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Grilled Lobster with Vegetable Skewers

I remember my uncle in Maine talking about how he spent a portion of his life grilling roughly 300 days a year. His story is evidence that you can grill year-round, even in some colder climates. Quick Grilling Pro Tip for cooking in areas with limited daylight during the colder seasons: wear a headlamp while grilling—it will make it easier to see how things are cooking and make your own minor adjustments.
The following recipe features Maine grilled lobster, which the State is also famous for. If you feel inclined to cut down the quantity of butter used, feel free. But the grilled lobster is so nice when dipped in the extra melted butter. And if you ever get a chance to visit a city like Portland, Maine, and you also enjoy good food, you should definitely check it out!
The following recipe serves four people.

Ingredients

  • 12 cherry tomatoes (washed and kept whole)
  • 1 large red onion (cut into large square or triangular pieces for skewers)
  • ¼ small zucchini (cut into ¼-inch thick slices for skewers)
  • ¼ yellow squash (cut into ¼-inch thick slices for skewers)
  • ½ yellow bell pepper (cut into pieces for skewers)
  • ½ red bell pepper (cut into pieces for skewers)
  • 4 wooden skewers (eight-inches long, soaked in cold water)
  • 2 Tablespoons sunflower seed oil
  • 1.5 tsp Kosher salt
  • 4 live Maine lobsters (weighing roughly 20 oz each)
  • 12 Tbsp 1.5 sticks unsalted butter
  • ½ tsp Kosher salt
  • ½ cup Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic (finely minced)
  • 3 Tbsp fresh parsley (leaves roughly chopped)
  • 2 fresh mint leaves (finely sliced)
  • ½ tsp Kosher salt (or more to taste)
  • ¼ tsp freshly-ground black pepper (or more to taste)

Instructions 

  • Soak your wooden skewers in cold water for one hour, before you plan on preheating the grill.
  • When you have washed and cut your vegetables for the skewers, toss them gently in some sunflower oil and add a few pinches of Kosher salt.
  • When your assorted vegetables are lightly oiled and salted, assemble your vegetable skewers with an alternating arrangement of the sliced vegetables, and then set them aside for when you are ready to cook.
  • For the lobster, bring a very large pot of generously salted water to a boil, and prepare an ice bath.
  • Boil the live lobsters for roughly 4 minutes, depending on the size.
  • *You may need to boil them two at a time, depending on the size of your largest pot.
  • Remove the partially-cooked lobsters from the boiling water, and plunge them in the prepared ice bath.
  • *Boiling the lobsters in advance helps the meat pull away from the shell before it goes on the grill.
  • When you are ready to start cooking, preheat your grill to 500F.
  • Melt 12 Tablespoons of butter and add a pinch of Kosher salt.
  • When melted, remove the butter from the heat.
  • Cut into the lobster tails on the softer underside, and pour ¼ of the melted butter inside the shell over the exposed meat.
  • Prepare a finishing vinaigrette for the vegetable skewers by combining the Extra virgin olive oil, a minced garlic clove, chopped parsley, sliced mint, Kosher salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste.
  • Set the vinaigrette aside for when the vegetable skewers are fully cooked.
  • Grill the skewers first, as they will take the longest. Grill the skewers until lightly charred on the outsides.
  • Grill the lobsters on their backs (with the cut-side of the lobster tail facing the sky) for roughly 3 minutes, or until the tail meat is just cooked through.
  • When perfectly cooked, serve the grilled lobsters with the remaining melted Butter, in addition to the vegetable skewers.
  • Drizzle some of the herb vinaigrette onto the vegetable skewers.

Notes

While you can buy cooked lobster meat pre-packaged in the supermarket, it is generally not as tasty compared to when you start with a fresh, live product, and cook it yourself. Spring for the good stuff if you are celebrating a special occasion!
The vegetable skewers can be made in advance of grilling, although note that the exposed sections of the wooden skewers have a tendency to burn when they dry out.
You can save any leftover vinaigrette to use for a salad the next day.