The Speares

Living the life in Muskoka

Seafood au Gratin


Full recipe. You can also make the recipe for two.



In the morning, get
  • 400 g 31-40 peeled, raw shrimps (or 16-20 tigers for company)
  • 400 g 100-150 bay scallops (or sea scallops for company)
  • 4 boneless skinless salmon fillets
  • 4 cod fillets
from the freezer. You should have 2 pounds of fish and 28 ounces of shellfish. Remove everything from packaging and place in a salad spinner in the fridge for the day. If it's too late to do that then skip ahead to 6:00 o'clock but add the water by at least 5:00.

The fish will still be frozen, so add some cold water to the bowl to speed things up and then back in the fridge.

Drain all the water out of the salad spinner bowl and back in the fridge to let everything drip for a bit. If you can, get any large chunks of ice out.

If you're making homemade pasta then better start that now. While the bread maker is whacking away you can carry on. Preheat oven to 375. In a fairly big saucepan sweat:
  • 1 glug olive oil
  • 2 TBSP butter
  • 1 chopped up onion
until onion is sweated. Then add
  • 2 TBSP flour
and stir into a paste. Then incorporate
  • ¾ cup milk
When it looks like a roux stir in
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Some pepper
  • 1tsp dried herbs. Try ½ tsp dill and ½ tsp thyme.
  • Zest from a lemon.
  • A good squeeze of juice from said lemon (mind the pips).
Slice the lemon itself for garnish or use a fresh one if looks are important.

Turn down the heat to a very low setting to let it reduce a bit. Then get a medium frying pan and lightly fry your seafood in a little butter (just to sweat out the liquid). Put the still mostly raw seafood in the slowly simmering roux leaving as much liquid behind as possible. Reduce the liquid in the frying pan until mostly evaporated and add to roux. Now lightly mix. The fish should break up into larger chunks but should not disintegrate. When properly mixed, and the fish mixture is not overly soupy, scoop it into a 2.6 liter glass baking dish and cover with:
  • 4 oz shredded cheddar cheese
  • ½ cup cornflake crumbs
Then bake until everything's bubbly and golden.

375 for 45 min.

Let it sit for a bit before eating or it will be soupy. It can sit in the turned off oven or on top, depending upon how close you are.

Serve with lemon wedges and Lemon Pasta.