Maine Lobster Stew

Maine Lobster Stew is a specialty at Maine Lobster Direct who will ship it to order. Below is the description given on the Food Network show "Road Tasted" about how they make it.

Recipe from the Show

Melt 2 - 3 Tbsp. butter in a pot and add cooked lobster meat (save the claw for garnish). Cook 8 - 10 minutes so the butter takes on the flavor of the lobster.

Add salt, pepper, and paprika for color; then equal parts heavy cream, evaporated milk, whole milk, and a pinch of sugar. Do not boil. Add the claw meat as a garnish.

Recipe from Website

This is the recipe from their website, which is a bit different: See below for Brian and my recipe.

Maine Lobster Stew
Lobsters - 4 fresh
butter - 4 tablespoons
liquid from lobsters - reserved
heavy cream - 1 pint
milk - 1 quart
salt and pepper - to taste

Steam or boil the lobsters eighteen minutes, place cooked lobsters on several platters to cool and catch the juices.

After the lobsters have cooled, pick meat from lobsters. Remove green liver (tomalley) and any coral (roe) found.

After all the meat is picked out, saute tomalley and roe in 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy cooking pot. After three minutes, put more butter and some of the lobster meat into the pot. Repeat this until all the lobster meat has been sauted for five to ten minutes.

Add the cream, the reserved juice, and the milk.

Simmer uncovered on low heat for several hours, taking care not to boil.

Salt and pepper to taste.

To enhance the flavor of the lobster stew, make the day before you plan to serve.

Faith and Brian's version of Lobster Stew

We based this recipe on the TV show. We often make this from the claw and leg meat when we have Steamed Whole Lobster. Save the bodies of the lobster and all shells to make the broth for this stew. A similar, but more elaborate, soup or stew type recipe is Lobster Bisque.

shells from 2 lobsters
meat from claws and legs* of 2 lobsters
water
2 - 3 Tbsp. butter
3/4 cup lobster broth (made from the shells)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp. paprika
no salt

*A tip from Alton Brown to get every last bit of meat from your lobsters: "to easily extract the meat from lobster legs, roll them with a rolling pin. Cut the ends off the legs and the meat will push out."

We make an excellent version of this stew by first making a lobster broth from the lobster shells. Put the shells in a pot big enough to hold them and add enough water to cover the shells with an inch of water. Heat the water on high. As soon as you see that little bubbles are starting to come up to the surface, reduce the heat to medium. Skim the foam using a large metal spoon. Let the shells cook for about an hour. Note: Do not cook the broth down too far or it will be too salty - taste it before using.

Then sauté cooked, or partially cooked, lobster meat in butter (we will sometimes save the claw and leg meat from 2 whole lobsters to make this), then add about 3/4 cup broth, about a cup of heavy cream and 1/2 tsp. paprika. Adjust the amount of broth and cream for the amount of lobster you have. Do not add salt; the broth made from the shells will be salty enough. Heat and serve.