Shore is Good Seafood Dip

Tristan's birthday party was a hit. I'm getting my photos & info organized for my Spongebob party package giveaway so I'll see you back here in the next day or so with all that good stuff. Even if you don't have a son, you can win it for a friend who does.

I served mini burger & chicken sliders at the party, which served as Krabby Patties. After all, Spongebob works at the Krusty Krab as a fry cook, flipping Krabby Patties all day long.

I also intended to serve this dip as an appetizer, thought it fit well into the ocean related theme but it just never happened. So, I ended up baking it the next day & took it to my BF Tam's house. It was excellent but I did modify a bit of this Paula Deen recipe.

2 tblsp butter
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 of a 10 3/4-ounce can cream of shrimp soup (discard top half & use bottom part of soup)
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 pound freshly grated Parmesan
6-8 oz crabmeat, picked free of any broken shells
6-8 oz shrimp
1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the bell pepper, onion & celery, saute for 2 minutes. In a bowl, combine the soup, mayonnaise, Parmesan, crabmeat, shrimp & pepper. Stir the sauteed vegetables into the seafood mixture & spoon this mixture into a lightly greased 8 by 11-inch casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve with toast points, crackers or Scoops like I did. Let sit for at least 10-15 minutes to set.

{Food for Thought}

I paid a little more for fresh crabmeat but find that it's worth it. I also used uncooked fresh shrimp so I sauteed it with the veggies until just cooked through.

Two additions to the recipe that I would do again: added garlic powder to the veggie mixture as it was cooking. And once I had the mixture in a dish I sprinkled some Old Bay on top.

My one Publix didn't carry Cream of Shrimp Soup so I improvised by using 1/4 can of cream of onion & 1/4 can of a creamy tomato parmesan bisque. It was excellent this way but I think the bisque made the mixture thin out at the end of the baking time. So I had to actually add a cornstarch/water mixture & cooked it for 20 minutes longer.

If you use cream of shrimp then you probably won't have this problem. In the event you still do, just make a mixture of cold water with 2 tblsp of cornstarch, then stir into the mixture a bit at a time. If you can't find cream of shrimp just substitute 2 different cream of's, perhaps onion & celery, unless you can find the tomato parmesan bisque.

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