ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ZACHERY DYKE
Spearo, fisherman, and passionate home cook. I enjoy harvesting my food from the ocean and sharing it with my friends and family. Follow along as I use species local to Florida to make incredible meals you can make at home.
Why I Stopped Wasting My Spiny Lobster Heads
I’d be lying through my teeth if I said I’ve utilized every spiny lobster I’ve ever caught to the fullest extent. Years ago, when I first started spearfishing, I typically just twisted the tail off of the lobster and threw the head back into the water. While I do believe nothing truly goes to waste in the ocean, as spearos, I feel we have a duty to utilize as much of what we harvest as possible.
The first time I made a spiny lobster broth was pretty daunting for some reason. I was nervous it was going to taste horrible, or that I was going to get sick. I was inspired by my good buddy, who’s girlfriend made some incredible risotto with lobster broth that was out of this world. After consulting him and getting the basic premise of making a lobster broth, I tried it out for myself. It actually turned out so good, that I drank it out of a coffee mug!
After realizing what I had been missing for so long, I started making sure not to waste anymore spiny lobster heads. Not only do they make an incredible broth, but they also have a good amount of meat in the head, knuckles and leg clusters. To be honest, it’s not a crazy amount of meat, and you definitely have to work for it, but it’s more than enough for 2 bowls of soup!
How I Got These Lobsters
These are actually the same lobster I used in my Spicy Korean Lobster Bites recipe. If you like fried lobster, definitely check that one out. This recipe, however, is such a cool recipe because you are literally creating 2 more meals out of lobster parts that are commonly thrown away. This really made me start to think about how much a limit of lobster really yields in terms of food, and how maybe I don’t need to take as many as I once thought.
The Components Of Florida Spiny Lobster Knuckle Head Soup
The first component of this recipe is obviously the lobster. You want to make sure you’re using lobster that are fresh or were frozen soon after they died. Lobster goes bad very quickly, so I recommend making the broth sooner rather than later. Steaming the parts for only about 5 minutes should allow the little meat that is in them to cook enough, but not overcook.
A key part of this recipe is the ice bath. You want to stop the cooking process after the lobster parts have steamed for 5 minutes. This will allow you to more easily work with the lobster, because it will not be so hot, and will prevent the lobster from sticking to the shell. As for getting the meat out, you will get the hang of it with time. Find your rhythm with the legs, they are small, but it’s just like getting the meat out of crab legs.
The second component is the broth. The broth is going to consist of a tiny bit of sesame oil, white onion, green onion, ginger, garlic, your lobster parts, and of course, water. The onions, ginger and garlic are in there to give the soup a little bit more depth of flavor and to take away any harsh tastes from the lobster. If you’ve ever cooked lobster broth for more than about 45 minutes, you know what I’m talking about!
You definitely want to make sure you don’t simmer this broth any longer than an hour. Fish, lobster and crabs all don’t need a long time in terms of making broths. Now that I think of it, that’s another great reason to try this recipe, it really don’t take that long in comparison to beef or pork.
The last component is what you put in your soup. You need some sort of salt because there was none added during the broth making process. It is much easier to control the salt level of an individual bowl than that of a giant pot. I used soy sauce for this recipe, because it adds some extra flavor and has plenty of salt.
I also added some sesame oil for a little bit of nutty flavor. It also gives the soup that sheer on top that looks really appetizing. I used some thicker rice noodles for this recipe, because I like how much broth you get with each bite when you use a more substantial noodle. Feel free to use whatever noodles you prefer, though.
I then added the lobster meat that I pulled out of the head, knuckles and leg clusters and finished it off with some green onions and sesame seeds. I also added one of the lobster heads in there just for decoration. Hopefully this sparks some thinking on what you can do with your spiny lobster heads. Get creative and see what you come up with. I hope you enjoy this recipe!
Check out the reel I made of this recipe on our Instagram!
