Welcome back, Batman fans! If you haven’t been following our caped crusader culinary adventure, here’s the story. My husband’s birthday was a few weeks ago. My husband is Batman. Good, I’m glad you’re going along with me on this.
So to celebrate my Dark Knight’s birth, I made up a three-course menu of Batman’s favorite dishes: Mulligatawny Soup, Seared Ribeye Steak, and this week’s recipe, LEGO Batman’s Lobster Thermidor.
Click here to skip to the recipe for LEGO Batman’s Lobster Thermidor.
The Alfred-Julia Connection
I initially chose Julia Child’s Lobster Thermidor recipe as my base because her book brought French cuisine into the American residential kitchen. Upon further research, though, I discovered it likely that Julia may have been friends or at least in cahoots with Mr. Alfred Pennyworth.
The Pre-Crisis Batman comics establish Alfred as a former World War II intelligence agent. During World War II, Julia Child worked for the Office of Strategic Services and her “first foray into cooking” involved developing a repellent to keep sharks away from explosives targeted at German U-Boats. And what do we see in the Batman Movie from the 1960’s?
My friends, you have Julia Child to thank for Shark Repellent Bat Spray. Now how much are you willing to bet that’s not the only recipe she shared with the charming Mr. Pennyworth?
From Brick to Broiled
So the Lobster Thermidor we see in LEGO Batman looks nothing like actual Lobster Thermidor. The recipe involves boiling a lobster, splitting it, chopping up the meat, simmering it with mushrooms in unholy amounts of butter and cream, stuffing it back in the shell, topping it with cheese, then broiling it until slightly browned. What you see in the film is a steamed lobster with lettuce and lemon. It’s tasty, but it’s not Lobster Thermidor.
Pictured: Not Lobster Thermidor
As I said, I chose Julia Child’s recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking as my base. Julia did the country an excellent service by making classic French cooking accessible to the home cook. That said, much has changed in regards to recipe-writing in the past 57 years since its publication. This is why I sought to simplify and update Child’s recipe for the 2018 novice to intermediate home cook, while also incorporating some Batman-specific elements.
The first element I changed was opting to use frozen lobster tails instead of fresh, live lobster. I did this for time, portioning, and availability. It’s easier to remove the meat tails from if you’re squeamish about lobster heads and green matter. Also, you’re already mixing an inherently filling ingredient with even richer ingredients like cream and cheese. Two lobster tails are more than enough for two people.
The next thing I took liberties on were Julia’s instructions to boil the lobster in white wine and to finish the filling with cognac. As I covered in last week’s post, Batman doesn’t drink in the comics. The chances of Alfred popping open one of the family cellar whites or cabinet cognacs for Bruce’s dinner are ridiculously slim. However cheap sake for homemade teriyaki sauce and English Black Tea (like PG Tips) are more than likely in abundance in Alfred’s kitchen. So with that consideration, I boiled our lobster in a hot cuppa, then sauteed its meat with a swig of sake towards the end.
Lobster Thermidor’s filling calls for button mushrooms, shallots, and Gruyere cheese — a classic French flavor combination. Like last week’s seared rib-eye recipe, I wanted to incorporate a flavor profile fitting to the caped crusader. That’s why instead of shallots and button mushrooms, I substituted green onions and shiitake mushrooms reminiscent of Bruce’s time training in Japan. Shiitake mushrooms are a Bhutanese specialty if we are to recall the League of Shadows story-line from Batman Begins. Instead of Gruyere, I chose white cheddar — something Alfred probably has on hand from breakfast. Cheddar also has a sharper taste that brings out the meaty flavor in the mushrooms.
We see LEGO Batman reheating this shell-covered morsel in the microwave for two minutes. Good news, you can totally do that. But better news? You can still make the filling ahead of time, then assemble and broil the final dish within minutes before serving. What a way to quickly enjoy your favorite meal after a long night of being Gotham’s night-stalking, crime-fighting, heavy-metal-rapping machine!
LEGO Batman Lobster Thermidor Recipe
Holy Boiled Crustaceans, LEGO Batman!
LEGO Batman's Lobster Thermidor
Equipment: Stove-top, oven, large saucepan with lid, strainer, medium skillet with a lid, tongs, wire whisk, spatula, aluminum foil, and roasting pan.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup strongly brewed black tea
- 1 cup water
- 1 carrot, sliced
- 1 celery stalk, sliced
- 3 spring onions, sliced, white and green parts separated
- 1 bay leaf
- 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 large, frozen lobster tails
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 5 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 cups sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 1/2 cup grated white cheddar cheese
- kosher salt
Instructions:
- Bring the tea, water, celery, carrot, the white parts of the green onion, and the herbs to a simmer in a covered saucepan for 15 minutes. Then bring to a boil and add the lobster tails. Boil covered for 20-25 minutes.
- Melt a tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat while the lobster boils. Add the mushrooms, a pinch of kosher salt, and a half-tablespoon of sake, then cover the skillet. Lower the heat and cook for 10 minutes. Scrape the mushrooms into a separate container.
- Remove the lobster from the saucepan with a pair of tongs and run under cold water to cool them. Let the steaming liquid boil another 5 minutes while you remove the meat.
- Use kitchen shears to cut the underbelly shell from the lobster tail and discard. Remove the meat, carefully removing then discarding the dark line (intestinal tract) along its backside. Roughly chop the meat and set aside.
- Strain the liquid from the saucepan into the skillet, then back into the empty saucepan. Add the mustard powder then bring to a simmer.
- Melt two tablespoons of butter in the skillet over low heat and stir in the flour. Cook for two minutes while continually stirring. Scrape the mixture into the saucepan and whisk rapidly until thoroughly combined.
- Beat the egg yolk and cream in a separate dish and pour into the saucepan. Season with a pinch salt and keep stirring. Turn the heat to medium-low and boil for two minutes. The sauce should cling heavily to the back of a spoon by this point. Turn off the heat and set to the side.
- Melt the remaining butter in the skillet over medium heat and stir in the lobster meat. Saute for about 5 minutes then pour in the remaining sake. Boil off the liquid for another two minutes, then fold the meat into the mushrooms. Stir in two-thirds of the sauce.
- Place the lobster shells in a foil-lined roasting pan and heap as much mushroom-meat mixture as you can into each shell.
- Top with more sauce and the grated cheese. Broil the shells in the oven on low for 3-5 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and slightly browned.
- Remove from the oven and cool 5 minutes before garnishing with chopped green onion and serving.
Make Ahead Tip:
Complete steps 1 through 9 ahead of time and refrigerate until 15 minutes before you plan on serving.
Leftovers Tip:
Keep any extra stuffing in a Tupperware and use within 2-3 days on toast, vegetables, or anything that could use a delicious bad decision added to the top of it.
