seafood lasagna

[sarina]

Hey there Have another cooking question from you all. Cooking light has a seafood lasagna recipe that calls for taking raw shrimp and after you make a stock with the shells you cut the shrimps in half and layer them with the rest of the ingredients but the shrimp are raw as they go in. The dish cooks at 375 for 40 minutes and then rests for 15 before cutting . My question is will the shrimp get done going in raw in a seafood lasagna . One other recipe I saw somewhere else for it the shrimp were frozen and were precooked. I hate to risk ruining the dish if they made an error. I would like to cook this dish tomorrow night for inlaws that are here visiting but am wondering what I should do ??

[Suzanne]

I'm not that familiar with Cooking Light's recipes, (sorry, I cook "heavy" ) but I know people trust them.

Shrimp cook really quickly, and if they are split in half head-to-tail they'll be in thin pieces that cook even faster. In the times given, between the lasagna heating up and then the residual heat as it sits, they should cook enough. In fact, they'd probably be just perfect, not overcooked and rubbery as might happen if you used frozen precooked.

[shroomgirl]

make sure to use the head count in the recipe....can make a big difference.

[kuan]

I think you should substitute cooked crabmeat for the shrimp. IMO this recipe concept ignores basic cooking fundamentals.

[phatch]

Which fundamental are you referring to? No cheese with seafood? Just curious. I think the crab version is more appealing, but there is probably a play to the perception of crab as too expensive and too much work compared to the availability and cost of shrimp in the recipe described.

I actually like parmesan on Scampi occasionally, heresy that that is...

Phil

[Mezzaluna]

I'm wondering if the seafood with cheese prohibition will go the way of wine constraints (red meat only with red wine, white only with poultry and fish). Tastes change. Sometimes I wonder if they change for things like this because of mass-market food. Have you ever looked at how many of Olive Garden's and Red Lobster's seafood dishes include cheese?

Once again, America leads the way. To where, I'm not sure, but we're out in front.

[Suzanne]

Well, I wouldn't use Olive Garden or Red lobster as authorities. Or even Legal Seafoods, which used to serve a really wonderful, really gloppy cheese-covered baked clam dish.

But much to my surprise, someone whom I DO consider an authority -- Marcella Hazan -- who in her early books maintained the proscription, lightens up on it a bit in her forthcoming book. At least in this one she allows Romano in a mussel dish.

But to get back to the original question: will the shrimp cook enough? And Kuan, which fundamentals DO you mean??

[kuan]

The basic one where if you are to cook shrimp you should do it quickly. I mean, gently raising the heat on the shrimp from 40 to 140 degrees in 1 hour? I would never do that. I've never heard of cooking shrimp this slow ever except as a mousse or terrine.

In this case you have no control over how it would turn out. You're cooking a lasagna and hoping the shrimp will cook along with it. Depending on the thickness of the lasagna, the shrimp on the outside layers will probably be overcooked, some will be perfectly cooked, and some possibly undercooked.

No, it's not cheese with seafood. That's preference, regional style, or dogma, not principle.

Kuan

[phatch]

That's a good point.

Phil

[panini]

I make this lasagna all the time but with shrimp amd spinache and a white sauce. The shrimp will be just fine and even better if you add a little more liquid to the recipe.

[sarina]

