Lobster Medallions with Champagne Beurre Blanc
Butter-poached lobster medallions with elegant champagne beurre blanc. The ultimate luxurious holiday appetizer.
- 4 pieceslobster tails(about 6 oz each)
- 1 cupbutter(divided, cubed)
- 1 cupchampagne
- 2 piecesshallots(minced)
- 1/4 cupheavy cream
- 1 tbsplemon juice
- 1 tbspfresh tarragon(minced)
- for garnishchives
- optional garnishcaviar
Beurre blanc cannot be made ahead as it will break. Lobster can be poached and refrigerated up to 4 hours ahead; rewarm very gently in butter.
- 1Remove lobster meat from shells. Cut each tail into 3 medallions.
- 2Melt 4 tbsp butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Poach lobster gently until just opaque, about 4-5 minutes. Remove and keep warm.
- 3For beurre blanc: Simmer champagne and shallots until reduced to 3 tbsp.
- 4Add cream and bring to simmer.
- 5Remove from heat and whisk in remaining cold butter one cube at a time.
- 6Stir in lemon juice and tarragon. Season with salt and white pepper.
- 7Spoon sauce onto plates. Arrange lobster medallions on sauce.
- 8Garnish with chives and caviar if using.
Beurre blanc — meaning "white butter" in French — was invented around 1890 by Clémence Lefeuvre, a cook working on the banks of the Loire River near Nantes. According to culinary history, she accidentally created the sauce while attempting to make a béarnaise for pike, forgetting to add the egg yolks and tarragon that define that sauce. The result — a reduction of white wine, shallots, and vinegar whisked together with cold butter off the heat — became a celebrated Loire Valley classic, sometimes called beurre Nantais. Julia Child described the sauce in My Life in France after watching Lefeuvre's successor prepare it in Paris in 1951. Pairing beurre blanc with lobster became a natural choice for French haute cuisine and later international fine dining, as both the sauce and the shellfish reward careful, patient technique.