- 1 year ago
Chef John fuses two iconic dishes into one unforgettable creation with his Lobster Roll Khachapuri. In this video, he shows you how to combine the buttery richness of a New England lobster roll with the cheesy, bread-boat brilliance of Georgian khachapuri.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Lobster Roll Kachapuri.
00:08That's right, we're mashing up a New England style lobster roll with the famous Georgian
00:13cheese stuffed flatbread, and I could not have been more thrilled with the results.
00:17The texture was great, the taste was amazing, and it looks like a boat, which seems very
00:24fitting.
00:25And to get started, we will mix up our dough, and as usual, that will start by sprinkling
00:30some yeast over some warm water, and by the way, we're not doing a classic kachapuri bread
00:35dough for this, but rather a nice buttery one that we would use for a traditional lobster
00:39roll, which is why to our yeast and water, we will add a little bit of sugar, one whole
00:45egg, plus a generous amount of melted butter, and then we'll take a whisk and bust that
00:50egg right in the yolk, and then give this a quick mix before we add our dry ingredients,
00:56which are nothing more than some all-purpose flour, along with, of course, the perfect amount
01:01of salt.
01:02And once all that's added, we'll grab our dough hook and head to the stand mixer, where
01:07we're going to knead this for about 4 to 5 minutes until we've formed a very soft, kind
01:12of sticky, and fairly elastic dough.
01:15And by the way, feel free to stop a few times and take a spatula and scrape the sides down
01:19just to make sure everything's getting mixed in and nothing's sticking to the bowl.
01:24And that's it.
01:25Once we've kneaded for about 5 minutes and our dough looks something like this, we will pull
01:29that off the mixer and we will use a spatula to scrape down the sides.
01:33And no, for this dough, we don't need to form a perfect ball, so we don't even need to remove
01:39the dough from the bowl.
01:41Like I said, we'll just scrape down and clean up the sides as shown.
01:44And once that's been accomplished, we will cover this, and we will let it rise at room
01:48temp for an hour to an hour and a half, or until our dough is doubled in size, which is
01:54probably going to look something like this.
01:56And if we take some floured fingers and poke it into the dough, it will collapse and deflate,
02:01which is exactly what we want.
02:04And no, we don't have to poke the dough, but man, does it feel good to do.
02:08But poke or not, we will transfer that onto a floured work surface, and using the least
02:13amount of flour possible, we will gather that dough up and form it into a ball.
02:18And if you have a bench scraper, that will probably make this step a little easier.
02:22And that's it.
02:23Once we've formed a ball of dough and we're done playing with it, we will transfer that
02:27into a generously oiled zip-top bag, and we will squeeze out some of the air and then
02:32seal it up, and then ideally transfer this into the fridge overnight.
02:36All right, we can work with it right away, but I think overnight in the fridge makes it
02:40taste better and have a nicer texture.
02:43So that's what I do.
02:45And then the other thing we'll need to prep is our lobster filling.
02:48And for that, I think the best choice is a couple six-ounce lobster tails, which is going
02:53to give us enough meat for four portions, and what we'll do is take some scissors and cut
02:57through the shell from the bigger end to the tail.
03:01And once we cut, we will spread the shell open to expose the meat.
03:05And then once we've done that to both, we could just cook them like this.
03:09But to make things a little easier later, once our shells are cracked open like this, I like
03:14to grab the meat at the thick end and sort of peel it back towards the tail.
03:18And that way, once cooked and cooled, it's going to be super easy to remove.
03:23Oh, and by the way, these were really clean, but just like shrimp, there is a digestive
03:27track.
03:28And if there's any of that stuff around, either on the meat or on the pan, we'll want
03:32to get rid of that.
03:34And that's it.
03:34We will pop these in a 400-degree oven for about 15 minutes or until they're just cooked
03:40through.
03:41And just like when we cook shrimp, the flesh will firm up when it's done and spring back
03:46to the touch, or if it's mushy, it's probably still not cooked.
03:50And that's it.
03:50We'll simply let that sit until it's cool enough to handle, at which point we can pull
03:54those tails out of the shells.
03:56And then we'll take a knife and cut that lengthwise into strips.
04:00And once stripped, we will turn it and slice across into approximately quarter-inch pieces.
04:06And I would say a little bit smaller is probably still fine.
04:09But I'd be careful not to go too big, since that might cause issues when we go to roll
04:13up our dough.
04:14But anyway, we'll go ahead and dice up two tails, and transfer that meat into a mixing
04:19bowl.
04:19And we will add the rest of the ingredients, which will include some freshly chopped tarragon,
04:24which as you might know is my favorite shellfish herb.
04:27We will also do some freshly grated lemon zest, plus a teaspoon of Old Bay.
04:33And if you don't have Old Bay, you can just Google how to make your own.
04:36We will also add a few shakes of cayenne, followed by, last and not least, enough mayo to bind
04:42everything together.
04:44And we'll go ahead and give this a stir until everything is evenly mixed, at which point
04:48we're going to want to wrap that and leave it in the fridge until we need it.
04:52But we definitely want this mixture nice and cold before we try to stuff our dough.
04:56Speaking of which, after chilling in the fridge overnight, we'll go ahead and pull that out
05:01of the bag, and we'll kind of pat that down to some kind of uniform shape, since our next
05:06step is to cut this evenly into four portions, which I'm actually going to do with a digital
05:10scale once I turn the camera off.
05:13So this is just me simulating doing it by eye and getting it perfect.
