As some of you may know, my “day job” is being editor of Ventura Blvd magazine and this summer, in our annual food issue, we ran a knock-your-socks off seafood bake recipe by chef/food stylist Kara Mickelson (photographed in all its glory by our fab photog Shane O’Donnell). This recipe is incredibly tasty and easier than most seafood boils due to the fact that you make it on a sheet pan. Sharing it in case you are trying to get one more dinner party in before the summer is over! That’s my goal anyways…
Sheet Pan Seafood Bake
Serves 4–6
2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
2 sticks melted, clarified unsalted butter or ghee
3 garlic heads
Olive oil
6 lemons
4 ears corn, husked and cut into thirds
12 ounces (about 4 links) andouille sausage, ¼-inch thick diagonal slices
1 red onion, quartered
1 white onion, quartered
1 to 2 pounds petite new potatoes
Salt and fresh ground pepper
1½ pounds whole head-on shrimp in the shell, deveined
1½ to 2 pounds fresh littleneck clams, scrubbed and purged
1½ to 2 pounds fresh or frozen mussels, scrubbed and debearded
4 whole Maine lobsters, 1 to 1 ¼ pounds each (or 4-to 6-ounce raw tails
Fresh parsley for garnish
Preheat oven to 425°. Stir Old Bay Seasoning into one stick of melted butter. Slice four garlic cloves thinly; set aside. Slice off tops of whole garlic heads and drizzle with olive oil. Cut two lemons in half horizontally.
Add corn, sausage, onions, potatoes, garlic heads and cut lemons to a sheet pan. Drizzle half the butter-Old Bay mixture over the vegetables and sausage and stir to coat. Add salt and pepper.
Cover pan and secure with foil; cook 18 to 20 minutes or until potatoes and corn are fork-tender. Remove from oven. Remove foil and add shrimp, clams, mussels and fresh garlic. Drizzle with half of remaining butter mixture and olive oil to coat. Reserve the rest of the mixture for lobster.
Leave lobster tails whole or slice in half before cooking. Add to a separate sheet pan and coat with remaining butter. Add both trays back to oven and cook about 9 minutes, or until lobsters and shrimp are cooked through and clams and mussels are fully open. Discard any clams or mussels that don’t open. Lobster claws, knuckles and raw lobster tails will need 5 to 8 more minutes to fully cook.
Toss seafood together in a bowl. Add fresh, chopped parsley. Melt the remaining stick of butter and serve with lemon wedges at each place setting.
