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ann_oliver
COPYRIGHT © TEXT AND IMAGES ANN OLIVER 2024 UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
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Sam
Leong's Rocklobster
with
Watermelon
When working for Southern Rocklobster in 2007, one of my bosses came back from a promotion in Singapore raving about a canapé he had eaten made by Chef Sam Leong. I am never afraid of asking a chef for a recipe, they can always say no. Why spend weeks reinventing the wheel if that chef is generous enough to share. I especially appreciated Sam Leong’s generosity. We asked for the recipe, and it arrived promptly. Perfectly written in excellent detail.
Sam originally served this as a small canapé, a 2.5 cm square watermelon block, garnished with avocado, crispy finely julienned leek and a dab of Tobiko Wasabi Flying Fish Roe…and we still sometimes serve this canapé in exactly the same manner.
This clever dish uses a very small amount of lobster, but whenever we serve this we find guests following the wait staff, and we always mention Sam’s name as the inspiration for our Rocklobster and Watermelon Canapés.
However, like all good recipes we have taken Sam’s recipe in a few different directions and people just go nuts for this larger, slightly less garnished version. You can sometimes buy ‘spiders’ just the cooked legs as the tails go for export. This is very economical…we only buy ‘spiders’ from The Fish Factory.
A lot of people complain about the price of crayfish, but in fact, there’s not a lot of difference in price between the magnificent U8 whole South Australian Gulf Green Prawns [Atlanta Oyster and Seafood] from crayfish The Fish Factory. The beauty of Sam’s recipe is that he makes a little seafood go a very long way.
Sam Leong is the currently the executive chef of Forest 森, Resorts World Sentosa
4 December 2024 AO
copyright © sam leong and Ann Oliver 2024
sam leong's
rocklobster
with watermelon
Sam Leong’s Rocklobster with Watermelon absolutely delicious and we now serve this fabulous dish in a number of ways. Sam Leong has two cookbooks A WOK THROUGH TIME [reprinted 2009] and SENSATIONS [2008]
pictured LEFt our veRSion of chef sam leong’s recipe for watermelon stuffed with seafood mayonnaise
sam leong's
lobster
mayonnaise
makes 20…10 cm x 5 cm blocks
15g leaf gelatine, softened in cold water
120g evaporated milk, hot
450g whole egg mayonnaise
60g fresh strained lemon juice
30g wasabi powder
30g prepared wasabi
375g cooked lobster leg and knuckle meat, roughly chopped
other ingredients
20 seedless watermelon blocks 10 cm x 5 cm…see image
10g Nigella seeds, dry roasted in a pan and cooled
small mint sprigs or mint chiffonade
you will also need
an apple corer
1 x 1 cm round piping nozzle
piping bag
required for plating
2-3L crushed ice depending on the size of your bowl
500g coarse cooking salt
select a metal tray and find a decorative metal bowl that the tray will sit on
putting it together
Put the mayonnaise, lemon juice, wasabi powder and prepared wasabi into a food processor and mix together.
Soften the gelatine in cold water with a few ice blocks. Without reducing it, heat the evaporated milk. Squeeze out the gelatine and mix into the hot evaporated milk, then with the motor running add the gelatine mixture.
When fully incorporated scrape down the sides, add the lobster and incorporate on pulse. Don’t mush the lobster, just chunks about 5 mm so it still has plenty of texture.
Put the nozzle in the piping bag and scrape the mixture into the bag..tie off with a bag clip and refrigerate.
Using the apple corer take out the middle of the watermelon blocks. Fill the hole with the crayfish mix and refrigerate in single layers separated with Freezer-go-Between.
pictured left another incarnation of Sam Leong’s
excellent lobster filling…this time in a verrine, set in between layers of jellied tomato essence and celery juice…
ann oliver, ‘the rocks’ glenelg south australia circa 2003
to serve
These are best kept cold….so, unless they are coming straight from the fridge and being served out straight away, on a hot day select a metal tray and find a decorative metal bowl that the tray will sit on. Half-fill the bowl with crushed ice, pour the salt over and put the tray on top.
If you are using mint sprigs, insert a small sprig into one end of each log. Stack the watermelon logs on the tray and scatter the Nigella seeds, and [mint chiffonade if you are not using sprigs] on them. The benefit of sprigs is that they will not discolour.
variations on the theme
we also make this with cooked picked Blue Swimmer crab meat and use our Spicy Avocado Mayonnaise, without any other embellishments to flavour and combine the crab meat.
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