This Decadent Addition Makes Ina Garten's Cobb Salad Truly Stand Out
A traditional Cobb salad is pretty luxurious as is. All that bacon, blue cheese, avocado, tomatoes, eggs, chicken, or whatever items you like to mix and match with your iceberg lettuce is a promise of deliciousness. But when you're Ina Garten you find a way to transform even the most classic of salads and turn it into a decadent feast. The "Barefoot Contessa" star upgrades her Cobb salad by skipping the eggs and the chicken and instead adds lobster to it. Garten also forgoes the iceberg in favor of peppery arugula. The result is a very sophisticated, adult riff on this favored dish.
Lobster's sweet and succulent nature is a lovely complement to creamy avocados, rich and savory blue cheese, and crispy bacon. You really get a mixture of textures and flavors with this addition, which is a hallmark of this salad. That said, fresh seafood can be intimidating to cook and work with for a first-timer. If you've never removed the meat from the shell, you have a couple of options to make this process a little easier.
Where to get your lobster meat and how to prepare it
Tips from Ina Garten to help up your cooking game are always welcome, but when it comes to most of her recipes, you will appreciate that she is a fan of store-bought ingredients. If you are looking to buy live lobsters and there is a tank in the grocery store, the guy behind the meat counter may be willing to steam it for you while you stroll through the aisles. This will take about 15 minutes and is worth the wait, so plan your shopping accordingly. Then you can take your cooked seafood home and remove the meat.
While the tail holds the most meat, remember to get all of those pieces from the claw and knuckle. These two parts of the lobster harbor the sweetest and most tender meat of this crustacean. This is going to be some of the yummiest bites when paired with all the ingredients in your Cobb salad. However, if you don't want to deal with the mess and hassle of removing lobster meat from the shell, you can always buy frozen and cook it at home.
Why you should serve it at room temperature and what dressing to use
Ina Garten serves her lobster Cobb salad at room temperature so don't be in a hurry to add the meat until it has cooled. If you are steaming a whole lobster at home, don't forget to have an ice bath ready so you can place your seafood in it, right after they have steamed. This chilly water does two things: It stops it from cooking and becoming rubbery, but it also helps to bring that temperature down so it is ready to serve. If you don't plan to serve the meat right away, place it in the fridge for up to a day.
Garten also uses a lovely mustard and lemon vinaigrette with her lobster Cobb salad. This is the perfect dressing to pair with rich crustacean meat. You could use a creamy salad dressing if your taste buds prefer, but the cookbook author's seafood addition really shines with the contrasting acidic flavors it boasts. Just a drizzle brings out the nuanced flavors of each ingredient.