Seafood Au Gratin

I recently saw Ina Garten of the Barefoot Contessa show on Food Network make a scallop gratin which looked so amazing. In the past I have also seen her make a similar shrimp gratin so I decided to experiment with her recipes and combined the two and make my own rendition of a seafood gratin.

This was a splurge recipe as the cost of decent seafood is not cheap, despite the fact that we live only 50 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Off to my favorite seafood store, Fitts, I went and purchased 8 large prawns and 8 large scallops to make this glorious dish. One of things Ms. Garten calls for in her scallop dish was the liquor called Pernod, which has a anise flavor. I opted not to put that in and instead, added a bit more white wine in the topping. This dish would be showstopper at a company dinner and it will be forever in my recipe repertoire.Seafood Gratin

1/2 lb. large prawns (15-16 per lb)

1/2 lb. sea scallops

3 Tbsp butter

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 large shallot, minced

3 Tbsp. minced parsley

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Zest from 1/2 lemon

6 Tbsp. good white wine

3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

3/4 cup Panko Japanese bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place gratin dishes on a baking sheet and put 1 Tbsp of white wine in each dish. Set aside.In a mixing bowl, beat butter until soft. Add the garlic, shallot, parsley, lemon juice and zest, 4 Tbsp white wine, salt, and pepper and mix together. Add the Panko bread crumbs and mix until well coated. Pat the seafood dry and place in the gratin dishes. Spoon the topping all over the top of the seafood. Bake the seafood 12-15 minutes then place under broiler until topping is golden brown. Serve with a green salad and a good french bread. This recipe serves 2 as a main course.