If you snapped up some of the half price cooked lobsters recently sold at Australian supermarkets, here are my 6 best Christmas-worthy lobster recipes to really make the most of them. I’ll also show you how easy it is to remove the lobster meat from the shell!
Lobster Recipes
Rounding off a crazy year, Australian grocery stores have been selling lobsters at steeply discounted prices in the weeks leading up to Christmas due to trade tensions with China. (Read more below.)
If you’ve been lucky enough to pick one up, here are 6 Lobster recipes that really make the most of them. All easy – and you’re likely to have everything to make at least one of these, if not two or three!
Note: This post specifically contains dishes using cooked lobsters and crayfish, not raw, because the discounted lobsters that spurred this post came cooked. There’s a broader variety of preparation options for raw lobster which are not covered in this post.
What to make with cooked lobster
My biggest advice for making a dish with pre-cooked lobster is to keep it simple, and do not cook it which will risk drying it out. That’s like cooking a cooked steak – you just don’t!
Store bought pre-cooked lobster does not have the same full flavour as a freshly cooked raw one, so it’s best to preserve the flavour it does have by keeping it simple. Let the lobster meat take centre stage!
Note: you cannot make cooked lobster dishes such as Lobster Mornay and Lobster Bisque with a lobster already cooked. You need raw lobster. Let’s save these for another time!
6 Lobster Recipes using cooked lobster
Here are the lobster recipes I’m sharing today:
Lobster with seafood sauce (choose from 4)
Lobster Cocktail (Prawn Cocktail – but made with lobster!)
Lobster with French Lemon Butter Sauce (Beurre noisette)
Lobster Rolls – the ultimate seafood sandwich. Full stop, end of story!
1. Seafood Sauces (4 types)
Serving lobster alongside seafood sauces is a classic summer way of serving lobster that let’s the beautiful lobster flavour take centre stage. Think – giant seafood platters served at restaurants!
Almost any seafood sauce you would ordinarily serve with seafood will work well with lobster. Here are 3 classics plus our family favourite that I use as Prawn Dipping Sauces (ie alongside giant buckets of cooked prawns!):
Marie Rose / Thousand Island sauce – a neutral creamy pink sauce made with mayonnaise and ketchup that will let the flavour of lobster shine;
Seafood Cocktail Sauce – the punchier flavoured version of Marie Rose. The sauce itself actually has flavour, it’s tangy and kind of savoury, with more layers of flavour because there’s more ingredients in this. Use sparingly with lobster ie don’t done heavily!
Tartare sauce – just like what you get at the local fish and chip shop! (Except better, because you can actually taste the gherkins and capers in it); and
Our Family Favourite Seafood Sauce – a cross between Marie Rose and Tartare with more freshness and flavour.
Tartare Sauce 
Marie Rose sauce 
Seafood Cocktail Sauce
You can buy all these sauces at the grocery store. But they pale in comparison to freshly made!
2. Lobster Cocktail
If you’re thinking hey, that’s prawns in the photo not lobster!, you’re right! The photo below is Prawn Cocktails and lobster makes an outright perfect switch for the prawns in the recipe.
This is a good, easy idea for elegant, individual starters.
My biggest advice: keep it simple. Don’t cook it – you risk drying it out. And don’t overwhelm the lobster with other flavours!
3. Lobster with herb & garlic butter
A good easy one you just can’t go wrong with! Melted butter, garlic, lemon and a good hit of fresh parsley.
To serve: Drizzle generously over sliced lobster, and also serve in a small bowl so everyone can help themselves (or dunk!). For individual plates, serve it like the Lemon Browned Butter Lobster pictured below.
TIP: Make sure to provide crusty bread. All the lobster juices and butter makes for a very good bread-plate-mopping situation!
4. Lemon Browned Butter Sauce for Lobster
Called Beurre noisette in French, this is a brilliant luxurious sauce for all types of seafood and is a very popular sauce recipe used for fish. The reason it’s so good is because it’s not just melted butter with lemon, it’s browned butter which has a much more intense, nutty flavour than plain melted butter.
Plus, the intense golden yellow colour is stunning! And to think this is just made with two ingredients – butter and lemon! (It’s all in the method)
How to serve it: As above with garlic butter, drizzle and also provide extra for each person to spoon over as much as they want.
TIP: This is a good one to use if you want to plate up individual start-size plates, such as pictured at the top of the post. It looks elegant because the butter is a more intense yellow colour than just normal melted butter, and as mentioned above it’s a bit fancy pants Frenchy.
