Steamed live lobster in Chinese Style with Garlic, Ginger, Scallion and Superior Soy Sauce Recipe. Cantonese style steamed lobster is less popular compare to the stir fried, but i assured you this simple steaming version is delicious too. Live or very fresh lobster steamed and then served with it’s very own natural sweetness and a hint of garlic, scallion and ginger infused in a superior soy sauce mixture. Steamed lobster is a very easy, simple and yet elegant dish that would impressed everybody.
The chinese style steamed lobster recipe is an alternative quicky dish. Beside the fact that steaming is one of the healtiest way of cooking, the result is surprisingly superb. Lobster is lobster right, it must be succulent and delicious even if you simply eat the raw lobster straight away after you freshly killed and shuck the meat of the live lobster. I’ve try lobster in very different way but none of steaming method before, so you should give it a try sometimes. Here’s the list of of lobster recipes;
- Stir Fried Lobster with Singapore Style Sweet and Sour Chili Sauce
- Butter Poached Lobster with Fennel and Herbs
- Grilled lobster with Chilies Sauce
- Cheese Baked Lobster Thermidor
- Oven Roasted Lobster with Brown Butter
- Japanese Lobster Miso Soup
- Raw Lobster Ceviche with Limes and Tomatoes
- Spicy Lobster Pasta
Cantonese style steamed lobster recipe is a very easy and quick to prepare. The live lobster killed and cleaned first, since I love the lobster tomaley and all the goodness in the head so i let it steamed whole. If you didn’t want that part you can halved the shell then removed the tomaley under running water first. The cleaned lobster then laid in a heatproof glass bowl, meanwhile the chopped garlic, ginger and white part of the scallion stir fried until charred and caramelized in a smoking hot wok pan with a little ammount of lard or oil first. The garlic mixture then boiled slowly with superior soy sauce for about 10 minutes until the garlic, ginger and scallion flavour infused to the soy sauce. After the soy sauce coolled down a little bit, i sieved the soy sauce with cheese cloth first before used for unecessary good looking presentation.
How to steamed the whole lobster is one the hell of hillarious steps, once again for unnecessary presentation i insist to kept the spiny lobster long anthena, it’s even sneaking out from the steamer. The cleaned lobster dredged with the garlic, scallion and ginger infused soy sauce then the entire bowl wrapped goodly with aluminium foil to lock the moisture while the steaming process. No need to discard the steamed lobster drippping liquid first before put the soy sauce, simply mix it all the way. Steamed lobster dripping is sweet without fishy odor at all unlike the Cantonese Style Steamed Live Grouper Fish dripping that really smells muddy and fishy. Hot sesame oil poured to the steamed lobster and then garnished with chopped cilantro and julienned ginger just before serving.
I purchased the live bamboo lobster from Iane Fish Market that located on Jl. Kebagusan dalam I no.42, Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta. The live bamboo lobster in this recipe weighed about 350 grams and cost me about 14 $ (40 USD/kg). Iane fish market is a trusted live seafood distributor that provide many kinds of farmed live seafood, including many kinds of groupers; mouse grouper, coral trout, mud grouper. Beside, they provide several variant of lobster, including slipper lobster, bamboo lobster, and sand lobster. One thing for sure, they provide it with much more afforable price tag rather than fancy live seafood restaurant all over Jakarta. Handling live lobster is really pissing me off, the lobster can’t stand still and kept cracling all over once i tried to photograph it, so i sedated the lobster by put in in ice bath first.
Spinny lobster is the only lobster available here in Indonesia, it’s easily noticed for it’s spiny head, clawless body with a very long anthenas. Tropical ocean didn’t suits any clawned lobster like Maine lobster. I’m using live bamboo lobster for this recipe, the shell isn’t as hard as the clawned lobster and it’s made easier to crack open. The meat and shell weight ratio of spiny lobster is less compare to the clawned lobster once it cooked, but it much more succulent and sweeeter than the clawned lobster. So made your own choices, you can use the Maine lobster or even prawn instead of spiny lobster for this recipe.
Steaming whole lobster is tricky, timing is the key of any steaming seafood. DO NOT OVERCOOKED lobster because the lobster meat gonna be tough and rubberry. Trust me, you won’t ever wanted to overcooked your pricey steamed live lobster. You should steamed the lobster until nearly done, the remaining heat will throughly cooked the lobster meat. When you throughly cooked the lobster, it will be overcooked once you serving it in the dinner table. 7 to 10 minutes is what needed to steamed whole lobster in medium size (about 300-500 grams).
The steamed lobster served with a dip of black vinegar, ginger and chopped bird eye chillies. Sounds boring, but trust me, your taste buds will apreciate the sweetness and the soft texture of the steamed live lobster. The steamed lobster with garlic, ginger, scallion and soy sauce is already delicious without any dipping actually, but it’s too obvious that anything taste better with chilies for my Indonesian licking.

Recipe Chinese Style Steamed Live Lobster (Cantonese Style Steamed Lobster with Superior Soy Sauce, Garlic, Ginger, Scallion and Cilantro)
Recipe Chinese Style Steamed Live Lobster (Cantonese Style Steamed Lobster with Superior Soy Sauce, Garlic, Ginger, Scallion and Cilantro)
Ingredients
- 1 medium size live bamboo lobster (you can replace with any kind of lobster or prawn)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp of brown sugar (or rock sugar)
- 2 tbsp of premium light soy sauce
- 1 tsp premium mushroom sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tsp of sesame oil
- 1 tbsp olive oil for stir frying
- 2 tbsp of angciu /chinese cooking wine
- 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 cm knob of ginger, finely chopped
- 1 scallion (white part only), finely chopped
How to Make Chinese Style Steamed Lobster:
- Mix all liquid ingredients and dissolved the rock sugar on it prior to steaming the lobster, set aside
- Rub the lobster lighly with salt and lemon juice, set aside
- Heat the olive oil in a wok until smoking hot, then stir fry the garlic, ginger and scallion until fragrant, charred and completely caramelized
- Pour the soy sauce mixture and bring it to boil, simmer for about 10 minutes, turn off the heat then set aside (i sieved it with cheese cloth before use),
- Put the lobster in heatproof steaming pyrex bowl, cover the bowl with alumunium foil
- Steam the lobster about 5- 7 minutes until done depending of the lobster size
- DO NOT OVERCOOKED, so check the steamed lobster in the couple of last minutes
- Put the fish in a serving plate, garnish with chopped cilantro then pour the sesame oil
Garnish: Chopped cilantro
Dipping sauce *optional : Chinese Black Vinegar, Soy Sauce, Jullienned Ginger, Chopped Bird Eye Chillies
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