Lobster broth with noodles

Serves 2-4

Turn lobster shells into a clear broth and serve with noodles (Jason Lowe)

The lobster shells never go to waste in my house, they get turned into a clear broth like this, or a bisque which goes in the freezer for a rainy day. I've made this into a kind of Asian broth: you can vary the ingredients by adding Asian mushrooms and/or pea shoots and the like – it's up to you. I've used gluten-free, black, udon-style noodles here, but normal udon or ramen noodles would be fine – or even black-ink pasta.

For the broth

The shells from one lobster, chopped and rinsed under the cold tap

1ltr fish stock
1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic halved
Peelings from the root ginger (used later)

To serve

Some slices of lobster tail or claw meat
A small piece of root ginger, peeled and finely shredded (save peelings for broth)
A few sugar snaps or mange tout, shredded
23-30g black noodles or udon

Put all of the ingredients for the broth in a saucepan, bring to the boil, skim and simmer very gently for 45 minutes. Strain the broth through a fine-meshed sieve into a clean saucepan, then season to taste.

Cook the noodles according to the manufacturer's cooking instructions, then drain. Put the ginger in the broth and simmer for a minute, then add the chilli, mange tout and lobster; remove from the heat.

Arrange the hot noodles in a bowl, place the lobster pieces on top, then pour the broth and garnish over and serve.