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Grilled Lobster with White Wine Butter Sauce & Grilled Summer Vegetables

If you live in New England or somehow manage to get your hands on some larger-sized live lobsters, try cooking them on the grill! Personally, I love the sweetness and firmness of Maine lobster meat, where the typical live lobster is around 1.5-2 pounds when harvested.
This recipe includes grilled Maine lobster, served with a white wine butter sauce alongside some grilled summer vegetable skewers.

Ingredients

  • 8 wooden skewers, (roughly 6” long, soaked in cold water for 3 hours)
  • 1 red onion, (cut into quarters, petals separated into sets of 2-3)
  • 2 red bell peppers, (medium diced)
  • 1 medium-sized zucchini, (cut into ½” slices)
  • 1 medium-sized summer squash, (cut into ½” slices)
  • 3-4 Tbsp sunflower seed oil
  • 1 tsp Kosher salt
  • 3 Tbsp white wine
  • ½ shallot, (finely minced)
  • 2 cloves garlic, (finely minced)
  • 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • Juice of ½ lemon, (or more to taste)
  • 5 Tbsp salted butter, (cold, cut into cubes)
  • A tiny sprinkle of cayenne pepper
  • Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper, (to taste)
  • 3 large-sized live Maine lobsters
  • 3 tsp sunflower seed oil
  • ½ tsp Kosher salt
  • 2 Tbsp fresh chives, (as garnish)

Instructions 

  • Soak the wooden skewers under cold water for 3-4 hours before you intend to assemble the vegetable skewers and begin grilling.
  • Prepare your fresh vegetables, and set them aside.
  • After the wooden skewers have had adequate time to soak, preheat the grill to 500F.
  • Toss the prepared vegetables in a large mixing bowl with some sunflower seed oil, and season them lightly with Kosher salt.
  • Assemble the vegetable skewers with alternating layers of onion, red bell pepper, zucchini, and squash.
  • Set the skewers aside while you wait for the grill to preheat and you make your white wine butter sauce.
  • For the white wine butter sauce, add the white wine to a sauce pan with the minced shallot and garlic.
  • Turn heat to medium-high, and cook until the white wine has reduced by 75%.
  • Remove the sauce pan from the heat, and whisk in the Dijon mustard, lemon zest, lemon juice, and cold cubed butter, until the mixture has emulsified and arrived at a uniform consistency.
  • Add a tiny sprinkle of cayenne pepper, and taste.
  • Season with kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper.
  • Once you are satisfied with the taste of the sauce, cover with plastic wrap and store in a warm place while you grill up the vegetables and lobster.
  • To prepare the live lobster, use a heavy chef’s knife to make a cut down the middle of the lobster’s head, cutting the head of the lobster in half.
  • Continue with the cut down the length of the lobster’s entire body.
  • *You will end up with six halves of lobster if you start with three live lobsters.
  • Remove the non-edible bits of stomach and pieces that you do not want to eat from the insides of the lobster, and discard those bits.
  • *Don’t worry if there is still a bit of residue on the insides of the lobsters when you put them on the grill--All is well.
  • Lightly oil the insides of each lobster half with a tiny bit of sunflower seed oil.
  • Season the meat of the lobsters with a sprinkling of Kosher salt, and place them on a plate.
  • When the grill is hot, scrape down the grill grates with a rubber brush until they are really clean.
  • When the grill is clean, add the vegetable skewers and cook them for roughly 6-8 minutes, or until the vegetables are nicely caramelized to your liking on the outside.
  • Remove the cooked vegetable skewers from the grill, and set them aside.
  • Grill the lobster halves with the exposed meat-side touching the grill.
  • After the lobsters have cooked for a few minutes, very carefully remove them from the grill, making sure to avoid the meat from sticking to the grill grates.
  • Assemble individual plates with grilled lobster halves, vegetable skewers, and white wine butter sauce from earlier.
  • Garnish with finely-sliced fresh chives and serve immediately.

Notes

Don’t be afraid when dealing with live lobsters. Part of the trick to preparing them for grilling is to use a heavy and sharp chef’s knife to cut directly through the middle of the live lobster heads with gusto and confidence.
I recently was reading that there are rumors of a 50-pound lobster that was caught in 1926 that was over three feet in length. Can you imagine that?