Soulful Saturday: Crab & Lobster Ravioli in Vodka Sauce

Good Morning All.  As promised I am back with my second installment of the delicious meal that I cooked for my mother's birthday dinner party.  And if you recall we are doing this all in REVERSE ORDER. 

With that said next up is the entree: Crab & Lobster stuffed Ravioli in a Vodka Sauce.  This was a big deal guys.  Everything on this menu was COMPLETELY NEW MATERIAL so I made mistakes along the way (nothing too crazy) but mistakes nevertheless.  One example was after boiling the first batch of ravioli I realized perhaps they were too big, and I was being lazy ...i.e. I was going to just leave them big, but they weren't that pretty, so my cousin convinced me to cut them down and the picture above is the result of her prudent advice (shoot out Angie).  And that's what cooking is about.  I'm not a chef, but we all must learn to rely on best judgement, use our taste buds and get to work!

Now I made everything fresh EXCEPT for the ravioli.  I have read tons of material on it and I assure, I had no time to make them from scratch (but that doesn't mean that you won't see a post with me doing it lol).  What I did use however is dumpling wrappers found at a local Chinese grocery store.  The perks of living in a new area I am sure. One more shout out to my sister Ashley on her jumping in to make these Ravioli! With that said lets jump right in!

Crab & Lobster Ravioli in Vodka Sauce:

2 packages of dumpling wrappers (25 in each pack)
2 containers lobster meat
1/4 cup cognac
1 container jumbo lump crab meat
1 container of ricotta cheese (the smaller one)
1 small package of chives
1 28 - 30oz can crushed tomatoes
heavy cream
1 1/2 cups vodka (I used the cheapest one they had)
4 cloves of garlic minced
4 shallots
olive oil
1 stick of butter
onion powder
garlic powder
italian seasoning
fresh basil
crushed red pepper
black pepper
salt
1 egg for egg wash

Sauce:

Saute shallots and minced garlic with a little butter and oil.  Once fragrant, put in the vodka and the crushed tomatoes and basil.  Let this cook until it starts to come to a slight boil.  Then start to add your seasonings in.  Use your pallet it's the best indication of how much of this or that needs to be added.  I would start off adding a bit at a time and letting the seasonings have a chance to set in the sauce.  I cooked mine for an extended amount of time a low heat, let's say for about an hour.  Note, it was rather bitter before topping of with heavy cream, but the cream toned down that bitterness from the tomatoes and it came out perfect. 

Ravioli:

Saute shallots and minced garlic until fragrant in oil and butter. Add in the crab meat and the lobster meat. Season with the above seasoning to taste.  Add in cognac.  Once cooked, turn off heat and allow the mixture to cool.  Then add in chopped chives and ricotta cheese.  You can use as much as you want here.  I used almost the entire container.  Take your dumpling wrapper and add a gum ball size amount of filling , take your egg wash and line the dumpling, place another wrapper on top and then seal around the mixture first before crimping the dumpling close.  Boil a pot of salted water, and once the water comes a boil drop about 5 or 6 dumplings at  a time in the boiling water and when they float to the top take them out and add to the sauce.  Serve with fresh parley and grated Parmesan cheese.

*Note, my ravioli where initially too big so I just cut them down to size.