5. Salsa Verde
A green sauce made with finely minced fresh herbs mixed with olive oil and a little garlic, this is spectacular with most seafoods, from cooked fish to grilled prawns, and most certainly for lobster.
How to serve it: Platter style for sharing, with a bowl of Salsa Verde for people to help themselves. Or the lobster sliced into bite size pieces with Salsa Verde drizzled over it, served as individual starters – as pictured above.
6. Lobster Rolls
Hailing from New England in the States, lobster rolls have achieved somewhat of a cult status in NYC. Luxurious yet relatable, though often comes with a hefty price tag, these are surely the most luxurious sandwich in the world…though I use the word “sandwich” loosely!!
Comprised of shredded or chopped lobster in a mayonnaise based sauce stuffed inside soft rolls, there’s just one important rule: don’t skimp on the lobster. The whole point of a lobster roll is for the filling to be abundant and overflowing. Every bite should be mostly lobster with bread just taking a supporting role. Not the other way round!
So don’t make lobster rolls if you don’t have enough lobster!
TIP: 1 average size discounted whole lobster currently selling at Woolworths/Coles (~500-600g whole) is enough to generously stuff just over 2 mini brioche bun rolls, as pictured above, or 3 mini brioche rolls (ie round).
No lobster mornay? No Lobster pasta??
There are some great classic lobster recipes that can only be made with raw lobster. So in this section, I cover off on why they are not suitable to make with pre-cooked lobster.
As mentioned above, the lobster flavour, tenderness of juiciness of the meat is not as good with pre-cooked lobsters compared to freshly cooked raw lobsters.
In addition, not starting with raw lobster means you lose the ability to make dishes that require a lengthy cook time, the extra flavour you get from the shell or even the flavour you get in sauces from searing the raw lobster meat, such as when we make things like Creamy Garlic Prawns.
This limits the uses of pre-cooked lobster compared to raw lobster which can be used for a much wider variety of such as pastas, lobster bisque and Lobster Mornay, to name a few.
If you just tossed lobster meat into pasta or a soup, you would only get lobster flavour when you bit into a piece of meat – and it’s dispersed throughout. So to make a really good, say, lobster pasta, you really need the lobster flavour in the sauce to coat the pasta, and to achieve this you need to start with raw lobster.
How to remove shell / meat of lobster (crayfish)
Around 95% of the meat in lobster is in the tail, so that’s all we need to remove. It’s not difficult to do with cooked lobster here’s how:
1. Insert knife between head and tail – insert a small knife in the gap between the shell where the tail and head meat on a 45 degree angle, almost scraping the inside of the shell of the head;
2 Cut through the flesh along the top and side of the lobster (no need to cut all the way around);
3. Twist off tail – then give the tail a twist and it will separate from the head. A good chunk of the meat from inside the head should be attached. If the meat has yellow and black bits on it from inside the head, just scrape or cut it off. The yellow stuff is called tomalley – or “mustard” – as has intense lobster flavour…. but it’s an acquired taste. I don’t eat it!
4. Cut underside with scissors – flip the tail upside down so the soft shell is facing up. Then cut down either side so you can peel it back a bit like opening a can of sardines!
5. Loosen meat – just use your hands to loosen the lobster meat from the shell. It comes out easily and neatly;
6. Remove poop vein – if you see a poop vein (black “string” down the back of the lobster tail meat), then carefully pull it out. If you stretch the meat out straight, you should be able to pull it out in one go. If it breaks, just cut an incision halfway down the lobster tail then use a toothpick to help remove it.
Otherwise, pick it out when you slice it. (Sometimes poop vein is thick, sometimes barely there!)
7. Lobster meat removed! And voila! Lobster tail meat remove from the shell in one neat piece!
Looks like a giant prawn, no? 🙂
8. Serve whole or cut – you can either serve the lobster meat in one piece and let people cut it themselves into bite size pieces. Or you can cut it up into chunks – up to you, and depends how much lobster there is to go around.
Scroll up to see photos of individual plates where I sliced the lobster meat, and the platter where I kept most of the pieces whole.
Tip: Keep at least one lobster head. It makes for great presentation on a platter!
Difference between lobsters and crayfish?
Lobsters have big claws whereas crayfish do not, but other than that they are basically the same thing. They taste the same, and the preparation for cooking is the same.
In Australia, we only have crayfish. But everyone calls them lobsters – even in the stores, and even for exporting purposes!
How to warm cooked lobster
Though I do not recommend cooking cooked lobster, you can warm it up slightly if you wish.
