CRAB, PRAWN & SCALLOP ROULADES

My good friend Don Kaiser called last nite to describe a dish that a friend (or brother?) of his had seen on TV – a filled piece of fish, stuffed with crab, prawns and scallops, and had a sauce that might have been a hollandaise sauce. I think that’s all Don knew about the dish and wanted to know how he should put it together.

So, this morning I got to play. Don is not crazy about hollandaise sauce, so that was out. From thinking about it in the middle of the damn night, I knew pretty much what I wanted the ‘stuffing’ to be. That just left the sauce to really play with.

This will be a very easy dish to make for company, because all the stages can be done ahead of time and chilled and/or even frozen.

Crab, Prawns and Scallop Roulades

The filling:
1/2 cup leeks, the white and the light green part, cleaned and minced (2 oz.)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T. butter (clarified, if you have it)
1/4 cup bell pepper, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine or Noilly Prat
Salt and pepper
3 oz. crab meat
3 oz. prawns, coarsely chopped
3 oz. bay scallops, cut in half
1 1/2 T. capers, chopped
The white sauce:
2 1/2 T. butter
3 1/2 T. flour
2 cups milk
Salt and white pepper
Couple grinding of nutmeg
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1/2 cup gruyere cheese
8 oz. onion, finely diced
2 T. butter, again clarified if possible
4 filets of fish (cod, sole, halibut or a firm fleshed fish of your choice)
1/4 cup dry white wine or Noilly Prat
4 thin lemon slices

The filling:
Sauté leeks and garlic in butter until soft, but not browned, 3-4 minutes.
Add the bell pepper and wine; raise the heat and simmer until liquid is almost gone, about 3 min. Season lightly with salt & pepper.

Add the seafood and cook until the shrimp is just turning pink and the scallops are cooked. (If using cooked crab, do not add yet.)
Add the crab, if using cooked and the capers; just heat through. Remove from heat.

At this point, you can put in bowl and chill until ready to use. Can be done one day ahead.

The White Sauce:
Melt butter in a 2 1/2 qt. saucepan; blend in the flour and stir with a wooden spoon to make a smooth paste. Stir over moderate heat for 2 minutes without coloring. Remove from heat.

After the bubbling subsides add 1 3/4 cups of the milk and whisk briskly to make a smooth sauce and blend thoroughly. Put back over moderate heat and add the rest of the milk a few drops at a time. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Whisk in the salt, pepper and nutmeg – tasting as you add the spices. At this point you can chill the sauce for later use. You can even freeze it.

When ready to use, thaw or remove from the refrigerator and heat in a double boiler or over a bain-marie. You may have to thin a little with milk.

After the sauce has heated, remove the from the heat and let cool several minutes, then add the gruyere cheese, a little at a time, stirring well between additions.

Simmer the finely diced onion in the 2 T. of butter without browning for 15 minutes. Add to the sauce and combine well. Force through a sieve.

To complete the dish, lay out the 4 filets and sprinkle each with a little salt, then spoon 1/4 of the filling on each filet, roll up being careful to push the filling in as you go. Secure with toothpicks.

Spray a baking dish with pam and pour the 1/4 cup white wine in the bottom of the dish. Lay the fish bundles seam side down, or stand up in the baking dish. Lay one thin slice of lemon over each roulade. Bake uncovered in at 350°F. oven for 30-35 minutes until the fish flakes when prodded with a paring knife.

To plate: spoon a little of the sauce on a plate and lay slices of the roulade on the sauce, adding a little more sauce to the top.

It was very, very good!! Now, I hope Don likes it also!!

P.S. Could not stand to throw the 'goop' from the sieve away - it had a great flavor, so cooked up some Campenelle, tossed with the goop and added a tad more of leftover sauce. Now, that's going to be good!!

I had intended to make a Mornay sauce, but I kept coming back to a Soubise sauce, so it's kind of a bastardized-Mornay/Soubise sauce. Whatever we call it, it is delicious.