Though lobster is one of my favorite foods, I’m not an expert at cooking this crustacean.  A transplant to New England, I grew up in the South far from the shore and spent many years in the land-locked Midwest. So last week, when Catherine, a good friend who had been in Maine for the summer, offered to bring a cache of fresh lobsters for an overnight visit, I called my pal, Karen, a life-long Cape Codder, for cooking directions. (I also decided to use a recipe from my new book as a sauce for the lobsters.)

Without missing a beat, the Cape cook rattled off the number of minutes for lobsters from 1 1/4 to 3 pounds. She was adamant that I steam, not boil, the critters. “Use a large pot with a lid, fill it with 4 inches of water, and bring it to a boil,” she explained. Most important, though, she told me to grab each lobster by the back and hold it head down over the pot for several seconds until it stopped flapping and the tail relaxed. Then you drop it in; when all have been added, cover the pot. For 1 1/2-pounders the steaming time was to be 18 minutes.

Well, that was my plan, until our houseguest arrived.
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