The best method is to steam using a stove steamer, just for a few minutes until the lobster meat is warmed through. Don’t risk a microwave steamer – too easy to cook the lobster!
Cheap lobsters?!! The background….
Trade tensions with China has seen our lobster export industry come to a standstill. China accounts for 95% of our $750 million lobster export industry – that’s a LOT of lobster!
So millions of dollars of lobsters which were destined for the export market have made their way to mainstream Australian grocery stores (Woolworths and Coles). They are being sold at heavily discounted prices of ~$20 each, making them far more accessible for everyday Aussies compared to the usual hefty price tags, upwards of $100 each!
These discounted lobsters are sold cooked and frozen, so the recipes contained in this post is specifically for cooked lobster.
And there you have it. Some quick last-minute recipes for fellow Aussies who have been lucky enough to score some of the discount lobsters this Christmas. An impromptu post I decided to share after learning at 11 am today that I’ll be in lockdown over Christmas Day – so I decided to use the lobsters I got for Christmas Day Lunch to do this post instead!
I know I say these are “quick and easy”, but I did manage to make a frightful mess photographing these recipes…. The clean up was long and painful!!! 😂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Lobster Recipes – for cooked lobster or crayfish
Ingredients
Lobster
- Whole cooked lobster(s) or crayfish
1. Seafood Sauces for Lobster – choose:
- Marie Rose aka Thousand Island
- Tartare Sauce
- Seafood Cocktail Sauce (most intense flavoured, use sparingly)
- RecipeTin Family Favourite Seafood Sauce (my pick!)
2. Lobster Cocktail
3. Lobster with Herb & Garlic Butter (enough for 2 lobsters)
- 50g / 3 tbsp salted butter , cut into 1.5cm / 1/2" cubes (or unsalted + 1/4 tsp salt)
- 1 garlic clove , very finely minced
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp parsley , finely chopped
- 1 tbsp+ lemon juice
- Lemon wedges & 1/2 cup parsley leaves , for serving
- Crusty bread , for mopping plate!
4. Lobster with French Lemon Butter Sauce (2 lobsters)
- Lemon Butter Sauce recipe
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Lemon wedges & 1/2 cup parsley leaves , for serving
- Crusty bread , for mopping plate!
5. Lobster with Salsa Verde (4 lobsters)
- 1 cup (lightly packed) parsley , chopped (OK to include some stems, up to 1/4 cup
- 1 tbsp whole capers
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 garlic clove , chopped
- 2 tsp red or white wine vinegar
- 1 anchove (large, or 2 small) , chopped
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
6. Lobster Rolls
- 160g / 1 cup cooked lobster meat , cut into 1cm/ 2/5" cubes (1 x 600g/1.2lb whole lobster)
- 2 1/2 tbsp kewpie mayonnaise (or Hellman's) (Note 3)
- 2 1/2 tbsp celery, finely chopped (~ 1 stalk)
- 1 1/2 tbsp green onions , very finely sliced
- 2 tsp chives , finely chopped
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Pinch black pepper
- butter , softened, for buttering buns
- 3 mini brioche buns or rolls (or other very soft roll best for this)
- Plain potato chips , for serving (classic accompaniement)
- Garnishes (optional): Pinch paprika, chopped chives, lemon wedges
Instructions
Thaw:
- If lobster was frozen, thaw lobster overnight in a bowl or tray (with sides to catch liquid). Drain well before use.
Remove shell (see photos in post):
- Cut between head and tail: Insert a small knife at a 45 degree angle into the gap between the tail and head. Cut along the top and sides through to the middle – no need to do underneath.
- Separate head from tail: Twist the tail to separate it from the head. It will pull out meat from the head as well.
- Clean: Scrape or trim off any yellow of black residue on the end that came out of the head.
- Cut underside: Cut down both sides of the soft shell on the underside of the tail. Then peel it back like a can of sardines to reveal the lobster flesh.
- Remove flesh: Carefully remove the flesh – it should come off the shell cleanly.
- Remove poop vein – if you see a poop vein (black "string" down the back of the lobster tail meat), then carefully pull it out. If you stretch the meat out straight, you should be able to pull it out in one go. Otherwise, pick it out when you slice it. (Sometimes poop vein is thick, sometimes barely there!)
- Residual meat in head: There will be some residual meat in the head that can be used. The yellow "mustard" (called tomalley) has very intense lobstar flavour but is an acquired taste… I do not eat it!
- How to serve: Lobster tail meat can be served whole, sliced into thick or thin pieces or diced, depending on use. I do not recommend shredded as it loses juiciness.
