Lobsters a'Boiling!

Last night, I arrived home bearing lobsters and Pernod, the final two ingredients needed for the Lobster Paella dish that I planned to make. Once I'd put my things away and changed into comfier clothes, the first thing I did was put a large pot of water on the stove. It was going to take awhile for it to boil, and I needed to cook the lobster before I started on the paella.

As the lobster boiled away, I gathered the rest of my ingredients so that I could begin to make my paella. I preheated the oven and went to town on the prep work.

When the lobsters were pulled from the water and cooling on a towel, I started the paella, cooking some onions, adding some red peppers, and then some garlic. 

This is a pretty straightforward recipe, so I think this post might be more about sharing the photos I took along the way than anything else, but nonetheless, this recipe was worth sharing. At this point, I added rice, chicken stock, saffron, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to the pot and brought everything to a boil. It went into the oven, covered, to bake for 15 minutes. 

Yum! That's lookin' good! This went back in the oven for another 10 minutes, uncovered, allowing the rice on top to crisp up a bit. After pulling my dutch oven from, well, the oven, I stirred a third of a cup of Pernod into the rice and allowed it to absorb over a medium heat before removing the dish from the heat altogether. At this time, I added the kielbasa, lobster meat, and frozen peas, and covered the dish, allowing everything to steam for about 10 minutes. What's great about this is that the lobster isn't sitting on the heat, overcooking. It's just re-heating slowly in the steam, and that's how we prevent that fishy, over-cooked lobster taste!

Garnished with some lemon wedges and chopped parsley, this was a dish that you ask for seconds of! And better yet, have for leftovers tonight as well! It's delicious, simple and really tasty! ...and pretty to look at, too!