We all love to splurge on a fancy dinner from time to time.
One of the best treats out there is seafood such as shrimp, crabs, and lobsters.
Their salty and sweet taste and that delicate steam flesh inside that hard-rock shell are nothing but pure delight.
However, these kinds of seafood come with a hefty price.
If you’re going to buy a pound of King crab legs, it will cost you around $75 or more; Atlantic lobsters are more or less $30 apiece.
Buying cooked meals like crab legs and lobster tail costs between $19 – $30, and that’s just for one serving.
Cowboy chef Kent Rollins found a workaround for that.
Aside from lobsters being expensive, it’s not available in some states.
Lucky for us, we get to learn from Kent how to make what he calls a “Poor Man’s Lobster” or simply an alternative way of making “lobster” meat.
Here are the ingredients:
- Halibut or Cod
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ lemon
- Lemon pepper
- Dill seeds
- Melted butter
Kent used Cod in his recipe, but you can also use Halibut.
He said that any white, flaky fish would work as long as they can be sliced into cubes around an inch thick.
First, cut the fish meat into cubes.
Then, get a deep pot and heat some water.
Add a cup of white sugar and half a lemon and stir.
Once all the sugar is dissolved, bring the water to a hard boil.
Why do you need to do this?
Sugar and lemon do not only add flavor to your fish, but it also makes the meat firm.
You need that to make a tender, flaky fish a bit firmer to end up with the texture of a lobster’s meat.
Once your water boils, slowly add the fish to the pot.
Kent reminds us not to stir the water no matter what.
It’s a very common mistake to stir something in a pot (like we do for soups) but stirring will make your dish a total disaster as it will break your fish and fall apart.
The key is just to wait for the fish to cook.
When you placed the fish in the pot, they sink to the bottom.
You’ll know if the fish is already cooked because they will float back up the surface of the boiling water.
Also, watch out for the heat; make sure to regulate it so your pot won’t boil over.
When you notice the water starting to rise, lower the heat.
If the water forms bubbles, you can scoop it out to still see if any fish floats.
Again, just scoop it out and never stir.
Scoop out the cooked fish and put it on a plate.
You can use a sieve or paper towel to dry out your fish.
Once it’s dry, add seasoning to it. Kent recommends adding lemon pepper because it has that spice of pepper with a tangy taste of lemon.
You can add dill seeds if you want or any spice of your choice.
Serve the first with melted butter, and there you have your Poor Man’s Lobster.
No need to go and dine in a fancy restaurant.
No need to spend a lot.
This is how you turn fish into a lobster-like texture.
Season to taste, and it’s really like the real thing.
Watch the full step-by-step process in the video below and give it a try for yourself!
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