[GeorgeLeigh50]

I am seeing whole cooked and chilled lobsters for sale at the store, pretty cheap right now I guess due to the economy. If I buy those, what would be the best way to prepare them? I am not a chef by any means but I have heard that overcooking seafood toughens it and makes it rubbery. These are already cooked, so... should I use them only cold? Is it OK to reheat in a microwave oven after cracking them? What would you do.
Second part to question, I want to make hash brown potatoes like the ones at McDonald's that are all stuck together in a patty, or something like the frozen ones called tater tots. How do you get the fried potatoes to clump together like that after you peel and chop them?

[joypulv]

Cooked lobster will turn tasteless if heated a second too much, so I wouldn't microwave. Cold salad with mayo and lemon juice, added to a cream soup at the last second, tossed in a sauté pan with butter and bread crumbs for about 1 minute, chopped and formed into cakes like crab cakes (yum, my favorite).
Hash browns are just grated potatoes (chopping isn't fine enough). The trick is to not stir or move them around in the frying pan or griddle. Fry on one side, turn over. You need a seasoned pan so they don't stick, or enough oil and butter (oil for high heat, butter for flavor). There's enough starch in potatoes to clump them together if you let them sit a bit after grating them, but you can also add an egg and/or a little flour or other starch. Those would be more able to be formed into little balls for tater tots but might be better fried in deep oil. You could put them in a hot oven sprayed with oil for a less fattening method. Double yum!

[aliseaodo]

Don't know if you are intent on actually making them yourself, but I just bought some frozen hashbrown potatoes that are shaped like a patty (like the ones from McDonalds) at Albertsons. I have also bought them not frozen at Safeway, near the sausage and bacon area of the store. I don't eat lobster, but I'm pretty sure I've heard of it being put in with like a quiche or an omelette,- that might go with your hashbrowns. (maybe?. )