Garlic Lobster with Black Bean Sauce

I want to be clear that this dish is kind of a fusion of Korean and Chinese.  The idea behind it is Chinese, but the ingredients are a mixture of both.  I guess the point here is that you can use anything you have on hand to make garlicky and savory dishes.

This one uses left over lobster meat and some veggies that I had on hand.  You can eat this dish over rice or even over noodles...or even straight out of the pan while standing over the stove.  I mean, it's hard to wait to get to the table sometimes.... ;)

I grabbed:

2 cups of cold lobster meat

1 small onion

2 stalks of celery

1 small red bell pepper

1 cup of oyster mushrooms

2 tablespoons fresh, crushed garlic

1 tablespoon fresh, minced ginger

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon black bean sauce (I used the Korean kind.  Chinese kind works well here too)

olive oil

black pepper

crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

In an ideal world, I would have used a wok.  But 1) I have an electric stove and 2) I can't get my wok hot enough.  So a large non-stick frying pan will have to do.  This dish cooks super fast because the idea is to flash fry all your veggies and sauces and not over cook your lobster, especially if you're using already pre-cooked lobster like I am.  If you're using raw chunks of lobster meat or shrimp, you can coat them lightly with some corn starch and salt.

Cut up all your vegetables ahead of time so you can cook everything in order and quickly.  Recently, I discovered that I LOVE cooked celery and root veggies so I sauté them every chance I get.  I also love onions and bell peppers so I use them too.  If you don't like celery, don't use it.  You can use carrots or napa cabbage.  There is almost no way to go wrong with this dish.  I know there are folks out there that don't like mushrooms, but I love almost all mushrooms and find that the spongy, meaty oyster mushroom when pan fried or sautéed almost passes for meat.  So I throw them in too!   

Once you start cooking, this dish is done in 5 minutes so make sure you prep all your ingredients first or you'll end up with burned garlic or burned something and that would stink...

Take your sesame oil, oyster sauce and mix together and set aside in small bowl.

Over high heat, add about 2 tablespoons of oil.  Do NOT use sesame oil.  It will burn.  I just use olive oil or canola oil.

When the oil is hot enough where it almoooooost could start to burn, throw in your garlic.

Throw in your crushed ginger.

I love spicy and garlicky so I add a healthy amount of crushed red pepper.  And also throw in as much black pepper as you'd like. 

Then I throw in my tablespoon of Korean black bean sauce.  This sauce is very salty so there is no need to add any additional salt.

It already smells amazing!  

Throw in your veggies so they can get yummy! Stir fry for about a minute or two.

I do the mushrooms last since they don't take as long as the onion, bell pepper and celery. The mushrooms will done in another minute or two.

Stir everything up!  

Throw in your lobster.  If you're using raw lobster or shrimp, you'll need to give it at least 2 minutes to cook.  But if using cooked lobster or shrimp, you just need to coat it in the sauce and veggies.

Speaking of sauce,  throw that in now too!

Now it's really getting serious in here! 

That's it!  You're done.  Eat!

If you like your veggies crunchier, then make sure not too over stir fry them.  If you like them a little more done, you can fry for longer.  Remember you don't want to overcook your shrimp or lobster.  They tend to get chewy and hard to eat if they are over cooked.  

If you'd like this dish to be a little saucier, you can add a splash of chicken stock or veggie stock.  And if you need to thicken it up a bit, add some corn starch dissolved into a tiny amount of cold water and add to your pan.

Spoon over rice or noodles.  Or go low carb and skip the rice or noodles.

Enjoy!