Recipe - Stuffed Lobster Tails

12 Fresh lobsters (450 gms)
One half cup Diced water chestnut (or
celery)
Cooking oil

CORNSTARCH MIXTURE
pn Of salt
One fourth teaspoon Cornstarch
1 tablespoon Stock (or water)

PORTUGUESE SAUCE
3 tablespoon Butter
1 One half tablespoon Flour
1/3 cup Coconut juice
1/3 cup Stock (or water)
1 One half tablespoon Evaporated milk
1 One half teaspoon Curry powder
One half teaspoon Salt

STUFFING
One half cup Finely chopped skinless raw
chicken meat
One half cup Finely chopped onion
One fourth cup Finely chopped abalone (or
button mushrooms)
8 Presoaked and finely
chopped small dried black
Chinese mushrooms
1/8 cup Finely chopped Chinese
celery (or Western celery)
1 tablespoon Finely chopped dry shallots
1/3 cup Chopped raw lobster meat
(shrimp or ham)
Cooking oil

COATING
2 Beaten eggs
Bread crumbs

GARNISH
1 Or 2 dried scallops (or red
pepper)

This is a relatively simple one. From the picture in the book, the
lobsters are Australian rock lobsters or spiney lobsters. They're
much smaller that our Maine lobsters. This probably fits the bill
for the "New" Hong Kong cuisine in that it uses butter and milk. I'd
think this would probably be quite good made with Dungeness crab as
well as lobster. Establishment: The Regent Hotel (Hong Kong)
Salisbury Road, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon.

Chef: Chinese Cuisine Practical Class Platinum Award ++ Seafood
STUFFED LOBSTER TAILS (12 servings) Chef: Ip Wah (The Regent Hotel)

The literal translation, "Healthy and Spirited Dragon and Horse"
cannot convey the symbolic values of the poetically rhyming Chinese
characters. In the Cantonese dialect, a lobster is a "dragon shrimp"
and the word for "horse" sounds similar to part of "water chestnut".
Both creatures summon up images of power, stamina, elegance and other
desired virtues.

To prepare: 1. Soak and wash dried scallops. Shred and deepfry until
crisp, and put aside for garnish. If using red pepper, chop finely. 2.
Remove lobster shells. Retain tails and clean. Set aside enough
uncooked lobster meat required for stuffing, and dice it fairly
finely. Chop remaining lobster meat into small square chunks. 3.
Prepare cornstarch mixture, mixing well.

To cook: 1. For Portuguese sauce, heat butter over low flame, add
flour, then rest of sauce ingredients. Cook into a paste, set aside.
2. For stuffing, saute ingredients in a little oil over low flame.
Add Portuguese sauce. Remove from heat and when cooled, stuff into
lobster tail shells. Brush exposed stuffing with egg, sprinkle with
bread crumbs. 3. Heat until smoking, sufficient oil for deepfrying,
lower flame, and immerse stuffed lobster tails (stuffing facing
upwards) for 5 minutes, or until golden. Remove from wok.
(Alternatively, bake unbreadcrumbed stuffed lobster tails in a hot
oven for 3 to 5 minutes, until surfaces are dry. Brush with egg and
coat with bread crumbs, bake again until golden.) 4. For lobster meat
chunks, heat wok, add 4 to 5 cups of oil. When oil is at medium heat
add lobster meat and blanch to seal in the juice. Remove lobster.
Clean and reheat wok with One half cup oil, and stirfry lobster with
minced water chestnut (or celery) and cornstarch mixture for 1 minute.

To present: 1. Place stirfried mixture in centre of platter, and
sprinkle shredded dried scallops (or chopped red pepper) over. 2.
Arrange lobster tails in a circle around it.

From "Champion Recipes of the 1986 Hong Kong Food Festival". Hong
Kong Tourist Association, 1986.

Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; October 28 1992.

File ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/cberg2.zip