As some of you may know, this past weekend we were evicted out of our home by the exterminator, who’s job was to get rid of all the nasty creepy crawly critters in our rental house – mainly termites.

Tom and I had no choice but to pack humans and four legged friends and take off, and since we did not get to enjoy the long memorial weekend, what better place than to wait out our eviction but in a beach cottage?

The previous weekend we took a long drive down south of Tampa and came upon these adorable beach cottages in Longboat Key. If you are ever in the need of a relaxing beach vacation, with your very own private beach, very lay back neighbors and the most perfect white sand and blue-green ocean water, this is the place. Kim, the owner, is super friendly, gracious and the cottages are keep immaculately clean and has everything that you would ever need for a mini-vacay – heck even a week long vacation would work too. Frankly by the time Sunday rolled around, we seriously did not want to leave – even the four-legged family members wanted to stay some more.

Tom and I we took this as our “us” vacation, or as we happen to end up calling it our “practicing pre-vacation” Since our upcoming week long beach yearly vacation to Mexico is happening in 12 days (or less, depending when you reading this).

Perfect beach day

But how does this relate to the appetizing lobster tails in the photo above?

Simply put, that was our Saturday lunch. We were at the beach, in a typical Floridian beach cottage, with a grill screaming at us to be used, simply put; it would have been a crime not to grill some seafood and we happen to choose lobster – because well, we wanted to live it up.

I have a rule when it comes to seafood, simplicity rocks. I’m a firm believer that seafood is best served with lots of lime (not lemon) wedges, salt, butter and if fancy is your name, a couple of FRESH herbs into the mix. Nothing more. Because the name of the game here is to let the seafood be the star.

GRILLED LOBSTER WITH CILANTRO BUTTER

4 lobster tails
1 stick of butter
1 small garlic mince
2 limes cut in half
Salt & pepper to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons of chopped FRESH cilantro (you can also use parsley, tarragon and even thyme)

Prepare your grill
Butterfly the lobster tails before grilling. You can have your fishmonger do this, or use kitchen shears to make a lengthwise cut through the hard top shell. The using a chef’s knife cut the tail meat in half lengthwise, slicing through the meat but not through the bottom shell. Then open the lobster up butterfly style.
Sprinkle the meat with salt a pepper and squeeze the lime juice of half of lime over them. Let marinate in the refrigerator covered for 30 minutes.
Make the basting butter – melt the butter in a saucepan with the garlic and cilantro over medium heat. Cook until the garlic looses its rawness, but do not let it brown, about 2 minutes, squeeze another half of the lime and mix. Keep warm.
When ready to cook, brush and oil the grill gate. Divide the cilantro butter, by placing about half in a serving dish - you will use one half to dip the cooked lobster and the other half to baste it while grilling.
Brush the cut side of the lobster tails with some cilantro butter, place cut-side down on the hot grate, and grill for 3 minutes to sear the meat. Invert the tails and cook cut-side up until the flesh is white and firm but not dry, about 5 to 9 minutes. Brush the lobster tails twice more with the cilantro butter and the grill and again before serving.
Place grilled lobster tails on platter and serve with lime wedges and the other half of your cilantro butter for dipping.

Now dig in.

Note: this cilantro butter can be used for any type of seafood: shrimp, scallops, fish steaks and even chicken breast.

And if you have time you can also serve it with this Mango Salad

Perfect sunset walk