Lobster Tacos

Video: Lobster Tacos

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RECIPE

• 2lb frozen lobster meat
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise (preferably Duke’s)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons sriracha
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1/4 cup finely diced celery
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. In a medium size mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise, honey, sriracha, fresh lemon juice, melted butter, and diced celery. Set aside.
2. LOBSTER MEAT: Thaw the lobster meat and remove from packaging. Squeeze as much excess liquid out of the lobster meat that you can before combining with the mayonnaise mixture.
3. For a fresh lobster, please kill the lobster before plunging it into boiling water. Prepare a large ice-water bath. In a  large pot of boiling salted water, cook the lobsters until they turn bright red, about 10 minutes. Using tongs, plunge the lobsters into the ice-water bath for 2 minutes, then drain. Remove the meat, and add to the mayonnaise mixture. Serve as a lobster roll, or enjoy in a taco! This recipe is a direct derivative of working with a chef from Maine. Jackson Yordon had figured out the perfect way to elevate lobster’s sweetness by utilizing citrus, heat, and an outside touch of sweetness in the form of honey. The star of this recipe is the lobster meat. With that, it’s important that the ingredients do not over power your lobster. Any lobster meat will work in this recipe. During my time with Chef Jackson, we used 70% frozen lobster meat and 30% fresh.

Lobster street tacos just sound wrong. The idea of a street taco is that it’s an accessible food to the large majority due to convenience and price. Adding lobster to the equation removes that special feeling of a street taco!  For the B3 bash (Bricks, Blocks and Boards) , I felt Jackson Yordon understood his audience and location and decided to do something that was unconventional from what I knew street tacos to be. Nevertheless, flavor was the most important thing here. This event was ran by Independence Landing. Independence Landing is a residential community with a range of amenities for adults with intellectual and/or cognitive disabilities. Allison Tant, one of the strongest women in Tallahassee, is responsible for the inception of this. I could brag on her all day, but nonetheless let’s keep it moving.

Chef Jackson had made his start in Tallahassee, FL and as headliner of a prestigious event he must have also had a personal impact amongst a number of important people. I had began to learn about Chef Jackson and that he was a private Chef for the Bush’s in Maine as well as being a restaurant owner. Allison recognized that Chef Jackson would need some assistance and offered my time to him. This was a huge deal to me as a  young aspiring chef. I had no idea what this could lead to.

In 2016, I started working at Kool Beanz Cafe. I hadn’t been into any other kitchens at this point. I felt like I was starting to come into my own as a chef and becoming a bit more confident in my cooking. This would be the first time I would be demonstrating my skills outside of my usual restaurant. On the days following up to the event I met Chef Jackson and we prepped together at a restaurant called Black Fig. The loving environment that Black Fig had was unbelievable. The chef’s were fun, the jokes were crude, the stereotypical old man in the kitchen was there, and Chef Jackson had immediately recognized I was okay to be left alone. He had seen me work and put me on a few tasks that were eventually knocked out. Immediately, I had a sense of satisfaction. I WAS GOOD. TO GO.

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The event started and I remember it was a mess. I believe we had made a lobster succotash. The succotash was with Bradley’s sausage, zucchini, corn, tomatoes, tossed with a vinaigrette topped with a lobster cream sauce that was made with hot pepper jelly. It was a crazy dish. Fast forward one year later and we are working together again without missing a beat. We were side by side, I was anticipating things we might need for the event, I was on it. It felt so different than the year prior. I was even more confident in my decisions, food, and leadership. This time around we were making lobster tacos. The tacos were marinated in a specific mayo blend of honey, sriracha, lemon juice, salt and white pepper, and mayo. Topped with a jalapeno slaw, lime crema, and sriracha aioli. Everything worked will together. The crunch of the cabbage, the spiciness from the sriracha, the salsa, marinated lobster. It was balanced and delicious. It was cold too! It was more of a transformation of a lobster roll than a lobster taco. An interesting approach. Once again, they were a big hit. Everyone wanted Chef Jackson Yordon’s food.  They were so ecstatic about his return. I had barely seen him. I was running the station myself. Eventually, I had a photoshoot I wanted to do and I felt that this event with Chef Jackson was impactful for me. I wanted to feature these tacos in a way that captured their beauty. In a photoshoot that was absolutely nuts, this was on of the included recipes.

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