Lobster Roll Khachapuri | Lobster Stuffed Flatbread | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with lobster roll katcha puri. That's right, we're mashing up a New England style lobster roll with a famous Georgian cheese stuffed flatbread. And I could not have been more thrilled with the results. All right, the texture was great, the taste was amazing, and it looks like a boat, which seems very fitting. And to get started, we will mix up our dough. And as usual that will start by sprinkling some yeast over some warm water. And by the way, we're not doing a classic kaca puri bread dough for this, but rather a nice buttery one that we would use for a traditional lobster roll. Which is why to our yeast and water, we will add a little bit of sugar, one whole egg, plus a generous amount of melted butter. And then we'll take a whisk and bust that egg right in the yolk. And then give this a quick mix before we add our dry ingredients, which are nothing more than some all-purpose flour along with, of course, the perfect amount of salt. And once all that's added, we'll grab our dough hook and head to the stand mixer where we're going to knead this for about four to five minutes until we formed a very soft, kind of sticky and fairly elastic dough. And by the way, feel free to stop a few times and take a spatula and scrape the sides down. Just to make sure everything's getting mixed in and nothing's sticking to the bowl. And that's it. Once we've kneaded for about 5 minutes and our dough looks something like this, we will pull that off the mixer. And we will use a spatula to scrape down the sides. And no, for this dough, we don't need to form a perfect ball. So, we don't even need to remove the dough from the bowl. Like I said, we'll just scrape down and clean up the sides as shown. And once that's been accomplished, we will cover this and we will let it rise at room temp for an hour to an hour and a half or until our dough is doubled in size, which is probably going to look something like this. And if we take some flowered fingers and poke it into the dough, it will collapse and deflate, which is exactly what we want. And no, we don't have to poke the dough, but man, does it feel good to do. But poke or not, we will transfer that onto a flowered work surface. And using the least amount of flour possible, we will gather that dough up and form it into a ball. And if you have a bench scraper, that will probably make this step a little easier. And that's it. Once we formed a ball of dough and we're done playing with it, we will transfer that into a generously oiled zip top bag. And we will squeeze out some of the air and then seal it up and then ideally transfer this into the fridge overnight. Right? We can work with it right away, but I think overnight in the fridge makes it taste better and have a nicer texture. So, that's what I do. And then the other thing we'll need to prep is our lobster filling. And for that, I think the best choice is a couple 6 lobster tails, which is going to give us enough meat for four portions. And what we'll do is take some scissors and cut through the shell from the bigger end to the tail. And once we cut, we will spread the shell open to expose the meat. And then once we've done that to both, we could just cook them like this. But to make things a little easier later, once our shells are cracked open like this, I like to grab the meat at the thick end and sort of peel it back towards the tail. And that way once cooked and cooled, it's going to be super easy to remove. Oh, and by the way, these were really clean, but just like shrimp, there is a digestive tract. And if there's any of that stuff around, either on the meat or on the pan, we'll want to get rid of that. And that's it. We will pop these in a 400°ree oven for about 15 minutes or until they're just cooked through. And just like when we cook shrimp, the flesh will firm up when it's done and spring back to the touch. Or if it's mushy, it's probably still not cooked. And that's it. We'll simply let that sit until it's cool enough to handle. At which point, we can pull those tails out of the shells. Then we'll take a knife and cut that lengthwise into strips. And once stripped, we will turn it and slice across into approximately quarter inch pieces. And I would say a little bit smaller is probably still fine, but I'd be careful not to go too big since that might cause issues when we go to roll up our dough. But anyway, we'll go ahead and dice up two tails and transfer that meat into a mixing bowl. And we will add the rest of the ingredients, which will include some freshly chopped terrian, which as you might know is my favorite shellfish herb. We will also do some freshly grated lemon zest, plus a teaspoon of Old Bay. And if you don't have Old Bay, you can just Google how to make your own. We will also add a few shakes of cayenne, followed by last and not least, enough mayo to bind everything together. And we'll go ahead and give this a stir until everything's evenly mixed. At which point, we're going to want to wrap that and leave it in the fridge until we need it. But we definitely want this mixture nice and cold before we try to stuff our dough. Speaking of which, after chilling in the fridge overnight, we'll go ahead and pull that out of the bag. And we'll kind of pat that down to some kind of uniform shape, since our next step is to cut this evenly into four portions, which I'm actually going to do with a digital scale once I turn the camera off. So, this is just me simulating doing it