Our Lunar New Year feasts have been more intimate the past two years, and this years’ celebration will be on the smaller side as well. While it’s been a challenge not seeing our extended family as regularly as we’re used to, Stephen and I have been taking the extra time at home to try out new recipes and cook with Alivia. Since we’re eating out less, we’ve also been able to splurge on quality ingredients for our cooking adventures like Canadian lobster.

What I love about cooking with lobster is the versatility and range of products available. From whole fresh lobsters, to frozen to processed, it’s easy to choose the option that works best for both the recipe and the amount of preparation time I have. Stephen’s a master at steamed whole lobster, Lobster Rolls, and more involved dishes like Lobster Pappardelle, and Ginger and Green Onion Lobster. This recipe for Lobster Tail Baos falls high on the delicious scale and medium on the difficulty scale. Using frozen lobster tails cuts down the preparation time and makes planning easier without having to worry about procuring fresh lobster. The tail meat is buttery, sweet and delicious!

The Canadian lobster fishery is an international leader in sustainability and is constantly assessing the health and stability of the Canadian lobster population. There is a limited number of licences issued and a limit on the number of traps as well. Lobsters below the minimum size are not harvested and some Licensed Fishing Areas also have maximum size limits to protect large lobsters who produce a higher amount of eggs.

For more information about Canadian Lobsters, tips and recipes, visit https://lobstercouncilcanada.ca.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post in collaboration with The Lobster Council of Canada. All ideas and opinions expressed are wholly mine.

Yum

Lobster Tail Baos

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Serving Size: 4 baos

Ingredients

• 4 frozen baos
• 200g of frozen lobster tails (2-3)
• 3 tbsp potato starch
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp kewpie mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup of wakame salad
• 1/4 cup of cucumber slices
• 1 tbsp of roasted white and black sesame seeds

Instructions

1. De-shell the lobster tails and cut into 1 inch chunks. Mix together potato starch, cornstarch and salt, then toss and thoroughly coat lobster chunks in the mixture.
2. Steam the frozen baos as per package instructions and set aside, keeping them warm in the steamer.
3. Deep fry each piece of lobster for 2-3mins in 350°F oil until the internal temperature reaches 140°F, set aside.
4. Mix together the kewpie mayonnaise, ketchup and honey.
5. Assemble each bao with mayo sauce, chunks of lobster, wakame salad and cucumber slices. Drizzle more mayo sauce and garnish with sesame seeds.

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Lunar New Year has always been my favourite annual celebration. The sweets, the feasting, the Chinese variety shows, the family gatherings, the awkward phone calls to grandparents and of course the red pockets. My family moved to Canada when I was 5 years old, so my memories of new years’ in China are fuzzy, but we made our own traditions and they’ve continually evolved since getting married and becoming a mom. What’s stayed consistent is being surrounded by family and good food. One of my new favourite centrepiece dishes is Green Onion and Ginger Lobster with E-Fu Noodles. This dish is often featured on menus for special occasions like Lunar New Year and weddings, as the noodles represent longevity, and is an impressive entree for any home chef to master!

I love making this dish with fresh whole Canadian lobster, which is available year round. We cook with whole lobster quite often at home (lobster rolls, lobster mac and cheese) so Stephen is comfortable handling and taking apart a lobster, but if you’re not, most grocers will be able to help out or there are lots of frozen, pre-processed lobster options to choose from as well. The lobster meat is deliciously sweet and buttery. When taking apart the lobster, be sure to save the tomalley, my favourite part, which is used to make the rich, savoury sauce that gets soaked up by the e-fu noodles.

In addition to being delicious, lobster is low in fat and carbohydrates, and high in protein, with lots of Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12. In Canada, lobster seasons are staggered throughout 41 fishing areas to take advantage of peak moulting periods for each area of water, ensuring Canadian lobsters are harvested when hard-shelled, preserving the ideal taste and nutritional value.

