Spiced lobster with roast tomato and pepper soup

Preparation time
less than 30 mins

Cooking time
30 mins to 1 hour

Serves
Serves 2

By Matt Tebbutt
From Saturday Kitchen

Ingredients

For the soup

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
2 hot red chillies, finely chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
3 red peppers, diced
1kg/2lb 4oz ripe plum tomatoes, halved
300ml/10fl oz vegetable stock

For the spiced lobster

½ tbsp olive oil
1 banana shallot, finely diced
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp crushed pink peppercorns
½ tsp salt
100g/3½oz butter
½ cooked lobster tail and 1 cooked lobster claw, meat removed from shell

To serve

250g/9oz heritage cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp red amaranth
1 tbsp micro coriander

Method

To make the soup, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion, coriander seeds, fresh coriander, chilli and garlic until soft. Add the peppers and tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a roasting tin and add just a small amount of stock so that the vegetables aren’t covered. Roast in the oven until the tomatoes and pepper are starting to blacken. Transfer to a blender or food processor and blend. Add some more stock to loosen if the soup is too thick.
To make the lobster, heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the shallots until soft. Add the cumin, peppercorns and salt and cook for a few minutes. Tip into a blender and blend with the butter until smooth. Heat the spiced butter in a frying pan and fry the lobster meat, basting the lobster meat in the butter.
Serve the soup with the lobster, cherry tomatoes, amaranth and micro coriander alongside.