05:17And then what we'll do is kind of roll that into a ball and set it down on our work surface,
05:21surface, and we will cup our hand over the top, and we'll rotate our hand in a circular
05:26motion, which I think is redundant.
05:29But anyway, by doing that, we're going to form a nice smooth ball.
05:33And once that's set, we will flower that generously, and then we'll use a rolling pin to roll this
05:39out into a circle about nine or ten inches across.
05:43And please don't stress if you can't get a perfect circle.
05:46I've been doing this for many decades, and I'm still waiting for my first perfect circle.
05:51But it's fine, because once we're done rolling, we can just use our fingers to kind of fine-tune
05:56it.
05:57And for this recipe, anything remotely circular will work.
06:01And then for each of our kachapuri, we will take one quarter of our lobster filling, and
06:05we will spread some of it in a ring pattern about an inch or so in from the edge.
06:10And we'll use roughly like one-third of the portion to do this.
06:14And then we'll save about two-thirds of the portion to fill the center.
06:18Oh, and it definitely helps if you cut all the way through the lobster pieces.
06:20So you don't have to do any tearing apart like I have to do here.
06:25And then once we have that down, we will sprinkle over some Monterey Jack.
06:29Not too much, but we are going to lightly cover the surface, except again for about an inch around the edge.
06:36And while I do think the Monterey Jack is perfect for this, you could use something else if you want.
06:40I mean, you are after all the Aisha curry of your lobster roll kachapuri.
06:46But in any event, once that's scattered over, we will start rolling both edges of dough towards the center
06:51until they're about an inch and a half to two inches apart.
06:54And once we get it to that point, we'll grab the ends and kind of squeeze them together.
07:00And we'll give them a little bit of a twist.
07:02Although I'm pretty sure we're supposed to twist in opposite directions.
07:06But having said that, it really does not matter.
07:08And as long as those ends are sealed, once this is baked, you're not going to be able to tell which direction you twisted.
07:13And that's it. We'll carefully pick that up and transfer it onto a lined baking sheet.
07:19And then we will take the other two-thirds of our portion, and we will place that in the center.
07:23And we'll spread that out nice and evenly.
07:26But use a light touch, and don't be packing it down.
07:30Okay, we want to kind of leave it semi-piled.
07:32And then once that's set, we will top that with a little more cheese.
07:36And then I went ahead and did the exact same thing to another piece of dough.
07:39And by the way, the second, third, and fourth one are going to go way faster and easier than the first one.
07:45And in real life, since you're not filming, you can just do all four at once.
07:49And divide them onto two pans.
07:51And then before these go in the oven, I like to give them a little bit of an egg washing.
07:56And if you're thinking, shouldn't you have done that before you put on the cheese?
07:59Well, yes, I probably should have.
08:01Since that might have been a little bit easier.
08:03But either way, once egg washed, to give these a little more of a crustacean sensation,
08:08we can sprinkle over some cayenne or paprika.
08:11And you will never guess which one I used.
08:14Nope, it was cayenne.
08:17And that's it.
08:17Besides placing a few pieces of straight cheese back on top,
08:21what we'll do is let these sit for 10 to 15 minutes,
08:24just to proof a little more,
08:26which, by the way, they've already been doing
08:27while we've completed these last couple steps.
08:30And that's it.
08:31After letting these sit for about 10 minutes,
08:33we will transfer those into the center of a 450-degree oven
08:37for about 18 minutes,
08:40or until they're beautifully browned and look like this.
08:44Oh yeah, that is exactly what we want to see.
08:48And then while you can let them cool right on the pan,
08:50I do prefer to grab a spatula and transfer those onto a cooling rack,
08:55where I think we should let them sit for at least 10 to 15 minutes before we enjoy them.
08:58And if everything's gone according to plan,
09:01the bottom should be nicely browned as well.
09:04And that's it for an optional garnish.
09:06We'll dust the tops with a little more cayenne,
09:08and then maybe finish up with another sprinkling of chopped tarragon.
09:12And that's it.
09:13Our lobster roll kachapuri is ready to enjoy.
09:17So let me go ahead and grab one and serve up.
09:20And then I'll go ahead and cut this in half
09:21so you can see what's happening inside.
09:24And so as not to scratch our beautiful plates,
09:26I'm going to go ahead and use some scissors to cut this.
09:29And as you gaze at that cross-section,
09:31you can see exactly why we added that ring of lobster before we rolled them up.
09:36All right, that way, theoretically, except for the very tips,
09:39we're going to be able to get lobster meat in just about every bite.
09:42All right, these would still be pretty great if we put all the meat in the middle.
09:46But to have some everywhere, I think is everything.
09:49And yes, taste-wise, these are very reminiscent of the lobster roll,
09:53or at least the warm, buttery versions.
09:55Which is another reason I prefer the Monterey Jack,
09:58since it has such a beautiful, buttery flavor.
10:02And then as far as delivery systems go,
10:04you just can't beat a nice roll, cheese-stuffed kachapuri.
10:07And if you're able to leave your dough overnight in the fridge,
10:10the flavor of the bread is going to be even better,
10:12and the texture even more tender.
10:15So if you're able to start this the day before, please do.
10:18But either way,
10:19this was one of the most delicious
10:21and most successful experiments I've tried in a long time,
10:25and I really do hope you give it a try soon.
10:28So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
10:32a printable written recipe,
10:33and much more info as usual.
10:34And as always,
10:37enjoy.
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