Father’s Day Surf and Turf And A Giveaway Winner!

 

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Want to pamper your Dad on Father’s Day? Or maybe just indulge in a special meal for a special someone? Unless you’re a vegetarian, this combo is sure to win you brownie points and give you a free pass on the dishes.

The lobster tails were an indulgence, granted. But I couldn’t resist when they went on sale for 1/2 price recently at my supermarket. The price of the beef wasn’t exactly chopped liver either, since I made the shish-kebobs with Black Angus Choice sirloin steak. But you could try a less expensive cut and marinate it longer. Besides, for the two of us I used less than 3/4 pound of beef.

Truth be told, I didn’t serve these both on the same night. Aside from breaking the bank, we just can’t eat that much at one sitting. The lobster tails alone were about 7 ounces each – that’s a lot of seafood for one person.  But if you want to impress your Dad, your boss or your favorite significant other, get that grill going on all burners and present both these dishes at the same meal.

Both are really easy to prepare but let’s start with the beef. I cut the steak into chunks and marinated it with about 1/4 cup of soy sauce, a drizzle of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, two smashed garlic cloves and a couple of sprigs of minced rosemary. Let the mixture sit in the refrigerator about a half hour to one hour.

Use wooden skewers that have been soaked in water and start threading them with the meat, alternating with peppers, onions and cherry or grape tomatoes.  Place over hot coals and grill until desired doneness. For us, people like our steak medium rare, it was only about five minutes on each side, turning once.

Now for the lobsters, which are a little trickier to prepare. 

There are plenty of ways to cook lobster tails. Honestly, my favorite way is to steam them – plain and simple. But since it’s summer and the grill is king, I decided to try them this way.

Take a heavy knife or kitchen shears and cut down the middle right through the shell. It will take some strength, and be careful not to cut yourself because the edges of the lobster shells are sharp.

Put some olive oil in a bowl and mix in some herbs and spices. I used about 1/4 cup of olive oil (You could use softened butter if you prefer) and I added some fresh chopped thyme, some paprika, some minced garlic, salt and pepper.

Lift the meat away from the shell and spread some of the olive oil over the shell. Replace the lobster meat over the shell.

Do the same thing to the other side, but reserve a little of the olive oil mixture.

Place the lobster tails, shell side down, on the grill. Brush the lobster meat with the olive oil mixture that you reserved.  Keep a little water handy to spritz on the coals in case you have a flare-up. DON”T LEAVE THE GRILL. You don’t want to set fire to the lobster tails and see all that money you spent go up in flames.

After they’ve cooked for about 10 minutes on the shell side, flip them over. There was actually no flare-up when I flipped them over, because most of the olive oil had either been absorbed into the lobster meat or had already dripped down into the coals. Cook them on this side for another 10 minutes. If it looks like they’re not done, just keep them on longer. A lot depends on your grill and on the size of the lobster tails.

Serve with melted butter and some lemon wedges.

Now for the winner of the Tupperware Quick Chef giveaway. I used a random number generator and the winner was number three - Kristin!! Congratulations! Kristin send me your address in a separate email so I can mail you the prize. Thanks to all of you who left a comment, especially those of you who left a suggestion on how to improve the blog. Many of you said I need to have a recipe finder and I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ll be working on implementing it in the next few weeks.

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