For more information about Canadian Lobsters, tips and recipes, visit https://lobstercouncilcanada.ca.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post in collaboration with The Lobster Council of Canada. All ideas and opinions expressed are wholly mine.

Yum

Green Onion and Ginger Lobster with E-Fu Noodles

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Serving Size: 2-3 servings

Ingredients

• Frying the Lobster:
• 2-3 lbs lobster
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 2 tbsp potato starch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Lobster, Sauce and Noodles:
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 4 cloves crushed garlic
• 6 slices of ginger (2 thumb size knobs)
• 4 stalks of green onions
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 cups water
• 4 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/4 tsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
• 140g E-Fu noodles

Instructions

1. Prepare the fresh lobster into 2 inch chunks, lightly batter with cornstarch, potato starch and salt.
2. Deep fry each piece of lobster for 2-3mins in 350°F oil until the internal temperature reaches 135°F, set aside. Cook in batches as needed. The lobster will cook to 140°F when making the sauce.
3. Cook the E-Fu noodles as per package instructions and set aside on a serving plate. Tip: Undercook the E-Fu noodles a bit as it will continue to cook when the hot lobster is served on top.
4. To prepare the sauce, whisk together the cornstarch, water, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and chicken bouillon powder.
5. In a large wok, heat up 2 tbsp of cooking oil, add garlic and ginger, and stir fry until aromatic. Then add in the fried lobster, cooking wine and sauce ingredients, stir fry until the sauce thickens and serve over the bed of E-Fu noodles.

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With Valentine’s Day falling on a Saturday this year, most restaurants were offering set menus and reservations were booked weeks in advance. The Fiance and I decided to skip the craziness of the day itself and have a nice dinner in (we did go out on the Friday instead). We picked up a couple of lobsters and made up two tasty lobster rolls. The most difficult part of this recipe was taking apart the lobsters, otherwise it was 5 minutes from prep to table.

Lobster Rolls

2015-03-01 23:40:43

Serves 2

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Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

5 min

Total Time

35 min

Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

5 min

Total Time

35 min

Ingredients

1. 1/2 to 3/4 lb of lobster meat
2. 2 hot dog buns
3. 1 celery stalk
4. 1 tbsp butter
5. 2 iceberg lettuce leaves
6. 2 tbsp mayonnaise
7. 1 tsp fresh lime juice
8. 2 green onions
9. salt and pepper to taste
10. 1 dash of Tabasco sauce

Instructions

1. Cook the lobster (steam for 8-10 minutes) and remove meat from shell
2. Chop up the large pieces of lobster meat into large chunks, finely chop the celery and green onions
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, lime juice, Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper
4. Add in the green onion, celery and lobster meat, stir together
5. Butter the hot dog buns and toast, line with lettuce leaves and fill with lobster filling

Notes

1. Basil leaves are in the picture of the ingredients but we didn't end up using any in the recipe

xiaoEats | Toronto Food Blog http://xiaoeats.com/

Step by Step Photos

Cook lobsters

Assemble ingredients

Remove meat from lobster

Stir together mayonnaise, Tabasco sauce, lime juice, salt and pepper

Stir in chopped celery and green onions

Stir in lobster meat

Butter and toast hot dog buns, line with lettuce and generously fill with lobster filling

I have been salivating over Jabistro’s menu since they opened. As the reviews and blogger posts rolled in, I knew that I had to have their deluxe sashimi platter and that meant waiting for a special occasion. After a year of stalking all their social media channels, my birthday was the perfect reason to justify a splurge.

Atmosphere: Walking down Richmond St it’s easy to pass by the lit up lantern fish casually beckoning to curious passerbys. I loved the unobtrusive entrance and how private the restaurant felt; a hidden space in the middle of downtown Toronto. The decor is slick and modern with exposed brick walls, a grey granite bar and chocolate brown leather tables. Chefs blowtorch nigiri and assemble beautiful sashimi platters behind the bar directly in front of diners. Looking around the room, the clientele ranged from couples to groups of all ages and dress codes.

