Cookin’ with Hoss: Crab and Shrimp au Gratin
- "Crab and Shrimp au Gratin" originally appeared in the March 2025 "Work" issue of COMO Magazine.
Hopefully, everyone had a great time on Fat Tuesday. I’m sure some may have had a little too much fun, though, if one were in quest of the coveted beads! At any rate, we are now in the season of Lent, a time of preparation for Easter. Between now and Good Friday, each Friday is a day of abstinence (from eating meat!) for Catholics. At one time, every Friday of the year was meatless, hence the legendary Friday fish fries, but over time, traditions changed.
It was from these fish fries that I first developed a wariness toward seafood; not that the fish was necessarily bad, but neither was it good. One could expect either a low grade commercially breaded “fillet,” which forty years ago may have been a real fillet or maybe a glorified fish stick, or otherwise a hand breaded cheap whitefish such as pollock. The result, no matter which avenue was taken, was usually a greasy, “fishy” tasting product that needed copious quantities of tartar sauce to make it palatable.
It took several years, and numerous good seafood experiences, to overcome this earlier trepidation regarding fish.
I now enjoy many preparations of seafood — cooked, cured, and raw. If I’m near an area that is known for seafood, that may be all I eat. But for some reason, for the seven Fridays of Lent, the desire for meat makes seafood seem unattractive. It must have something to do with the “forbidden fruit” concept that we crave that which we can’t have. When I was younger, I’d stay up til’ midnight on Fridays just so we could then legally fry up a burger! Even today, when a variety of good, quality seafood is available, none of them will hold a candle to even the lowly hot dog. I suppose that is the sacrificing aspect of the season.
So now I am in a perpetual quest to come up with methods of preparation that are enticing. There’s the old faithful, tried and true fried shrimp, and fried walleye, but too much fried anything isn’t a good idea. Tuna noodle casserole is good for one appearance, but a little canned tuna goes a long way! Here’s one that’s a bit different and has a little kick to it. It is a bit rich, but it’s good to splurge a little when you’re sacrificing.
Ingredients
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup half & half
- ½ cup dry white wine
- ½ cup clam juice or shrimp stock
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 2-3 teaspoon Hoss’s Cajun Seasoning
- 1 pound small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, raw
- 1 pound claw or lump crab meat, picked through for shells
- 1 ½ cups grated sharp Cheddar
- ½ cup Parmigiano Reggiano
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When the butter is completely melted, whisk in the flour and stir constantly for 3-4 minutes.
- Slowly whisk in the half & half, stirring briskly until you have a smooth sauce, about 2 minutes. Add the wine, lemon juice, Cajun seasoning, and whisk again.
- Add the shrimp and stir for 3-4 more minutes until the shrimp is just opaque. Remove from the heat.
- Add the crab meat and gently mix.
- Grease an 8-inch pan, casserole dish, or pie plate with cooking spray. Pour the mixture into the pan.
- Place the grated cheese on top, completely covering the seafood mixture. Bake in oven for about 10-15 minutes, until bubbly.
Jim “Hoss” Koetting is a retired restaurateur/chef who enjoys gardening, good food, good bourbon, and good friends.