A creamy tomato-based stew with shrimp, crawfish and crab and served over hot, steamed rice.
Seafood Pan Roast
Several years back, I was looking through a Martha Foose cookbook, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, that contained a recipe for what was called a seafood pan roast. Since The Cajun and I don't eat out much, this was an unfamiliar dish for me.
At the time, I couldn't find much about it around the internet either and even today there still isn't much out there. I went ahead and made it, but with no photos to let me know if I was anywhere on track let's just say mine didn't turn out quite right. With the cost of seafood, I abandoned it to experiment a bit more thoroughly another time.
Just a quick reminder.... this is a blog, not just a "recipe site," and yes, there is a difference! I want to first thank all of you who have supported my work over the years, but if you aren't interested in the chit chat, info, photos, tips and such in a post, as always, you'll find the complete recipe text with measurements and instructions, as well as a printable document, a little bit further down the page. Just swipe or scroll down to the bottom of the post!Enter one of my high school friends Rachael who posted on Facebook and tagged me one day about the sauce recipe I had written to go with some fried green tomatoes. She mentioned the New Orleans Bistro Cafe restaurant at the Grand Casino Gulfport property pre-Katrina, that served a dish called pan roast - a seafood dish with a creamy tomato sauce. When she made my recipe, she said that she immediately thought of that pan roast at the Grand.
Knowing that this was far away from the recipe I had tried, but armed with my base recipe that Rachael loved, I headed back to research this dish and discovered a teeny bit more information was available now, but frankly it became even more confusing.
Pascale's Restaurant in New Orleans serves a Combination Pan Roast version made almost like a super moist dressing, where the oysters and shrimp are pureed and breadcrumbs and crabmeat folded in with more breadcrumb sprinkled on top, very much like a baked casserole. There are no tomatoes in that version.
This was somewhat similar to the cookbook recipe I had tried, except that in her recipe, she crusted the crumb on top of a cream sauce first, then folded the crust in, like we do with Coush Coush and continued baking it until it browned again, repeating the process before folding in the seafood and returning to the oven to finish browning.
Some versions of a seafood pan roast I ran across were more like you would logically think of when you see the name "pan roast" - a sheet pan of various seafood roasted in the oven.
Other versions across the net were based on restaurants primarily in the Las Vegas area and completely different, more like a rich, creamy and thick, tomato-based stew, like my friend remembered from the New Orleans Bistro. Even those varied quite a bit from one another, some starting with a roux, others more like mine with a sauce and others were very thin and soup-like.
The Las Vegas Palace Station Oyster Bar seems to be the one restaurant most often referred to and they define their pan roasts as "A locals' favorite! A creamy tomato stew cooked with your choice of seafood and finished with a hint of brandy, served with steamed rice." Except for the inclusion of brandy, I guess I'm close enough to being on track with that version.
One thing's for certain, it's very rich, so make small servings, put them over rice, add a green vegetable or mixed garden salad and some bread to balance it out. Make it ahead if you can, because the flavor is even better the next day.
Here's how to make my Seafood Pan Roast.
You'll want to have some hot, steamed rice at the ready, so prepare it how you like it, or follow my version if you don't have one.
For the sauce, melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook just until tender, about 4 minutes; add garlic and cook another minute.
Add the tomatoes with their juices, salt, pepper, Old Bay, Creole or Cajun seasoning and sugar, though that's optional. I like to add a little because I feel it helps cut the acidity of the tomato, especially with canned tomatoes.
Stir in parsley and basil. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 25 minutes.
Add cream or half and half and stir in.
Add hot sauce and dried red pepper flakes, if using.
Add shrimp and crawfish and simmer until shrimp begin to turn pink. Fold in crawfish and crab and warm through. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Spoon into individual bowls over hot, steamed rice and serve with a green vegetable or mixed garden salad and some warm rolls or cornbread.
For more of my favorite seafood recipes, check out this collection on my Pinterest page!
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