Greetings, and happy Friday! It’s been a minute, but I’ll always come back eventually–I’ve put way too much time/work/energy into this project to give up now. Today, I present to you 1-12: Mixed Seafood Au Gratin. Au gratin is not new for Simple Delicious, and neither is the use of the pictured serving shells. I finally broke down and bought some a year or two ago for 11-10: French Scallops–I’m happy they’ll get another use here.
When was the last time you heard the phrase “tantalize the taste buds”? I feel like that went out of style around the same time as soufflé humor.
Pay attention to the TIPS here–this will save you a lot of time/effort. It’s 2022, people–you don’t have to do ANY of this kind of stuff anymore unless you really want to. It probably tastes better to do it yourself, but if I’m covering it in cheese and broiling it anyway, it’s fine to use the pre-cooked/cracked stuff.
Ingredients. In the spirit of not wanting to do ANY crustacean disassembly if I can avoid it, I went with pre-cooked/shelled mussels instead of lobster and cooked/shelled options for the rest of the required shellfish. I actually cooked this one prior to 11-10: French Scallops (even though I published that one first), so the serving shells haven’t even been taken out of their packaging yet.
Defrosting/”cooking” the frozen shrimp and scallops using a bit of water in a pan on the stove.
After bringing down the shrimps and scallops, I removed the tails. This is the only disassembly I’ll do–otherwise, I’m out. I don’t like taking off heads or legs, or cracking through shells.
Dicing shallots while getting the rest of the seafood ready. I also cut the shrimp down a bit to make the pieces a bit more uniform in size compared to the others.
Started the butter on the stove.
Sautéeing the scallops/shallots in butter, as instructed. I think they wanted you to do them separately, but this will be fine.
I took out my serving shells and lined a quarter-size sheet pan with some foil for easier clean-up afterwards.
Shallots and fish broth are reducing.
Distributed the seafood into each shell. I think it can officially be considered a “mixed seafood” dish now.
And if it couldn’t before, it can now with the addition of the crab and mussels.
Topped each with some of the broth/shallot mix.
And of course, finished it off with a healthy helping of (vegetarian) Parmesan cheese. I realize the “vegetarian” denomination doesn’t make much sense in this context, but we eat pescatarian so it somewhat makes sense for us.
Getting a nice broil in my toaster oven (hence the use of the quarter-size sheet pan–it fits perfectly in there).
After broiling. Looks mighty tasty.
Final plate. I think I got pretty close to the picture from Simply Delicious, and I even got a second (or first in this case) use of my serving shells. If you want a retro appetizer (or just want to feel fancy), this might be a good choice.
Grade: A
