No. 02East Coast · Lunch / Dinner

Black Tie Lobster Rolls with Crème Fraîche & Caviar

Name: Black Tie Lobster Rolls with Crème Fraîche & Caviar
Yield: 4
Cuisine: East Coast
Ingredients: 2 live lobsters, about 1¼ lb each (or 2 cups freshly cooked lobster meat); Salt for the cooking water: about ½ cup per gallon. Yes, really.; 3 tbsp crème fraîche; 1 lemon, zested and juiced; 1 small celery stalk, very finely minced (about ¼ cup); 2 green onions, thinly sliced; 1 tbsp chives, finely chopped; Flaky sea salt and white pepper, to taste; 4 split-top brioche rolls (or New England–style hot dog buns); 2 tbsp unsalted butter, for toasting; 1 oz Acadian wild sturgeon caviar (or any good caviar you love); A pinch of extra lemon zest

If a lobster boil and a caviar service had a baby, this would be it. I've converted so many friends to cold, properly dressed lobster over the warm, drowning-in-butter version, because lobster should taste like lobster. Crème fraîche instead of mayo, a whisper of celery for crunch, a properly toasted roll and a spoonful of caviar on top. For context, I love caviar so much I've put it on a hot dog. I regret nothing.

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Two East Coast lobster rolls piled with crème fraîche–dressed lobster and topped with caviar, on a plate with potato chips, held over green grass — Shot on my phone.No. 02

Serves: 4
Total: 45 min
Hands-on: 30 min
Season: Summer

Method

Salt the water like you mean it. Bring a big pot of water to a rolling boil and add about ½ cup of salt per gallon. It should taste like the sea. This is where the flavour comes from, so don't be polite about it.
Cook the lobster. Drop the lobsters in head first, cover, and cook 8–10 minutes depending on size, until the shells are bright red. Pull them straight into an ice bath to stop the cooking.
Pick the meat. Crack the claws, knuckles and tail and pull out every bit of meat. Chop into generous, bite-sized pieces. This is not the moment for tiny dice.
Make the dressing. In a bowl, mix the crème fraîche, lemon zest, a good squeeze of lemon juice, the celery, green onion and chives. Season with flaky salt and white pepper and taste it: it should be bright, creamy and a little punchy. Fold in the lobster gently. Dressed, not drowned.
Toast the rolls. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat and toast the rolls cut-side down until deeply golden. The crispy, buttery roll against cold, creamy lobster is the whole point, so don't rush it.
Assemble. Pile the lobster in generously, top each roll with a spoonful of caviar and a pinch of lemon zest, and serve right away. Outside, ideally, with something cold to drink.

From my kitchen

Cook your own lobster. Please don't buy the pre-steamed lobster at the grocery store. It's never salted properly and you can taste it. I'm a purist about this and I'm not sorry.
The salt. Half a cup per gallon feels like a mistake. It isn't. Under-salted water gives you bland lobster, and no amount of dressing fixes that.
The celery. Mince it as finely as you can. You want crunch in every bite, not chunks of celery.
The caviar. I use Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar, from Saint John, New Brunswick. It's Canadian, extraordinary, and ties the whole thing back to the East Coast. Any good caviar works. Skipping it? Extra lemon zest and flaky salt do the job with dignity.
The rolls. Split-top brioche is ideal, New England hot dog buns are the classic. Whatever you use, butter and toast them properly. I will die on this hill.
Make ahead. The lobster mixture holds a few hours in the fridge. Toast the rolls right before serving, never ahead.