I have always drooled over lobster rolls. One of the marvelous things about visiting New England in the summer is trying a lobster roll at multiple restaurants.
I've thought about trying to make lobster rolls at home, but I assumed it would be a whole lot of work. However, I just stumbled on
this recipe from Maria Rodale's website. It doesn't look all that complicated, partly because she uses frozen lobster meat and also because she doesn't make a mayonnaise-based sauce.
Both strike me as a little odd. So long as the frozen lobster meat is tasty, this could work. But I cannot begin to imagine a lobster roll without having some of that mayonnaise-based sauce with diced celery and some herbs. (Instead of the sauce, Maria recommends melted butter.)
The frozen lobster meat saves a lot of time and hassle, but I don't see eliminating the mayonnaise-based sauce as much of a time saver. Besides, the mayo, tarragon and other ingredients in lobster-roll sauce add nice flavors. So, I intend to try making lobster rolls at home using frozen lobster meat, but I will not skip the sauce.
This Food Network recipe should be a good source for preparing the sauce.
There's that old saying -- if you "build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door." I guess the same is true if you make a better lobster roll. I got a kick out of this N.Y. Times article about Red's Eats, a seafood shack in Wiscasset, Maine that is known for serving fantastic lobster rolls. The traffic leading into the town during the summer slows to a snail's pace, and many locals say the popularity of Red's is the reason why.