by eye and getting it perfect. And then what we'll do is kind of roll that into a ball and set it down on our work surface. and we will cup our hand over the top and we'll rotate our hand in a circular motion which I think is redundant but anyway by doing that we're going to form a nice smooth ball and once that's set we will flowerour that generously and then we'll use a rolling pin to roll this out into a circle about 9 or 10 inches across and please don't stress if you can't get a perfect circle right I've been doing this for many decades and I'm still waiting for my first perfect circle but It's fine because once we're done rolling, we can just use our fingers to kind of fine-tune it. And for this recipe, anything remotely circular will work. And then for each of our kaca puri, we will take one quarter of our lobster filling. And we will spread some of it in a ring pattern about an inch or so in from the edge. And we'll use roughly like one/ird of the portion to do this. And then we'll save about two/ird of the portion to fill the center. Oh, and it definitely helps if you cut all the way through the lobster pieces. So you don't have to do any tearing apart like I have to do here. And then once we have that down, we will sprinkle over some Monterey Jack. Not too much, but we are going to lightly cover the surface except again for about an inch around the edge. And while I do think the Monterey Jack is perfect for this, you could use something else if you want. I mean, you are after all the Aisha curry of your lobster roll katcha puri. But in any event, once that's scattered over, we will start rolling both edges of dough towards the center until they're about an inch and a half to two inches apart. And once we get it to that point, we'll grab the ends and kind of squeeze them together. And we'll give them a little bit of a twist. Although, I'm pretty sure we're supposed to twist in opposite directions. But having said that, it really does not matter. And as long as those ends are sealed, once this is baked, you're not going to be able to tell which direction you twisted. And that's it. will carefully pick that up and transfer it onto a line baking sheet. And then we will take the other two/irds of our portion and we will place that in the center and we'll spread that out nice and evenly but use a light touch and don't be packing it down. Okay, we want to kind of leave it semi-piled. And then once that's set, we will top that with a little more cheese. And then I went ahead and did the exact same thing to another piece of dough. And by the way, the second, third, and fourth one are going to go way faster and easier than the first one. And in real life, since you're not filming, you could just do all four at once and divide them onto two pans. And then before these go in the oven, I like to give them a little bit of an egg washing. And if you're thinking, shouldn't you have done that before you put on the cheese? Well, yes, I probably should have since that might have been a little bit easier. But either way, once egg washed, to give these a little more of a crustation sensation, we can sprinkle over some cayenne or paprika. And you will never guess which one I used. Nope, it was cayenne. And that's it. Besides placing a few pieces of straight cheese back on top, what we'll do is let these sit for 10 to 15 minutes just to proof a little more, which by the way, they've already been doing while we've completed these last couple steps. And that's it. After letting these sit for about 10 minutes, we will transfer those into the center of a 450°ree oven for about 18 minutes or until they're beautifully browned and look like this. Oh yeah, that is exactly what we want to see. And then while you can let them cool right on the pan, I do prefer to grab a spatula and transfer those onto a cooling rack where I think we should let them sit for at least 10 to 15 minutes before we enjoy them. And if everything's gone according to plan, the bottom should be nicely browned as well. And that's it for an optional garnish. We'll dust the tops with a little more cayenne and then maybe finish up with another sprinkling of chopped terri. And that's it. Our lobster roll kacha puri is ready to enjoy. So, let me go ahead and grab one and serve up. And then I'll go ahead and cut this in half so you can see what's happening inside. And so as not to scratch our beautiful plates, I'm going to go ahead and use some scissors to cut this. And as you gaze at that cross-section, you can see exactly why we added that ring of lobster before we rolled them up. Right? That way, theoretically, except for the very tips, we're going to be able to get lobster meat in just about every bite. Right? These would still be pretty great if we put all the meat in the middle. But to have some everywhere, I think is everything. And yes, tastewise, these are very reminiscent of a lobster roll. or at least the warm buttery versions, which is another reason I prefer the Monterey Jack since it has such a beautiful buttery flavor. And then as far as delivery systems go, you just can't beat a nice rolled cheese stuffed kacha puri. And if you're able to leave your dough overnight in the fridge, the flavor of the bread is going to be even better and the texture even more tender. So if you're able to start this the day before, please do. But either way, this was one of the most delicious and most successful experiments I've tried in a long time. And I really do hope you give it a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy.