HAVING spent some time in Dingle recently and with the abundance of seafood delights available, I toyed with a few recipes to celebrate what is good and great about the Kerry peninsula.
Thankfully, “Larry the lobster” lasted the trip home with an icepack on his back as he rested in the footwell of the ‘73 VW baywindow camper. He was joined by a whole host of other food delights and recipes for those will follow.
But for now and with summer in mind, an open lobster ravioli won the day and here’s the recipe in its simplest form because this is certainly a dish that you can do at home.
PS – blog.limerickpost.ie/food and the fft facebook page are making a comeback so why not pop over for a loo
Back to the recipe.
WHAT YOU NEED
1 whole lobster – cooked
A net bag of mussels – cooked
A fine dice of carrots, onion and celery
A Finely sliced clove of garlic
Salt and pepper
5 or 6 Tomatoes and some puree
Fresh pasta sheets (make your own if you can,
it’s great fun and very rewarding)
1.5 litres of a good vegetable of fish stock
Fresh herbs, parsley, chives and a little tarragon
A splash of white wine and some to drink after
WHAT TO DO
I tried to declutter this recipe as much as possible because reading reams of instructions could put people off tackling this recipe. You can take shortcuts but if you have the time I’d say put in the effort and go the extra mile.
Cook the shellfish and separate the lobster meat from the entire shell and take out the meat from the mussels. Keep the broken shells to one side as they will make the bisque type sauce.
In a heavy pot, saute the dice of vegetables with the garlic and the shells for 10 to 15 minutes, then cover with the stock and top up with water.
Add the herbs, puree and the tomatoes once it has come to a boil and reduce to a rolling simmer to allow the liquid reduce by at least half and take on a sauce like consistency. This could take anything up to two hours but its so worth it. Check the consistency and seasoning every so often.
As for the pasta, the great debate kicks in so if you have a favourite brand that will give you thin flat discs, then use it, but if you fancy making your own, please do and follow recipes that use 500g of ‘00’ flour, three eggs and two egg yolks. I’ll leave that choice to you.
So, poach two pasta discs per person and warm the shellfish meat.
To serve, place the lobster and mussel meat on a cooked pasta disc on your plate, cover with the other disc and cover with the sauce. Scatter extra shellfish meat and dress as you desire, the picture is how I did it.
Garnish accordingly and if you have some crusty bread, a fresh salad and some good white wine, you can toast your just rewards.