Service: Our server truly added to our dining experience. Not only was she attentive, knowledgeable and personable, it was clear she made every effort for our dinner to be perfect. First with our drink orders, she helped us pick out a sake based on our not-so-helpful specifications (something sweet). Second, she smartly suggested we hold off on ordering a dish because the BF and I were definitely over-ordering. Lastly, she tried to coordinate with the sushi platter server to bring our sashimi after our dishes from the kitchen so that our table wouldn’t be crowded. When the platter came early, she was genuinely upset on our behalf. She was one of the best servers I’ve ever met.

Food: It was hard to keep all the food related thoughts to just this paragraph of my review because there’s just so much to say. We pretty much wanted to order everything on the menu, but since the sashimi platter was a must, we had to restrict the number of other dishes to try.

We went with the aburicious and gindara. I couldn’t pick a favourite sushi out of the aburicious, all 4 choices were amazing, smokey, buttery soft and balanced in flavour. I loved the slice of jalapeno on the salmon adding just a hint of heat. Just order it. I could’ve easily eaten a full JaBistroll myself. The gindara, black cod with a bacon crust, served along side two pieces of shrimp toast was good but in hindsight I could’ve passed on this and saved more room for sashimi.

Which brings us to the sashimi platter and what I’ve been itching to get to. We ordered the $100 sashimi platter with the added lobster option at market price. With the lobster option comes two servings of lobster miso soup. The platter was way larger than I expected and took up a good 90% of our table. The server introduced every item on the plate, which we promptly forgot as he walked away. There was at least lobster, sweet shrimp, uni, salmon, yellowtail, octopus, fatty tuna, tuna, sea bream, salmon roe and seared kobe beef.

Every piece of fish was fresh, fatty and the perfect bite size. The uni was fresh, creamy and the salmon roe were little bubbles of salty goodness.  Even the BF who isn’t a huge fan of sashimi, aside from salmon, enjoyed the other varieties. His favourite was still the kobe beef though while I fell in love with the lobster. The flavour and texture was similar to that of sweet shrimp, but meatier. We also noticed half-way through eating that our lobster still had some movement left in him and was twitching his feelers, so be forewarned if you’re squeamish.

The miso soup was served with a full lobster claw (not the one from our platter) and was sweet and savoury, richer than regular miso soup. We finished our meal with dessert of green tea ice cream and tofu cream between two black sesame cookies. The tofu cream was lightly sweetened and had a heavy soy flavour that went well with the sweeter cookie.

Personally, I will be taking every possible chance in the future to come back for the best sashimi I’ve had to date in Toronto.

The BF has been working Boston over the past year but hasn’t really had a chance to explore the city. I flew down with him for a quick weekend trip of eating between tourist stops.

These were my top 5 eats from this trip:

1. Lobster Roll @ Neptune Oyster: 63 Salem St
   • The hot butter lobster roll was out of this world, we ate a lot of lobster that weekend and I still have dreams about this
   • No reservations, there will be a line, there will be a wait, there is only 37 seats inside
   • Show up before they open (11am) and walk around the nearby Quincy market after leaving your name and number
2. Lobster Roe Noodles @ Island Creek Oyster Bar: 500 Commonwealth Ave
   • Amazing, creamy, flavourful sauce with house-made pasta
   • The lobster roe is in the pasta itself and then topped with braised short ribs and more lobster
3. Fresh Oysters @ Island Creek Oyster Bar: 500 Commonwealth Ave
   • Great selection of Massachusetts and Maine oysters
   • Try the Gypsy Juice!
4. Fire Grilled Lobster @ Barking Crab: 88 Sleeper St
   • Well themed, on the wharf, great view
   • First time having lobster cooked this way and loved the smokey flavour
   • Great daily specials (we ate 4lbs of crab legs in addition to this lobster…)
5. Chocolate Cannoli @ Maria’s Pastry Shop: 48 Cross St
   • Each cannoli is filled on order, choice of chocolate, vanilla or sweetened ricotta cheese
   • Flaky, crunchy, rich and just the right amount of sweetness