Juli's Sea King Dinner

Juli's Sea King Dinner

1 stick                                     butter

1 cup                                      chopped onion

1 cup                                      chopped celery

8 ounce package                   fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon                            chopped garlic

1/2 cup                                  flour

1/2 teaspoon                        salt

1/2 teaspoon                        paprika

1/4 teaspoon                        cayenne pepper

1 14-ounce package             frozen cooked shrimp

2 6-ounce cans                     crabmeat, drained

1 cup                                      frozen peas

2 8-ounce cans                     sliced water chestnuts, drained

1/2 cup                                 cream sherry

2 cups                                    shredded sharp cheddar cheese

In a 5-quart pan, melt the butter and sauté the onion, celery, and mushrooms until the onion is translucent.  Add garlic.  Blend in flour, salt, paprika and cayenne pepper.  Cook until bubbly, then add shrimp, crabmeat, peas, water chestnuts and cream sherry.  Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.  Blend in the cheese, stirring until melted.  Serve over rice or Dutch rusks.

 

Notes:  For frozen shrimp, I always buy pre-cooked, deveined, tail-off shrimp. 

If you can find lump crabmeat as opposed to cans marked simply as crabmeat, you'll have a chunkier mix.  Regular canned crab is good, but tends to blend into the mixture so much you don't get any bursts of crab flavor.

Dutch rusks are available in Pella and in other high-end groceries and are basically just very, very dry toast, so you can always serve this over regular toast if you like.  I didn't have any rusks on hand, so I served it over cooked Basmati rice.

This recipe reheats all right from a refrigerated state using a microwave, but seems to lose some of the flavor when frozen before reheating, so I don't recommend freezing the leftovers.  Just plan on eating them up within a couple days. This recipe serves about 6-8 larger portions, taking into account that no side dishes are served. 



This recipe was adapted from the Sea King Dinner recipe in the Pillsbury's Bake Off Main Dish Cook Book of 1968.  There are lots of great recipes in this book, and I highly recommend it.  It's old enough that the recipes aren't larded with a lot of the expensive convenience foods that Pillsbury makes most of its money on these days,  and the casseroles in particular are really good.  Other recipes I like from this cookbook are Hungry Boys' Casserole and Chicken Almond Party Bake. 

This recipe is one that I rate at 5 stars, while Jeffrey rated it at just 3.  He didn't care for the sherry/shrimp combination, and I love it.  To each his own! No hard feelings.