Ginger lime lobster salad

As much as we love lobster, it’s one of those ingredients that tends to intimidate the cook. It’s messy, after all, and expensive. And when you start with the live animal, it’s just plain scary.

But that’s a shame, especially in the summer. If you start with a lobster, add a few seasonal ingredients and an interesting dressing, you can have a wonderful main course salad. One that feels festive and casual, and actually takes very little work.

The bright white meat graced with rosy stripes is sweet and versatile -- whether you play up the sweetness with a cradle of something creamy or set it off with some acidity and crunch. These three recipes will give you an idea of the possibilities.

Each calls for fresh lobster, which can be found in seafood stores and neighborhood groceries with lobster tanks. The novice needn’t fear: Many places that sell live lobsters will also cook them for you.

For example, Santa Monica Seafood Co. charges $2 to cook your lobster (allow about an hour for cooking and cooling-off time or phone ahead). Lobsters there start at $13.99 a pound. At Albertsons on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, where there’s no charge to steam the lobster you select from the tank, live lobsters are $9.99 a pound.

Don’t hesitate to get to know your lobster. The key to flavor is absolute freshness.

“The lobster should be extremely lively,” says Stephan Samson, executive chef at Valentino. “When they are very fresh, they flop their tails when you pick them up.”

Samson, whose first job after culinary school was at a lobster house in Maine, advises buyers to avoid the slower-moving crustaceans in the tank and to stay away from the bigger specimens, anything over a pound and a half, which he thinks tend to be tougher.

“We cook the lobster ahead of time, and then ideally I like to cool it at room temperature. Some people cook it and shock it in ice water, but I think that toughens up the meat a little bit.”

Instead of the usual 10 minutes in boiling water, Samson suggests cooking lobsters just five minutes in boiling water with such aromatics as onion, carrots and celery. (When you immerse the lobster, let the water come back to a boil, then start timing.) When you remove the lobster from the water, it continues to cook as it cools.

Samson’s salad highlights the lobster medallions and whole-claw meat on a mound of farro, a nutty grain also known as spelt. The meat and farro are simply dressed with olive oil and lemon juice and topped with tiny leaves of celery, carrot tops and chives.

“It’s great for the summer,” says Samson. “It’s elegant, yet you can prepare it ahead of time for a party at home. It’s creates a nice impression that you’ve put some work into it.”

At the Lobster in Santa Monica, where up to half the diners order some form of lobster dish, executive chef Allyson Thurber makes an all-American lobster salad with a lemony mayonnaise that she says “is like what you’d get if you lived in Maine -- only they might not bother with the green onions and tomato.” She presents it with avocado and champagne vinaigrette on a festive green salad.

“I love avocados,” she says. “They’re creamy and sweet and sort of similar to lobster in a way, really rich. Then you need to have the champagne vinaigrette. Because lobster is sweet, you need the tart to bring the flavors out. That’s why it’s traditional to serve pickles at lobster bakes.”

The salad from Jenny Adams at Laguna Culinary Arts in Laguna Beach combines sweet and tart at each step. Lime juice is squeezed on the lobster before broiling; apples brighten a pasta-salad base. And as a finishing twist, ginger spikes the beurre blanc dressing.