Seafood Sauces:
- Make Sauce per the Dipping Sauces recipe.
- Serve alongside lobster for dipping. Either cut the lobster into bite size pieces, or serve whole for people to cut themselves. Plate it up individually or on a share platter.
Lobster Cocktail:
- Make the Prawn Cocktail recipe but substitute prawn for lobster cut into small bite size pieces.
Lobster with Herb & Garlic Butter:
- Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Once foamy, add garlic and cook until light golden. Remove from stove, add lemon juice and parsley.
- Serving: Pour into serving bowl and serve alongside lobster. Garnish with parsley leaves and lemon wedges.
- Eating: Let people either dip in bite size pieces or drizzle over lobster, plated up indivudually or on a share style plate. Mop plate clean with crusty bread!
Lobster with Lemon Browned Butter Sauce
- Make the sauce per the Lemon Browned Butter Sauce recipe.
- Slice the lobster into bite size pieces. Pile onto plate or arrange on indivudual plates. Sprinkle with salt (necessary as browned butter is unsalted).
- Serving: Drizzle with some browned butter, then serve more on the side. Garnish with parsley leaves and lemon wedges.
- Eating: To eat, dip or drizzle lobster with more browned butter. Mop plate clean with crusty bread!
Salsa Verde:
- Blitz ingredients in a Nutribullet or small food processor until it becomes a paste. It should be smooth but a bit of courseness for texture ie don't blend into a smoothie.
- Slice lobster into bite size pieces. Arrange on indvidual plates or share plate. Drizzle little dollops of salsa verde over lobster – don't go overboard, the flavour is quite strong!
- Garnish with lemon wedges & parlsey leaves, serve.
Lobster Rolls:
- Place lobster in a bowl. Add mayonnaise, lemon, chives, celery, green onions, salt and pepper. Gently toss to coat.
- Split then generously butter buns or rolls. Stuff generously! Makes 2 mini brioche buns or 3 round rolls.
Recipe Notes:
- Lobster with seafood sauce (choose from 4) – alla seafood platter style, the most classic way to make the most of lobster flesh.
- Lobster Cocktail – it’s Prawn Cocktail, but made with lobster!
- Lobster with garlic butter – a dead set sure thing you can never go wrong with!
- Lobster with French Lemon Butter Sauce (Beurre noisette) – “it’s French, darling!” Made with browned butter which has intense buttery, lemon flavour, this sauce is a French classic and is a very elegant, restaurant-worthy sauce for lobster. Plates up elegantly as an individual starter (see in post)
- Lobster with Salsa Verde – bright green parsley garlic sauce, a classic with seafood that delivers big flavour! Excellent sauce to serve with plain seafoods, and looks striking against the white flesh;
- Lobster Rolls – a New York favourite! Best for freshly cooked lobster otherwise the lobster flavour isn’t as strong. If using the discount Woolworths/Coles lobster, you need to stuff (very!) generously to ensure you get a good lobster flavour (the lobster flavour in those isn’t the strongest)
1. Lobster – this list has been created as a compilation of recipes that work well using pre-cooked lobster. The uses are more limited than using raw lobster, and the main tip I have is to use the lobster as is, without cooking it again (risk of drying out, loss of flavour). If you have raw lobster, the variety of options is much broader so don’t limit yourself to just this list! Frozen lobster – place on a tray or large bowl and thaw overnight in the fridge. Drain well before using. Removing lobster shell – do not do this until you are ready to serve the lobster as it protects the flesh and keeps it juicy. 2. Salsa Verde – leftovers can be frozen. Thaw in fridge overnight. Use as sauce for fish or other seafood. Strong flavour means you needn’t do anything else to flavour the fish! 3. Lobster rolls:
- 1 whole lobster currently selling at discounted prices at Woolworths/Coles (~500 – 600g each, whole) will yield around 140g / 1 cup lobster meat and will generously fill 2 mini brioche buns or 3 mini brioche round rolls. The recipe has been scaled down to suit 1 of these lobsters.
- Larger lobster? Click on servings and slide up until the lobster weight reaches the size you have.
- Do not skimp on filling – there will be too much bread which will takeover the lobster eating experience!
- Mayonnaise quality is key for a great lobster roll experience! Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise is the best in my opinion (smoothest, richest flavour and mouthfeel), followed by Hellman’s then S&W Whole Egg Mayonnaise.
Life of Dozer
The last minute cancellation of Christmas parties and extended stay by family during this Christmas period means that both Dozer and I have been doing a lot of THIS over the past week!!
