Lobster rice recipe for a special occasion

Lobster rice is a celebration dish: you make it for a special occasion and it comes out meloso, between dry and soupy. The recipe on this page is the one from the restaurant of the Club Náutico de Gandia (the Gandia yacht club), which presents it as one of its specialities, and no institutional or historical source ties it to a village or a fiesta. That is why it is told here as it is: a restaurant rice, not a traditional one. If you want the tradition of the coast, look at the arroz a banda or the seafood paella.

Where the recipe comes from

The quantities and the steps are those of the Club Náutico de Gandia, collected by Valencia Bonita and checked against the restaurant’s original page: half a kilo of rice and two lobsters for five diners, with its own fish stock. It is a complete recipe, which says how much stock goes in and in what order everything goes. As a contrast we use the brothy lobster rice from Directo al Paladar. Alicante Turismo also publishes a creamy rice with lobster, for four people and finished in the oven: 200 g of rice, 800 g of stock and 17 minutes at 180 °C. It is a different recipe and we don’t mix it with this one.

The ñora paste and the brandy

What gives this rice its character is what you do before adding the grain. The ñoras, seeds removed, are fried briefly in the oil and pounded in the mortar with two cloves of garlic: the source warns that if they fry for too long, they turn bitter. The lobster goes into that same oil for a few seconds, and then comes a simple sofrito of onion and tomato. When it is done, the saffron, the paprika and the paste from the mortar go in, and everything is splashed with brandy until the alcohol is gone.

The oil in the recipe is generous, 200 g for five servings, because the ñoras, the lobster and the sofrito are all fried in it. If you want it lighter, cut it back carefully.

The creamy texture and how much stock to add

Meloso rice sits between dry and soupy: see creamy, soupy and dry rice. The recipe makes the stock with 2 litres of water for half a kilo of rice, about 4 litres per kilo, and warns that, even if it looks like too much, the rice may absorb almost all of it, depending on its quality. Directo al Paladar, in its brothy version with 300 g of rice, adds stock at four times the volume of the rice. Keep the stock hot and have a little more to hand to adjust.

The timing, on the other hand, the source leaves to the cook’s eye: 12 minutes over a medium heat, then the lobster and the salt, and cook until the rice is soupy and creamy. For reference, Directo al Paladar leaves the lobster in for 3 minutes at the end and then rests the pot covered for 4 or 5 minutes. The 15 minutes of cooking on this page are a guide: they add those 3 from Directo al Paladar to the 12 from Gandia.

The fumet, first

The stock is what takes the longest, and that is why it is made first. The Club Náutico prepares it with monkfish head, small rockfish, leek, onion, carrot, parsley and garlic, simmered for half an hour and skimmed. You have the method on the fish fumet page, and what sets it apart from other stocks in the glossary, under fumet. You can have it strained ahead of time and start the rice with the stock already made.

Choosing and preparing the lobster

The recipe wants it cut into pieces, live or blanched for a few minutes. Frozen works too, according to Directo al Paladar, if you thaw it properly and slowly. Lobster is a crustacean, one of the 14 allergens that must be declared, and the fumet contains fish: let your guests know if you are cooking for a group. “Lobster paella” is a different dish, a dry rice, not a creamy one.

If you want it for a group

This page is for 5 servings. To work out the rice for a big group, see how much rice per person. And if there are 40 or more of you, we cook rice for groups live: see paella and show cooking.