Seafood Stew Recipe from the Inaugural Lunch

Ah a bit late here, but we couldn’t miss showing you this demonstration of Chef Shannon Shaffer’s Inaugural lunch with the UK’s Guardian correspondent Daniel Nasaw. Chef Shannon prepares a sample of the uber rich seafood stew with Maine lobster, shrimp, and scallops, served in a creamy vermouth cream sauce with a golden puff pastry crust. Check it out here!

Read on for the recipe…

Chef Shannon Shaffer and his crew prepared this dish for President Obama as well as 200 guests, can you imagine the pressure?

The recipe as originally posted was intended for 10 people, but halved down to 5 servings reads as follows:

3 Maine lobsters
20 sea scallops
18 large shrimp, cleaned, tails off
5 pieces of black cod (1 oz each)
1/4 cup each of the following vegetables, diced in small sizes: carrots, celery, leeks, and Idaho potato
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups of heavy cream
1/2 cup of dry vermouth
5 (5 inch) puff pastry rounds
5 terrines or ramekins

Bring 1/2 gallon of water to a boil; poach lobsters, then shrimp, then black cod and last scallops. After
seafood is cooked, remove from water; reserve water and bring to boil.

Cook all vegetables in liquid that was used for the seafood, remove vegetables when tender. Allow
the liquid to continue to boil until only 1/2 qt (or 2 cups) of liquid remains. This will be the base for the sauce.

Bring seafood liquid back to a boil and add the vermouth and heavy cream and reduce by half,
season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg to taste. You have reached your desired thickness when
the sauce will cover the back of a wooden spoon. Set aside to cool.

Cut Maine lobster, shrimp and scallops into bite size pieces.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Fold seafood and vegetables into cool sauce, being careful not to mix too much as this will break up
the seafood. Scoop mixture into terrines or oven proof baking dish of your choice.

Cover terrines with puff pastry rounds, brush them with egg wash and bake them until golden
brown about 8-10 minutes, allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. You can cook this 2-3 hours
ahead of time and keep warm at 150 F degrees.