Lobster and fries – the high-low luxury Mum deserves this Mother’s Day

Melbourne’s Entrecote is synonymous with steak frites and its legendary herb butter sauce – a recipe so closely guarded it was off-limits to Good Food. To uncover that secret, you’ll have to buy the restaurant’s lavish hard-backed cookbook.

Published to mark a decade of “decadence, people, food, wine and culture”, restaurateur Jason M Jones’s book Entrecôte: Depuis 2015 proves there is far more to this kitchen than steak and secret sauce.

Entrecote’s southern rock lobster dish, served with sauce Choron, blistered cherry tomatoes and frites, is the ultimate high-low indulgence. Here’s how to make it at home.

Homard frites (southern rock lobster, sauce Choron and frites)

Southern rock lobster – that jewel of our southern waters, kissed by the sea and bathed here in a luscious sauce Choron, a gloriously indulgent, tomato-tinged twist on the classic Hollandaise. It’s sunshine and silk on a plate. The meat is impossibly sweet, tender and decadent – the kind of thing that makes you close your eyes after the first bite.

We are so lucky here in Australia to have such treasures from the sea, and when this beauty graces our menu as an addition, it’s gone in a flash.

INGREDIENTS

1 whole lobster (about 500-600g)

Court bouillon

• 2 litres water
• 400ml white wine
• 200ml white wine vinegar
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 leek (white part only), sliced
• 2 small onions, halved
• 1 lemon, halved
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ tsp whole peppercorns
• salt, to taste
• 1 small sprig parsley
• 1 small sprig thyme
• 20g unsalted butter (for finishing)

Tomato fondue

• 1 kg ripe tomatoes, blanched, peeled and deseeded (or your favourite brand of tinned works, too!)
• 125g French shallots (eschalots), finely diced
• 25g garlic, finely chopped
• 25g tomato paste
• 25g fresh tarragon, chopped
• 75ml extra virgin olive oil
• salt, to taste

Sauce Choron

• 100ml dry white wine
• 35ml white wine vinegar
• ¼ French shallot (eschalot), finely chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 egg yolks
• 40g tomato fondue
• 100g unsalted butter, melted and clarified (see note)

Frites

• 300g frozen skin-on French fries (150g per person)
• vegetable oil (for deep-frying)
• sea salt

To serve

• lemon
• blistered cherry tomatoes

METHOD

1. To cook the lobster, combine all court bouillon ingredients except the butter in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the lobster (see note below on how to do this more humanely) into the pot and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Remove and immediately place it into an ice bath to stop the cooking. When cool, split the lobster in half lengthwise.
2. Remove the membrane and digestive vein. Lay the cooked lobster belly up on a board and steady it. Using a large, sharp knife, cut down between the legs and press firmly to split the head, then cut from the end of the tail back toward the centre, continuing through the body until fully halved.
3. Open gently, keeping the head and tail attached, and remove the stomach sac, gills and intestinal tract. To serve, reheat gently in butter and season just before serving.
4. To make the tomato fondue, blitz the peeled and deseeded tomatoes until chopped (not pureed). In a separate pot, sweat the shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft, but not coloured. Add the tomato paste to the olive oil mixture and cook for 1-2 minutes to concentrate. Stir in the blitzed tomatoes. Cook slowly over medium-low heat until bright red and thick (about 30-45 minutes). Season with salt. Let cool slightly, then stir through chopped tarragon. Tip: Reserve 40g for the sauce Choron and refrigerate or freeze the rest for another use.
5. To prepare the sauce Choron, combine the white wine, vinegar and shallot in a small saucepan. Simmer until reduced to about 20ml. Cool slightly. In a blender or using a stick blender, combine the egg yolks and the reduced liquid. Slowly drizzle in the warm clarified butter while blending until emulsified. Fold in 40g of tomato fondue. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm.
6. To cook the frites, heat the vegetable oil in a deep fryer or heavy saucepan to 180C. Fry the skin-on French fries in batches until golden and crispy. Drain well on paper towels and season with sea salt.
7. To plate, serve the hot, crisp frites in a neat pile on one side of a warm plate. Add the lobster tail and top with warm sauce Choron. Garnish with micro herbs, a wedge of lemon and blistered cherry tomatoes.

Serves 2

Notes

To humanely dispatch the lobster, either cold stun (freeze for 30-60 minutes to numb before boiling) or use the instant knife method (pierce the carapace quickly behind the eyes for immediate results).

To clarify butter, place it in a small pan and gently simmer over low heat until it separates into three layers. Skim the foamy milk solids from the surface, then carefully strain the clear golden fat through cheesecloth, discarding the remaining solids at the bottom.

This is an edited extract from Entrecote: Depuis 2015 by Jason M Jones. Published by Melbourne Books. Photography by Lynton Crabb. RRP $89.90.