Lobster Rolls & Korean Cucumber Salad

I’ve been hankering for a long weekend in Boston this summer but we just can’t seem to work out the dates. So instead, I decided to make one of our favorite Boston treats, lobster rolls, for dinner at home (and luckily the weather gods cooperated and we got a beautiful night on the deck in which to enjoy it). As usual, got this recipe from Cooking Light, well actually, their recipe site (for all their publications), My Recipes. It’s really an easy to put together recipe (well, other than de-meating the lobster), when you’re local grocer/fish monger steams the lobsters for you ahead of time. We had 3 1.3 lb lobsters and were probably shy of the quantity of meat required.

Lobster Rolls
4 cups cooked lobster meat, cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 tablespoon chopped celery
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash hot sauce
4 hot dog buns (we prefer ours toasted, either in the toaster oven, or on the grill, if already lit)
Combine first 7 ingredients. Spoon 3/4 cup salad into each bun.

This comes in at 8 Weight Watchers PPV.

Lobster Roll w/ Korean Cucumber Salad – apologies for iPhone picture quality

Korean Cucumber Salad

To go along with the lobster, I used one of our plethora of cucumbers to make this dish. Again, easy peasy to come together, can be made ahead, and really great for a hot summer evening. The recipe calls for an English Cucumber but I used our regular garden variety, slit in half, with the seeds scooped out. It’s got a bit of a kick, so be careful.

Korean Cucumber Salad
3 1/2 cups (1/16-inch-thick) slices English cucumber (about 1 large – see note above about cucumber)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons minced green onions
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil

Combine cucumber and salt, tossing well. Let stand at room temperature 20 minutes.

Drain and squeeze dry.

Combine cucumber, onions, rice vinegar, sugar, crushed red pepper, and sesame oil. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Honestly, I didn’t bother counting even 1 Weight Watcher PPV for this, but you probably could/should count it as 1 because of the sugar/oil.