Best Seafood Fonduta

An insanely delicious seafood fondue recipe, if I do say so myself. I was experimenting in the kitchen one day, trying to concoct a “copycat” recipe from a place I have dinner at periodically. Crawfish, shrimp, shrooms and white wine are a few of the main culprits surrounded by silky cheesy deliciousness.

OK, let me give you a quick explanation of the “shrooms” thing as you’ve likely seen this description in a few of my recipes. As a chef, I would call mushrooms shrooms, whereas waitstaff would usually jot down “mush”. This is a habit I developed in the restaurants as I would be standing at expo, assembly, grill or saute, it was just easier and sounded much better than saying something to the effect of, “I need some mush on the fly!” or “86 the mush!” or even “I’m throwing down a side of mush!” So, yeah, I say shrooms. Just keep in mind, my shrooms start off as mush.

1/4 c olive oil

2 tbs garlic, minced

2 c mushrooms, sliced

2 c dry white wine

2 c chicken stock

2 tsp bay seasoning

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 c heavy cream

4 tbs unsalted butter, diced

2 tbs unbleached flour

2/3 c heavy cream

2 c med shrimp, cooked, peeled, deveined

2 c crawfish tails, peeled and cleaned

1 can flaky layer biscuits

fresh parsley, rough chopped

4 c mozzarella cheese, shredded

16 slices Swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 350

Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add garlic and mushrooms. Sauté until mushrooms are tender. Using a slotted spoon, remove mushroom mixture and set aside. Deglaze pan with white wine. Bring to simmer and add stock, bay, onion powder and paprika. In a separate pan, make roux by melting butter over medium high heat. Mix in flour thoroughly until it creates a saucy peanut butter looking paste. Set aside. Raise heat under cream sauce to high and immediately whisk in 1 c cream. Whisk roux into sauce mixture and cook down until it thickens. Hit it with 2/3 c cream and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium high. Return mushrooms to cream sauce and add shrimp and crawfish. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat. Prepare tops by separating biscuits on a lined sheet pan and bake according to package directions. Meanwhile, add ¼ c mozzarella and 1 slice of Swiss to the bottom of eight 10 oz ramekins. Top with 1/8 c of the seafood mixture and repeat process once more. When biscuits are done, remove from oven and set aside. Arrange ramekins on a baking sheet and bake at 350˚ for 20-30 minutes until bubbling. Sprinkle parsley over your baked biscuits. Remove sheet pan from oven and top each ramekin with 1 biscuit. Return tray to oven and bake an additional 3-5 minutes, just enough for the biscuits to heat up a bit. Remove from oven and serve immediately. Will be hot!