Author Notes
Growing up in Louisiana, avocados + seafood was a common yet always delicious dish. Crabs, shrimp, crawfish...all paired winningly with avocado halves and some sort of dressing. After ending up on the East Coast, lobster joined the ranks as a wonderful- now more often obtainable and affordable- match for avocado.
In the intervening years between the LA-DC move, however, I was a vegetarian and found that grapefruit made for an equally delicious, albeit very different, date for avocado.
Now, as might be obvious, I combine all three into a marvelously flavorful, elegant yet accessible, dish. Sometimes I dress the avo-seafood combo with grapefruit slices and a balsamic vinaigrette. For more special occasions, I top it with a grapefruit sabayon (Berna's serves as my base) cream. Both versions are delicious but this one is really divine. —em-i-lis
Ingredients
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2
lobster tails, shells removed, meat chopped into large'ish chunks
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1 tablespoon
butter
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salt
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2 teaspoons
white wine if you have it on hand
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1/4 cup
chicken stock
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1½ tablespoons
vermouth
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1/2 cup
freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
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2½ teaspoons
grapefruit zest
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1 teaspoon
honey
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2
egg yolks
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1/4 teaspoon
salt
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1/2 teaspoon
sugar
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2 teaspoons
whipping cream
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1
large, ripe avocado
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1 tablespoon
chives, chopped
Directions
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In a small skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. When melted and foamy, add the lobster, some salt and the wine if you've got it, lower the heat to medium, and cook until the lobster chunks are just opaque, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat, pour lobster and juices into a small bowl and chill until ready. to use
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While chilling, make the sabayon cream. As Berna instructs, "In a small saucepan, simmer the stock and vodka until reduced by half. Let cool. Combine grapefruit juice, zest and honey in a small bowl. Add to cooled stock mixture."
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Then, in a double boiler set over boiling water, place the egg yolks. " Slowly begin to add the stock mixture to the eggs, whisking constantly." Add the sugar, keep whisking, "taking the the bowl on and off the hot water so as not to overcook the eggs." After 5-8 minutes, the sabayon will look creamy and start to thicken. Remove from heat, pour into a bowl and chill for at least 5 minutes.
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After at least 5 minutes, whisk the cream into the sabayon. Remove the lobster from the fridge. Halve and seed the avocado and place one half on each of two plates. Divide the lobster and some juices over each avocado half. Then drizzle sabayon cream over each. You will have sabayon cream left over. Make some more seafood!
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Divide the chopped chives over each lobster-avo-sabayon cream dish and serve!
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