I just stumbled across your “6 lobster recipes” for cooked lobster.
Do you have any for raw lobster? I’m lucky enough to live where we can catch our own WA crays and want to do more than just boil or bbq.
Hi Kym! Currently working on a thermadore recipe… it’s a good one!!
taking advantage of the sudden appearance of cheap WA crays at Harris Farm, found your instructions on how to get the flesh out simple and effective. Thank you. On perusing the rest of your site, I can see that your knowledge and enthusiasm will have me returning frequently. Thanks for your efforts! Give Dozer an extra pat.
9 weeks out from my birthday I requested a crayfish dish weekly from my husband the ‘chef’ because they are so affordable! Decadent maybe, but why not? The final week has arrived and I thank you for some suggestions as to the finale!
Am I sick of eating it….ahhh no!
thank you for the very informative and creative information on .lobsters. I have not yet attempted to cook live lobsters but may try it this summer…thanks. Beth
Don’t forget to eat the meat in the legs – it’s the sweetest bit and worth the effort of getting it out!
Hi Nagi,
Can you please give me any help to remove raw meat from a craytail?
( South Australian Rock Lobster)
Thanks Dale.
Hi Dale! I use the same steps to remove meat from raw lobsters, and in fact did it the other day with a fresh cray caught at a local beach that a friend brought around. The only thing I do differently is to run a butter knife between the flesh and the “flap” I cut on the underside of the lobster to loosen the meat – it is attached by a thin membrane (it detaches when cooked which is why you don’t need to do it if you boil it whole). The meat should come off with little effort from the rounded side just using your fingers. Hope that helps! N x
Thank you for your recipes Nagi we all loved your family dressing on our prawns. I was looking for your post on cooking live lobster but cant find it now
Hope your Christmas was good. 6 of your dishes made our table and such is my confidence in you, 3 were the first time I’d cooked them. All delicious and praised.
These are actually lobsters, tropical spiny rock lobsters (Panulirus ornatus). My husband is a diver, they are not caught in pots. When alive, uncooked, they are stunning with blues and purple. Glad Aussies have a chance to try at this price. I eat so many as if they lose more than two legs, we can’t sell them. Also there is a decent chunk of flesh in the head, under where the antennas are called the knuckle. We call the mustard, the lolly haha definitely an acquired taste.
I am thrilled to have found your website. We have very similar values about food and Dozer. You are a breath of fresh air. Wish you had your own cooking show. Will be following you totally know that I know your website exists…
How about a lobster Mac and cheese?
Merry Christmas Nagi and Dozer. Sorry to hear about your lockdown. We are in the same boat here in British Columbia, Canada. Cheers to you for a happy, healthy and safe new year! Thank you for all your great recipes and Dozer updates! You’re the best!
Nagi, merry Christmas to you and Dozer. I’m not sure how we would have got through this year without you!! Your recipes are great and my husband is becoming quite an accomplished home cook – thanks to you!! Best wishes to your family over the festive season.
Hi Nagi,
I’m so sorry for your lockdown Christmas. We were so hoping that wouldn’t happen in Sydney.
Sending heaps of love from Melbourne and I found hugging my dog regularly helped in lockdown. Stay safe. Jo from melbourne
MERRY CHRISTMAS…..Dozer from two Victorian ENGLISH SETTERS.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, to all!
Thanks for the recipes and the idea ! Sorry to hear you have lockdown, but do not despair, it could be worse… America, bad non caring leader, Over Three thousand dying a day! Idiots who do not see lockdown as the blessing towards the future… I wish I lived there. You guys are blessed.
Nagi, merry Christmas to you and Dozer. I’m not sure how we would have got through this year without you!! Your recipes are great and my husband is becoming quite an accomplished home cook – thanks to you!! Best wishes to your family over the festive season.
Hi Nagi,
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas all things considered. I know how you feel as we did it very hard in Victoria with our lockdown. Hopefully 2021 will be a much better year.
Thank you so much for your fantastic recipes which I have enjoyed cooking as I’ve learnt so much from you.
Stay safe and well. Give Dozer a big hug from me.
Looks delish! I am in Florida, so not locked down for now thank goodness! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and that 2021 is better to all of us! Thank you for all the wonderful recipes. They never disappoint!
Hi Nagi,
Thank you for the easy delicious recepies . I have cooked several but loved Goan fish curry the best.
Wishing you and family a safe and healthy Xmas and a happy new year. Hopefully your lockdown won’t be as long as ours in Victoria.
Kety