepper (Substitute: non-smoked spicy paprika or cayenne pepper)
- 1 pinch Korean chili flake
- Salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- 3-4 tablespoons peanut oil/canola
Instructions
- Using a rice cooker, or your own time-honored stovetop approach, cook the jasmine rice, ideally, the day before you aim to cook the fried rice.
- When the rice is cooked, spread it across a large plate and allow to cool to room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator. It will dry out overnight, or even in an hour or two—this will improve the rice immensely.
- Set up a strainer over a bowl and open your bag of Cold Cracked Lobster. Transfer the lobster to the strainer and put the lobster meat in a covered dish in the refrigerator.
- Beat the eggs with a whisk in a small-medium bowl.
- In a wok (or well-seasoned cast iron pan) fry egg mixture hard, giving it a couple of good stirs. When it has cooked through dump the egg onto a cutting board. Chop it roughly.
- Separate the scallion white from the darker tops. Finely slice the scallion tops and mince the light green and white bottoms.
- Mince the ginger.
- Make some cute little piles or grab some cute little containers. This will help you to stay organized while cooking. (See Chef's Tips below for how best to organize.)
- Wipe out the wok/pan with a clean paper towel, return to the burner and crank the heat. Once you see a whisper of smoke coming off the pan, add a couple of tablespoons of oil. When the oil shimmers, but before it’s really smoking, add the rice. Shake it around or stir, making sure to coat each grain with the thinnest film of oil, then STOP. Fight the temptation to touch the rice for at least a full minute, think of this as a searing step.
- After you’ve seared your rice on one side, give the pan a gentle shake, the rice should feel/sound less like soft cooked grains moving around the pan, and more like par-cooked rice. If it sounds as though you’ve got a crispy bottom on your bed of rice. Toss it twice and add a pinch of salt.
- Scoot all the rice to one side of the pan and tilt the pan so that when you add a tablespoon of oil, it collects in a pool opposite the piled rice. Immediately dump pile "A."(Minced ginger, garlic, scallion white) into the oil and stir around to ensure it cooks completely. Once aromatic, toss these cooked aromatics with the rice.
- Scatter pile "B." (Mustard greens, sesame seed, chilis, and a bit of salt) over the aromatized rice, toss to combine and homogenize. Appreciate the aroma, you’re killing it.
- Add your drained lobster, eggs, and cook, stirring the rice for a few minutes to allow the lobster meat to plump and take form—we’re effectively steaming the lobster and allowing the meat to make the rice delicious and fragrant. (The lobster will plump up quickly—you'll know it is done when the knuckles take shape and the claws round out.)
- Taste the rice and add salt if necessary.
- Pile in a triumphant mound, top with pile "C." (Scallion tops, jalapeño, and bonito), and maybe some sesame seed or a few grinds of black pepper. Serve immediately.
Notes
Mike Wiley is a James Beard Award-winning chef and the owner of Big Tree Hospitality.
Big Tree Hospitality is a Portland, Maine-based restaurant group that includes Eventide Oyster Co., Hugo's, The Honey Paw, and more.
Andrew Taylor is the chef-owner of Big Tree Hospitality, a Portland, Maine-based restaurant group that includes Eventide Oyster Co., Hugo's, The Honey Paw, and more.
He is a James Beard Award-winning chef and father of four.
