Seafood Casserole

I made this dish specifically for my Dad as he saw a picture of the recipe I gave you on Tuesday and said he wanted that, but without the pasta. Well, when Dad wants a dish, I make it! This dish is cooked similar to Tuesday’s dish as the seafood is all cooked separately then put together at the end.  When I was looking at recipes similar to this all of the recipes put raw seafood together and cook it all together.  I really, really did not like that idea as all of the seafood are different sized and have a different cook time and if I cooked them separately, I could season each layer as I cook, because of that this dish does take extra effort and time.  I can promise you it’s well worth it. No one at my Easter table was disappointed with this dish.  In fact, there was almost none left and I served it as a side dish!

NOTE – this dish is easily made gluten-free by using crushed gluten-free crackers (I used gluten-free Cheese Itz type cracker for Robby) for the topping. I made Robby a smaller dish just for him!

This dish was made in a large round casserole dish for the rest of us.

This picture is just my dads first helping of the buttery seafood casserole.  Note the cute bunny plate!

INGREDIENTS
1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails off
4 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
12 large scallops
1 Tablespoon butter for scallops
4 lobster tails, steamed, shell removed and chopped into large pieces
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Zest of 1/2 lemon
3 Tablespoons white wine
Salt
Pepper
1 to 1 1/2 sleeves of Ritz crackers, crushed
1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted for topping

DIRECTIONS
For shrimp – place the shrimp on a baking sheet, drizzle with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, add a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix to combine. Place the shrimp in the oven with the oven set to broil keeping the oven door open slightly. Roast the shrimp just until the shrimp turn pink. Remove from oven and set aside with your already prepared lobster meat.
For the scallops- heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil to the pan along with 1 tablespoon of butter. Dry the scallops with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper. When the pan is hot add the scallops to the pan seasoned side down. Season the top side of scallops with salt and pepper. When the scallops have seared on one side, turn them over and sear the second side.
When the scallops have cooked, add the lobster and shrimp to the pan to warm through.
Meanwhile in a bowl, add the melted butter, garlic, wine, lemon juice and the zest of half a lemon, mixing well. Place all of the seafood into a greased baking dish.  Add the desired amount of crushed crackers.  We used the full sleeve and a half of the crackers. Drizzle the melted butter mixture over the crackers and place in a 400 degree oven to brown the top of the crackers. This just takes a few minutes, so watch closely!  Remove from oven and serve warm.

Enjoy!