What is Lobster Sauce?
Lobster sauce is a stock based white sauce, used in Chinese-American cooking, Canadian-Chinese, and Polynesian influenced Chinese cuisine. The sauce has the consistency of thin gravy. The favor is mild, contains no lobster and tastes like an umami mixture of onions an spices, such as pepper, fennel and anise.
Ingredients
The onion is a bulb vegetable, meaning its bulb and not its leaves are eaten. Onions come in many varieties, including white, yellow and red. Shallots are small and mild onions. Vidalias are sweet, while red onions are strong and sharp. The onion is usually round and has a thin dry skin around its juicy layers. This skin depends in the color of the onion, as does the flesh. The flesh, or body of the onion is made of multiple round layers, that get smaller towards the center. The flavor of onions are sharp and sweet when raw, with an astringent taste. When cooked, these flavors mellow and the sweetness emerges. Onion are a very common flavoring and ingredient for many savory dishes.
Carrots are a root vegetable with feathery green tops and long tapered orange colored roots. Some carrot varieties are purple or yellow, but orange is the most common. The carrot can be up to a foot in length. It has a dense, woody texture that is nonetheless very chewable and non-fibrous. Its flavor is sweet and a bit earthy. Carrots are eaten raw, cooked and used in cuisines across the world.
Brandy is commonly made from grapes or apples, though it can be made from many sources, fruit is the most common. Brandy is a liquor that has been fermented and distilled and has an amber color. Brandy has a strong alcohol flavor with notes that vary depending on the fruit that is used and how long it is aged. Flavors examples range from fruity to oak-like. Brandy is generally served on the rocks or as a cocktail. It is also used in desserts for additional flavoring.
Lobsters are a seafood and crustacean, meaning they are of a particular class of shelled invertebrate and edible. They can grow large, but most eating lobsters have a body of three inches or more, not including tail and claws. The cooked lobster has a red shell with white tender meat in its body, legs and claws. The meat is similar to shrimp in consistency, with a softness and crunch. The flavor is mild and sweet with a buttery edge.
Celery is a light green vegetable with tall, thin fibrous stalks and green leaves at their tips. They are extremely juicy and comprised of 90% water. They grow in clusters, sharing a base with about eight or nine ribbed stalks. The texture is crunchy, juicy and has a refreshing flavor that is light, sweet and vegetal. Celery can be eaten raw or cooked into soups and other dishes.
Fennel is a in the carrot family and has a large white bulb made of many layers, at the base of the plant. This part is used most in cooking. The texture is juicy, crunchy and fibrous and could almost be described as dense celery in terms of texture. Growing from the bottom of the bulb are green stalks with leafy fringed tops. All of the plant is edible. The flavor is similar to anise and has a hint of celery. When cooked fennel is soft. It pairs well in salads and with seafood.
Butter is made from churned cream, usually from a cow. It has a cream color and a texture that is smooth and melts easily. The flavor is mild and creamy. Butter is often sold in square sticks, or as a flat or round block. It is delicious on bread. It pairs better in baked goods than salted butter, due to its more neutral taste. It also makes an excellent cooking fat.
White pepper is derived from black pepper. Black pepper has a black outer skin and this skin is removed before or after the peppercorn has dried. White peppercorns are small, round and the size of a large pinhead. The flavor is spicy, sharper and fruity, but less complex than black pepper. It is used ground or whole to flavor various dishes.
Anise comes from a flowering plant with lacy leaves. The seeds are harvested and used in a variety of cuisines around the world, in both sweet and savory dishes. Star anise seed looks like a brown, flowery seven pointed star. It is used whole, or ground into a powdered spice. The flavor is sweet and similar to licorice and fennel.
