Pan-fried lobster tail in butter and black truffle infused oil

Pan fried lobster tailon a bed of rice

Welcome to 2010! This holiday has given me a fresh chance to relax and just be. Yesterday, I took my little self to the Sydney Fish Market and I snooped all the shops. It was stinky, super crowded, wet and I loved it. What I also love is my little discovery: lobster tails. The holidays and Australians' love affair with seafood gave seafood vendors an excuse to skyrocket their prices, but even outside the holiday season lobsters are pricey. In one corner of a very crowded shop, near the entrace, I saw frozen lobster tails for $69.99 per kilo. The friendly shop attendant at Claudio's told me that one tail, depending on the weight varies between $15-17, which is a huge price gap away from whole lobster with the head attached. So I got her to grab me a small tail and oh what a beautiful tail.

My discovery of the last day of 2009

After a little bit of research on Google, I decided to make panfried lobster with butter and black truffle infused oil from Simon Johnson, the one that I'm too shy to use, but hey, it's New Year's Day. This cooking process is a lot of trial and error. I jabbed my hands plenty of times on the prickly shell and I learnt that you can't grab the meat out as a whole without first cooking it somewhat. I dunk it into hot boiling water for not more than 2 minutes before having another attempt at taking the meat out. The rest is a lot easier. Here is my recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 lobster tail, blanched and meat removed whole
• 1 teaspoon of butter
• 1 teaspoon of oil (black truffle infused oil)

Heat oil and butter in pan on medium high heat. Pan fry the lobster tail. Season with salt. Slice and top on a bed of hot freshly steamed white rice. :) Simple yet delicious, buon appetito and Happy new year!