Lobster with Sweet and Sour Chilli Sauce is actually a fussion of two different sauce; Chinese sweet and sour sauce and Singapore style chilli sauce. Both of this sauces is actually a tomato based sauce, that’s why i thought combining it will make a great sauce for lobster. Chinese sweet and sour sauce usually got a pleasant tangy or sour flavour derived from vinegar or lemon juice. But you can easily replace it with tamarind paste or any sour citrus juice. Sligthly different from my Saus Padang or Padangnese Hot and Spicy Chilli Sauce that contains coconut milk and spices, this number 35 on World’s 50 most delicious foods; Singapore style chilli sauce contains less ingredients. I guess that’s why my Indonesian Beef Rendang is always be the Number ONE. This popular Singaporean gooey chilli sauce contains shrimp paste, beaten egg dripping and some dissolved starch to made the sauce thicken. Even this sauce tagged as “chilli” sauce, the taste is likely not really hot and spicy.
Cooking whole lobster is a little bit tricky. Thanks to chilli lobster recipe on fimela.com, i know that you should cracked cut and split open the lobster in the middle to make the sauce penetrated the lobster meat because it’s got a very hard shell. There are several rules for cooking lobster. First you should discard the tomaley or hepatopancreas, the yelowish green or gray substance found in the head cavity of lobsters. Even the tomalley is considered as delicacy, i think you should discarded it because it may contains high levels accumulation of toxins, mercury and other pollutants. Second, you need to pan seared the lobster meat in sizzling hot pan with the meat side down to seal the natural juices of it to prevent it drained out during the cooking. Third, you should handle the spinny lobster with kitchen towel to protect your hand because it’s head had several sharp spines that could harmed your hand. Fourth, you should seasoned the lobster with salt just before cooking it because salt is hygroscopic and it makes the water is dripped off from the lobster meat and made it easily dried when cooked.
For making Sweet and Sour Chili Sauce lobster, you should cooked the lobster twice; first you need to seared it and then you cooked it with the sauce. Diffrent from many restaurant that usually only pouring the sauce over the separately oven-cooked lobster like Chef Adit, the owner of Loobie Restaurant did in the recipe video above, i prefer to cooked it in the boiling sauce to infused more sauce flavour to the lobster right after searing it. Remember to watch over the doness of your lobster, you absolutely did’t want end up your prescious lobster with tought and rubbery overcooked meat.
Sweet and Sour Chili Sauce Lobster is called Lobster Saus Asam Manis or Lobster Saus Singapura in Indonesia. For making this lips smacking delicious lobster, it’s not all about techniques. The ingredients is the most important factor. Choos the live lobster if it’s available, or at least pick the fresh lobster. Fot making the sauce, i choose to use deseede red chilli within the spice paste to make a brighly red color for a better presentation purpose. If you wanted a hotter version, keep the seed or simply add the chilli when you making the spice paste.
Recipe Lobster with Sweet and Sour Chili Sauce :
Ingredients:
- 1 medium size lobster (about 500 gr)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice for season the lobster
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp olive oil for coating the pan
Sweet and Sour Chili Lobster Sauce Recipe:
- 4 tbsp tomato ketchup (saus tomat)
- 3 tbsp chilli sauce (saus cabe)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste (pasta tomat)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (air jeruk), you can replace it with 2 tbsp vinegar or 1 tbsp tamarind paste
- 2 tbsp honey (madu)
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce (saus tiram)
- 1 tbsp fish sauce (kecap ikan)
- 1 egg (telur), beaten
- 1 tsp corn starch (maizena), dissolved in 1 tbsp water
- 1 cup water (air)
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp oil
Spice paste:
- 6 red chilli pepper (cabe), deseeded
- 4 shallots (bawang merah)
- 3 cloves garlic (bawang putih)
- 2 ripe tomatoes (tomat), deseeded
- 1 tsp shrimp paste (terasi)
Instruction:
- Brush and wash your lobster shell evenly
- Crack open the lobster right in the middle with knive, protect your hand with kitchen towel while handling the head
- Discard the tomalley,the vein and any debris, wash under running water, drain it well
- Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil in the pan until sizzling hot, season the lobster with lemon juice, salt and pepper
- Sear the lobster meat for about 30 seconds, flip it once and sear another 30 seconds, set aside
- Heat up 2 tbsp oil in another wok pan, saute the spice paste until it’s canging color into brighly red and the oil is separated in the edge of the wok pan
- Add the water and all ingedients (except the beaten egg and disssloved corn starch), bring to boil
- Add the lobster and close it with lid fot about 3 minutes too fully cooked the lobster
- Slowly pour the beaten egg and then add the dissolved corn starch, adjust the taste (if needed, add more water)