Hey there its me Sarina I made the lasagna . Let me start by saying the shrimp cooked up in it great , not overcooked and very tender . thanks Suzanne I should have stated it but the lasagna called for both shrimp and cooked crab meat . There were a few problems I thought with the recipe and I should have listened to my inner voice because as a whole the dish was not great. The shrimp was done in it and very tender but the over all favor of the dish for the amount of work it was took more like a tuna casserole and not a good one at that. The recipe stated that you could use canned crab meat two cans of chicken of the sea crab meat is what they used to test it with and they said with fine results. The recipe stated that you could splurge on fresh crab meat if wanted so I did Just like fresh better then canned. Since each can of crab meat was 6.5 ounces in the recipe and they used two of them I bought the smallest cooked crab fresh I could find and that was two 8 ounce fresh at 10.99 each. Ok then it called for the pound of shrimp and you used the shells to make a stock. I think what might have started some of the trouble with the final taste of the dish is that you put in 2 cups of water in with the shells and some fennel seeds, to much if you ask me at 1 teaspoon but I did as the recipe said. It also called for celery salt 1 1/2 half teaspoon also I think to much. Ok so the stock then was cooked to a boil and then simmered for 15 minutes until it reduced to 1 1/2 cups stock then strained and cooled . You made a white sauce with 1/4 cup flour gradually adding 1 cup milk with a whisk then you added shrimp stock and brought to boil reduced heat and simmered this for 5 minutes until it was thickened. Removed from heat and 1/4 cup of fresh grated parmesan was added. The sauce by itself just did not taste great . But instead of throwing it out and making a different sauce I said oh well go ahead. The recipe had 1 pound of mushrooms sauted in olive oil with 1 1/2 cups onion and 2 tbls fresh thyme . 2 garlic cloves minced and after it was sauted adding in 1/4 white wine and letting the wine reduce off .You then took it off and stirred in the crab meat. I am thinking I maybe should have gone at this point with just one of the fresh cartons of crab meat because the flavor was very strong in crab . Maybe canned crab meat is different then fresh ? depending on region of meat ? Anyway after that you layer the crab meat mushroom mix with the shrimp and 2 cups mozzarella cheese . You also layered as a layer 1 1/4 cups feta cheese mixed with 1 cup cottage cheese 1/4 fresh basil chopped 1 tbls lemon juice and 1 garlic clove. This was suppose to be enough to layer three times in the lasagna . again I think flaw with cooking lights recipe because there was no way it would go that far and I had to add more cottage cheese to it at the end as it was not enough. The end result was way to heavy in taste of seafood or maybe mushrooms it was hard to tell . In thirty years of cooking for my family I have maybe been told twice not to make something again they did not like it. I was looking for something light since I am trying to get off 50 more pounds after losing 35 and I also know I have to revamp my cooking to keep it off and cook regular only some and light more often to maintain my weight loss. The shock to me is that it was picked as an editor and staff favoite in cooking light a magazine I trust. I could also see if only one or two of us did not like it but out of 8 people it was a total thumbs down . My inlaws were here visiting and thank god they have had my cooking for 30 years and know I can cook otherwise if I had been a person newly married I would have been quite upset. Do you all think I should write cooking light and tell them my experience with this recipe? Also the fish taste was so strong do you think it was the stock or to much crab?

[panini]

Hi Serina,
I would hesitate to use the word lasagna for that dish. Just a suggestion for next time, you might want to post the recipe so we can help you put out the fires before they start. Congrats on your weight loss.

[shroomgirl]

hmmmm.....craby crab is BAD. It should be really mild, I sniff it prior to buying....lived to long in Southern La. to trust in land seafood.

Lowfat seafood lasagna....wanna give it a shot? that seemed like an awful lot of various cheeses for lowfatness. I'd go heavy in veg. Make a white wine chevre and /or cream cheese sauce.
fresh lasagna noodles if possible
crab and or shrimp
spinach, nuked
zucchini, saute
possibly some rehydrated tomatoes cut into ribbons.
boiled or roasted garlic or saute green garlic
shrooms,saute
onions, saute
some fresh dillweed, parsley
maybe a pinch of ground fennel or lemon zest
Creamy goo of a chevre/cream cheese/white wine sauce
parmesan to top

[panini]

Shroomgirl,
Sounds good. I have three bags of cleaned mudbugs in the freezer from our last boil. What do you think?

[Pongi]

Just my personal opinion-I'm not surprised that this dish wasn't good. Too many ingredients, too many different flavors mixed together...and I agree with kuan, I would never bake seafood this way.
As for me, the only way I could make seafood lasagna (and probably the lightest!) is the following: making a good seafood sauce (white or red), cooking lasagne separately, layering sauce and lasagne into a serving dish, and serving them. NO bechamel, and grated parmesan cheese only if you can't live without it (as I do )

Pongi