I thought this recipe was alot of work but worth it. I modified the recipe by just ommiting the part about cooking the lobster & using the shells and just used lump lobster meat bought from the fish market instead. It was great!
It is very good--not really difficult at all, just a little labor intensive. Use a good blender to grate the cheese, and most of the work is done. I add several more garlic cloves, peppercorns, and use lobster tails I get at Sam's for under $20. It's really not that spendy--this recipe actually makes about 8 entree-sized servings. I just use equal sized amounts of the cheeses--usually about 6 oz. portions, grated. I never use a whole lb. of macaroni--a half pound is plenty. This is good even if you omit the lobster. Try adding diced ham instead, or leaving out meat altogether. I also like it with a little heat--use some cayenne or a couple of tsp red pepper flakes--or just serve with your choice of hot sauce.
Try Ina's recipe (The Barefoot Contesa) on Food Network. Better and easier.
We enjoyed this well enough, but not nearly enough for me to make it again. The execution of the recipe is unnecessarily complicated, for one thing - it should have been nearly as basic and straightforward as “while pasta is cooking make the white sauce – melt the butter, add the flour. Stir in the milk, cook until thickened. Add the cheese off heat. Mix in all remaining ingredients. Top with buttered bread crumbs. Bake until sauce is bubbly and crumbs are lightly golden.” Simple as that. Also, I found the additions of garlic, shallot and onion distractions rather than contributions. Further, it wasn’t creamy enough – I found I had to add nearly twice as much milk as the recipe directed. Finally, I felt the Panko bread crumbs needed to be tossed with a bit of melted butter. Overly elaborate in both technique and ingredients. I did like the combination of cheeses, but this could have been as easy as simply making macaroni and cheese with a variety of cheeses and stirring in some lobster.
I made this recipe for a large dinner party so I tripled the recipe to 24. I was multitasking during the prep and discovered the next day that I left out 9 cups of cheddar cheese! It was still a very good dish even without the cheddar but I look forward to making it again using all the ingredients.
I used crab instead and it was still excellent!
Excellent recipe. We really love it it. As close as I've found to one that we enjoy at Binion's Steakhouse. I shorten the prep time by sauteing the onions along with the garlic and shallot, and skip the 20 minute boiling. I added about 1/4 cup extra milk because the sauce was so thick.
I made the following changes: I used about 1.5 Cups of leftover steamed lobster and used its butter dipping sauce to saute onion & garlic plus bits of celery sliced mushrooms & 1 tbsp of chopped red pepper. Instead of elbow macaroni I used linguine. For cheeses I used an 8 oz. bag of mixed Mexican-style cheeses & some parmesan. No need to brown the roux 10 minutes nor strain the milk. I did not let the sauce thicken too much as it continues to thicken when it bakes. I browned the panko crumbs in 1 tsp olive oil. Also I baked the casserole about 25 minutes until it was good & bubbly and starting to brown around the edges. Good recipe very adaptable.
I didn't have any of the cheese suggested so instead I used Velveeta. I know it isn't quite the same but it worked out perfectly! Still added onions shallots ground pepper and lots of chopped lobster. Absolutely delicious!
