Different cultures celebrate New Year’s Day on different dates – anywhere from January to October. BUT — why not celebrate a new every day? If you use nice dishes, light a candle, and share a meal with someone you love, every day is a holiday.
I started making this salad for New Year’s Day about 15 years ago. I pulled a recipe out of some magazine – don’t recall which one – and tweaked it to our liking. It is just one of those dishes that is special, beautiful, and simple enough to not make me feel like a slave in the kitchen.
This recipe serves 4 people with a substantial salad, but could just as easily work as a first course for additional people. (If you want/need a more substantial source of protein, add hard-boiled eggs to the salad.)
Preheat the broiler. If yours has different settings, use the lower broil setting, and place the oven rack as near the heat source as possible.
Wash the grapefruits very well, then “zest” one of them, making sure you don’t grate deeply enough to get any of the white pith.
Using a sharp knife, cut the peel off the grapefruit. Slice in between the membranes to cut out the segments, catching all the juice in a bowl.
Take the membranes and squeeze all the juice from them into a bowl to set aside for the vinaigrette.
Using kitchen shears, cut the lobster tail shell from end to tail. Loosen the meat from the shell with your fingers, but don’t remove the shell. Rinse well with cold water.
Put the losber and grapefruit segments on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle the lobster with oil and season with salt and pepper.
Broil for about 5 minutes, or until the lobster is opaque and the grapefruit browns. The shells will get really dark, but you don’t want the meat to overcook.
Remove from the oven and allow the meat to cool a few minutes before pulling it out of the shell. Cut into chunks.
Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients.
Remove the core from a small head of organic iceberg lettuce. Rinse under cold water and drain. Cut into wedges.
Arrange the lettuce wedges on salad plates, top with broiled grapefruit segments and lobster chunks. Drizzle with vinaigrette and top with chives. Because I like texture, I serve this with candied ginger almonds. Yum!!!
I also want to draw your attention to the darling sugar & creamer set that my daughter brought back from London – just in time for Mother’s Day. They are perfect for pretty condiments. She also picked up the gorgeous cloth in Sweden last year — just because she loves me. 🙂
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Broiled Lobster and Grapefruit Salad
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 2 red grapefruits, scrubbed well
- 2 lobster tails in the shell, thawed
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 small head organic iceberg lettuce
- Chives
- Ginger Candied Almonds, if desired
- 1 Tbsp grapefruit zest
- 1/4 cup grapefruit juice (approximately)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat broiler – to low setting, if you have it – moving a rack as close as possible to the heat source
- Using a fine grater, zest one of the grapefruit, making sure to not get any of the bitter white pith
- With a sharp knife, remove the peel and pith from both grapefruits
- Slice between the membranes to release segments
- Squeeze juice from the membranes into a bowl, to be used for the vinaigrette
- Using kitchen shears, cut from the end to the tail of each lobster tail
- Using your fingers, loosen the meat from the lobster shells, but don’t remove the shells
- Rinse the lobster well with cold water, and drain
- Arrange lobster tails and grapefruit segments on a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle the lobster with 1 Tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with some salt and pepper
- Broil for about 5 minutes, or until grapefruit is lightly browned and meat is opaque — note that the shell will turn very dark, but you don’t want the meat to overcook
- Allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove the lobster from shells and cut into chunks
- Remove core of iceberg lettuce, run under cold water to rinse, drain, then cut into wedges
- Whisk together the grapefruit zest, grapefruit juice, 1 Tbsp olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper
- Arrange iceberg wedges on salad plates, top with lobster and broiled grapefruit
- Drizzle with vinaigrette, top with chives and ginger candied almonds, if desired
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
