Cheesy Mixed Seafood Gratin #FishFridayFoodies

This cheesy mixed seafood gratin is a comforting dish your whole family will love. Serve it with grilled baguette slices as an appetizer, as a stand alone main course or to top a baked potato or pasta. 

I tend to buy seafood, at least when I don’t buy it fresh, in bags where it’s been flash frozen in individual pieces because that makes it easy to thaw and cook exactly what you need. 

The problem with this system, if it can even be called a system, is that sometimes I have one fish fillet or a handful of shrimp - or whatever - at the end of the bag. That’s when this tasty recipe comes in handy. 

Use whatever seafood you have! Crab meat, shrimp, any sort of boneless fish – smoked or not, scallops, mussels, even lobster meat, if you are so lucky. I’d probably draw the line at octopus or squid since they can be chewy when overcooked. 

Cheesy Mixed Seafood Gratin 

One more suggestion for serving this cheesy mixed seafood gratin: Add some frozen peas or even diced carrots, bake it topped with mashed potatoes instead of the breadcrumbs and call it fish pie, another warm and comforting dish. I love the versatility of this dish!

Ingredients

1/2 cup or 113g butter 

2 small stalks celery

1/2 medium onion

1/2 green bellpepper

1 red chili pepper (optional)

2 large cloves garlic

1/2 cup or 63g flour 

2 cups or 473ml milk 

8 oz or 226g cream cheese, at room temperature

2 fillets fish (about 3 1/2  – 4 1/4 oz or 100-120g each – I used one tilapia, one salmon

1 lb 1 2/3 oz or 500g shrimps, already peeled and deveined

3 1/2 oz or 100g smoked salmon

1 tablespoon sherry

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

For topping:

1/2 cup, packed, or 60g fresh breadcrumbs

3 oz or 85g Parmesan, grated

3 oz or 85g mozzarella, grated

drizzle olive oil

Optional to garnish:

Chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

Remove the hard strings and cut the celery into small cubes. Peel and dice the onion. Dice the green pepper, red pepper and mince the garlic.

Heat half of the butter over a low to medium flame, preferably in a pan that can go into the oven later. No one wants more washing up. 

Sauté the vegetables in the butter until they’ve softened, about 5-7 minutes. 

Add in the rest of the butter and let it melt. 

Add in the flour and stir until it’s well combined with the butter and veg with no flour showing. I like to add my flour with a sifter or sieve a little at a time, just sprinkling the top.

Once it’s all added, cook for a minute or two to get rid of the floury flavor. 

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. 

Turn off the heat under the pan and stir the milk in a little at a time stirring well so you don’t create any lumps. 

Once it’s completely incorporated, add in the cream cheese cut into cubes and turn the heat back on low. 

Meanwhile, cut your seafood into bite-sized pieces. I chopped the smoked salmon pretty fine because it is quite salty and it's best dispersed evenly throughout the gratin. 

When the sauce has thickened, add the seafood to the pan and cook for several minutes over a medium flame until the sauce begins to bubble a little and seafood is just cooked through. 

Add in the sherry and season to taste with sea salt (if you are using salty smoked fish you might not need any) and few good grinds of black pepper. Stir well. 

If your pan is not oven-friendly now is the time to transfer the mixture to a baking dish that is. Toss together the breadcrumbs, Parmesan and mozzarella. Sprinkle the mixture on the seafood. 

Drizzle the top with olive oil. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden and the gratin is bubbling nicely around the edges. 

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with a little chopped parsley for garnish. 

Serve on grilled bread, as topping for a baked potato or cooked pasta, or even on its own - with fresh veggies or a green salad to complete the meal. 

Enjoy!

This month my Friday Fish Foodie friends are sharing comfort food recipes made with seafood. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime and our chief organizer Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out all the wonderful dishes!

• Bourride from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cheesy Mixed Seafood Gratin from Food Lust People Love
• Crab and Rice Croquettes from Palatable Pastime
• Creamy Crab Soup from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Creamed Salmon from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• East Indian Fried Dry Bombil Masala from Sneha's Recipe
• Fish Po' Boy Sandwich from Making Miracles
• Popcorn-Battered Fried Fish, Remembering Oklahoma, and Kids in the Kitchen from Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Are you a food blogger who would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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