Baked seafood imperial--crab, shrimp, scallops, and calamari in a cream sauce, topped with bread crumbs and baked--on a water cracker

Baked seafood majestic, a riff on crab regal, is a mix of crab, shrimp, scallops, and calamari tossed with cream, Quondam Bay Seasoning, tarragon, and herbs. The imperial is and so mounded into clams shells, breaded, and baked.

Baked seafood imperial--crab, shrimp, scallops, and calamari in a cream sauce, topped with bread crumbs and baked--on a water cracker

Baked crab imperial is one of those classics of Americana, the kind of thing you lot might have seen at a 1960s cocktail party: a dish of crabmeat tossed with cream, stuffed into a clean shellfish shell, and so breaded and gratinéed. In those days, you lot didn't come up anywhere virtually the mid-Atlantic in America and non know what an regal was. The same was true in my family: In the 20-plus times I dined out with my grandmother, Grandmom Bradley, I never saw her society anything other than broiled crab imperial. My baked seafood royal version features a mix of shellfish—crab, shrimp, scallops, and calamari. We serve it at The Mermaid Inn, where I adult it with the restaurant's chef, Mike Cost, who, existence from Maryland, took to this like a fish to water. Y'all tin can make the seafood royal any size you like, using scrubbed tiny littleneck clam shells or larger scallop or crab shells or fifty-fifty ramekins, and serve it appropriately, as an hors d'oeuvre or titbit.–Jimmy Bradley and Andrew Friedman

What kind of scallops are best?

There are three categories of sea scallops. "Diver-harvested" or "diver" sea scallops, like the name implies, are foraged by divers who manus-harvest them, guaranteeing freshness, a consistent size and weight, and a minimum of mud in the shell. Easier to notice are dry-packed scallops, which aren't as fresh, but are nevertheless very proficient (they're shucked as soon as they're harvested, then shipped on ice). The ones to steer articulate of are scallops packed in a milky white solution, a chemic preservative that mars their flavor and makes them irreversibly watery. If that's all you can find, make something else for dinner. (Nosotros likewise have to put in a give-and-take for delicate little bay scallops. The best come up from New England, peculiarly effectually Nantucket. Bay scallops are sweeter and more tender than sea scallops. They are best in the fall and are frequently sold in their own milk, which is perfectly acceptable; just pat them dry before searing them.)

Baked Seafood Royal

Baked seafood imperial--crab, shrimp, scallops, and calamari in a cream sauce, topped with bread crumbs and baked--on a water cracker

Baked seafood regal, a riff on crab regal, is a mix of crab, shrimp, scallops, and calamari tossed with foam, Old Bay Seasoning, tarragon, and herbs. The royal is and so mounded into clams shells, breaded, and baked.

Jimmy Bradley and Andrew Friedman

Prep 30 mins

Cook 30 mins

Total 1 hour

  • 3 tablespoons (1 ane/ii oz) butter
  • three teaspoons minced garlic
  • one 1/4 cups dry staff of life crumbs (preferably Japanese panko)
  • ii tablespoons finely sliced chives
  • ii tablespoons sliced parsley
  • 1/2 small onion finely diced (about 1/4 cup)
  • 1/iv cup finely diced fennel
  • 1/iv cup finely diced celery
  • three ounces large shrimp peeled, deveined, and cut into seize with teeth-size pieces
  • 3 ounces sea scallops cut into bite-size pieces (see Annotation)
  • 3 ounces squid cleaned and cutting into seize with teeth-size pieces
  • 3 ounces colossal lump crabmeat
  • 1 teaspoon chopped tarragon
  • 1/four teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ii teaspoons table salt
  • Freshly footing blackness pepper
  • ane lemon cut into wedges
  • i cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup grated white Cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 loving cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  • Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a heavy-bottomed, ovenproof saute pan set over medium-high heat. Add i teaspoon of the garlic and melt for 1 minute. Add the bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon of the chives, and 1 tablespoon of the parsley. Stir and transfer the pan to the oven. Toast until the bread crumbs are well-baked, iii to 5 minutes, stirring in one case to ensure even cooking.

  • Remove the pan from the oven and let cool. Do non turn off the oven.

  • Melt ane tablespoon of the butter in a wide, deep, heavy-bottomed saute pan. Add the onion, fennel, celery, and remaining 2 teaspoons garlic, and cook until softened but non browned, approximately 4 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

  • In the aforementioned pan, cook the remaining tablespoon of butter. Add together the shrimp, scallops, and squid, and saute for 30 seconds. Add to the bowl with the vegetables. Add the crab, tarragon, Former Bay, mustard, and remaining 1 tablespoon chives and parsley. Flavor with two teaspoons of salt and black pepper to taste. Squeeze the juice from half of the lemon wedges over the mixture, catching the seeds in your hand.

  • Put the cream in a saucepan and cook at a simmer until reduced by one-half, approximately 8 minutes. Stir in the cheddar and Parmesan until melted. Remove the pan from the rut and stir the cream mixture into the shellfish mixture.

  • Pack the seafood imperial mixture into mollusk or scallop shells, or private ramekins; summit with the seasoned bread crumbs; and bake until warm throughout, most 8 minutes. Serve the seafood imperial immediately, with the remaining lemon wedges alongside for squeezing.

Serving: 1 portion Calories: 559 kcal (28%) Carbohydrates: 33 chiliad (11%) Protein: 23 k (46%) Fatty: 38 one thousand (58%) Saturated Fat: 23 g (144%) Polyunsaturated Fat: 2 chiliad Monounsaturated Fat: ten 1000 Trans Fatty: one g Cholesterol: 207 mg (69%) Sodium: 1993 mg (87%) Potassium: 421 mg (12%) Cobweb: three g (thirteen%) Sugar: 3 g (3%) Vitamin A: 1623 IU (32%) Vitamin C: 23 mg (28%) Calcium: 288 mg (29%) Iron: iii mg (17%)

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Originally published April 14, 2015

Recipe © 2006 Jimmy Bradley and Andrew Friedman. Photograph © 2006 David Sawyer. All rights reserved. All materials used with permission.

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