Seafood Thermidor

This recipe was adapted form a number of classic Thermidor recipes into a delicious creamy dish served on top of buttered rice or noodles.  While Lobster can still be used as the primary seafood, the mixture of shrimp, scallops & chunk crab provides a nice variation in textures and flavors.

Lobster Thermidor is a French dish consisting of a creamy, cheesy mixture of cooked lobster meat, egg yolks, and brandy or sherry, stuffed into a lobster shell, and optionally served with an oven-browned cheese crust. The sauce must contain mustard (typically powdered mustard) in order to be true to the original recipe and to have the distinctive Thermidor taste.  Lobster Thermidor was created in 1894 by Marie's, a Paris restaurant near the theatre Comédie Française, to honor the opening of the play Thermidor by Victorien Sardou.   Unlike the recipe, the play named for a month of the French Republican Calendar was not a critical success, and is rarely performed.

Sauce:

1 yellow onion, small dice
1 small carrot, peeled and small dice
1 celery rib, small dice
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups warmed whole milk
1/2 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme leaves
salt
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (red pepper)
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks

Melt butter in a saucepan and sauté onion, carrot and celery until translucent.  Add flour and stir well until flour is completely incorporated. Add milk 1/3 at a time, whisking well at each addition.  Add thyme and dry seasonings, simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and carefully add salt, cayenne and black pepper to taste.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks and cream. Take sauce off of the heat and whisk in cream and yolk combination.

Seafood

1/2 pound fresh shrimp, detained & tails removed.
1/2 pound bay scallops
3/4 pound chuck crab meat
         (this can be purchased in a can)
3 tablespoons butter
pinch cayenne (red pepper)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 garlic salt
1 teaspoon dry white wine or lemon juice

While sauce is cooking, prepare seafood by cleaning and cutting into bit sized pieces. Heat butter in sauté pan and add scallops.  Quickly sauté for about 1 minute.  Add shrimp and sauté for another minute until shrimp just begin to turn pink. Add crab meat and heat. Sprinkle in cayenne, sugar and garlic salt. Deglaze pan with wine.

Finish

1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Paprika (for garnish)

Add sauce to seafood in sauté pan and carefully toss together, coating all seafood.  Add parmesan. and toss again.  Spring chopped parsley and serve over butter rice or noodles.  Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika.