Celebration Dinner Recipe:Lobster on Risotto Cakes with Bearnaise Sauce

I love making celebration dinner recipes. Whatever the occasion may be I love an excuse to spend a little time in the kitchen with an ingredient or two I might not ordinarily cook. I made this dish for New Year’s Eve dinner but it would work just as easily for Valentine’s Day, an anniversary dinner or to celebrate Tuesday. Sometimes a celebration dinner recipe is fun on a just because basis.

The base of this meal is risotto cakes so it is also a leftovers recipe! I had made the Risotto Milanese earlier in the week and it was thinking of what to do with what I had left that led to my thinking up this meal. If you don’t have leftover risotto on hand you can just as easily serve this meal on seasoned rice and I’ll explain how to do that below. The saffron flavor does add to the overall flavor profile.

Table of Contents

Any purchase links are affiliate links. If you make a purchase I receive a small commission. Other outbound links may be sponsored.

Lobster on Risotto Cakes with Bearnaise Sauce

Serves 2 with leftover sauce

2 5 – 6 oz lobster tails, thawed
For the Bearnaise Sauce:
1/4 cup champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
1/4 cup white wine
1 TBS dried tarragon
3 large egg yolks
2 sticks butter ( 8 oz) melted and clarified
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/3 cups leftover Risotto Milanese or 2 cups saffron rice
cooking spray
2 TBS panko

If you need to make the saffron rice do that first:
add the water, saffron, butter and salt to a sauce pan. Add the jasmine rice and cook over medium to medium low heat until all of the water is absorbed. Stir with a fork to fluff and set aside.
Steam the Lobster Tails:
Preheat oven to 350°
Add the lobster to a small baking dish with about 1/8 cup of water and some salt.
Cover tightly with foil.
Steam in the preheated oven for 15 – 20 minutes until done

Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you buy from my link I might make a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay. See the full affiliate disclosure here.

Make the Risotto Cakes:
Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.
Sprinkle the cups with panko
Press about 1/4 – 1/3 cup of risotto Milanese into each cup
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes to heat through
Make the Bearnaise Sauce.
Mix the vinegar, white wine and tarragon together. Add to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until reduced to about 3 TBS. Strain the liquid and set aside to cool slightly
Slowly whisk the vinegar/wine mixture into the egg yolks.
Then whisk in the clarified butter until you have a thick sauce almost the consistency of mayonnaise. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
Carefully remove the lobster meat from the tail. Save the shells to use for stock later if desired.
Cut the tail meat into bit size slices.

To serve:
Take two risotto cakes or a cup of saffron rice and then lay the cut lobster tail over top.
Drizzle the bearnaise sauce on top

How Was It?

[cboxarea id="cbox-IVEtmKHDExiTjpDi"]

I served my dinner with roasted cauliflower and broccoli. The Bearnaise sauce was rich – as it is supposed to be – and absolutely wonderful on the lobster and risotto cakes. It didn’t take much of it to enhance the meal. The saffron in the cakes was a delightful background. Now a word about the color of my Bearnaise, I know it’s a little toxic looking. It’s because of my farm eggs. The yolks that come out of those eggs are a really neon color and it was really enhanced in this sauce. If it’s made with store bought eggs it won’t be as glowy.