Birthday weekend grilled lobster taco spectacular

Lobster taco? Lobster and taco together? The fanciest sea food available and you want it in a corn tortilla? Heck ya!

I was given the choice of what I want for my birthday weekend dinner (with the understanding that I might wind up making it myself). If cost wasn’t an option, I wanted lobster. I also wanted something spicy. I also wanted to grill. Turns out small lobster tails were on some sort of Valentine special at our market. A sign from above. I had cut up a pineapple earlier in the week. I could grill it, too for some grilled pineapple salsa. What else might go good with in lobster tacos? Chipotle sour cream. Avocado. Seared corn and black beans. Mixed greens. Maybe a little grated jack cheese. It all sounded good.

Lobsters thawing and a Perfect Storm.

The $5 tails were a little frozen, so as I thawed/brined them, I worked on getting the salsa and other accompaniments ready. And a beverage. Priorities. A man (woman/child/pet) has got to know his limitations, and has to have priorities. Otherwise, madness. But I digress.

So I had some sliced pineapple left from my jerk chicken adventure (jerk chicken loves pineapple), and I put it on the grill to soften it and get some carmelization going. If it worked for pineapple, why not peaches, too? Sure. Grill roasted red pepper for some color and more sweetness. Some chopped red onion. Some lime juice to mix it up. Some was set aside for me. That batch had some chopped Habanero.

Grilled Pineapple and Peach Salsa

I went ahead and grilled some chicken breast strips (some people in the house don’t like lobster, which leaves more for the rest) after marinating in a little lime, soy sauce, and garlic.

While the chicken was being cooked, I got the rest of the show together. I love avocado. Chipotle sour cream, ditto. Love it. I used to buy the little cans of chipotle peppers and use the sauce the peppers came in and a little sour cream. Now I am happy with just chipotle hot sauce mixed with sour cream.  I wanted some corn and black beans, too. Seared the corn and some red onions in some olive oil. When I got some color, added in a drained can of black beans. Not really a relish. More like a topping.

Corn-black bean topping and avocado

Jack cheese and chipotle sour cream

Finally it was time for the main attraction! I split the lobster tails to speed up cooking. It also would let me put a little char on the meat. Before they went on the fire I tossed the pieces in some melted butter and olive oil, some Jamaican Lime Pepper Seasoning (salt pepper, paprika, lemon & lime peel, garlic, & onion), then dusted the whole shebang with some ground Ancho chile powder.

Grilled lobster tails and chicken. Yum!

I quickly grilled some white corn tortillas, and we were good to assemble. La Tortilla Factory (latortillafactory.com) makes amazing hand made style corn tortillas. Not the same as handmade, but tasty and way more convenient.

Grilled lobster taco with the trimmings

So good I had another.

We had some mixed herb greens that went well in the tacos. Gave it a little bitterness. I don’t think we really needed the cheese, but I heard it was good with the chicken taco. My kicked up salsa was spicy, but not so much that it masked the flavors. It was delicious. For me it was two and through, but my daughter cleaned up the rest in her third taco. Next time we are going to need a bigger boat.

Daughter approved.

And the quiz element of the blog: What floats in water? Hint: its not lead or churches. Too funny when your favorite movie starts showing up on your kid’s clothes.

Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?

So lastly, you wanted to know about the Perfect Storm? Suppose I should have had something tequila based, but my friend Eric had sent me a post about a take on a Dark and Stormy, which is rum and ginger beer. This version had 2 oz. Sailor Jerry spiced rum (Avast!), Jamaican extra ginger ginger beer, lime juice, and some orange bitters, all over ice. Really tasty. “Go with the flow”.

Till next time, cheers! Jerry