Hot Seafood Salad?

[Querencia]

It's a good rule not to serve to guests a dish you've never made before but I am considering doing this and thus seek conference and advice. In my card file I have an intriguing recipe for Hot Seafood Salad and I need a hot brunch dish for a group. Basically it's a lot of mixed seafood bound with unseasoned stuffing mix and mayonnaise and baked in a casserole. I am thinking to improve this with lemon juice, Chesapeake Bay Seafood Seasoning, a lot of celery, some green and red pepper, some minced onion, and sliced water chestnuts, maybe a bean sprout or two. The flavors should go well but am a little nervous about using mayonnaise in a hot casserole---has anyone done this? How does it work? It would save a lot of time if I don't have to cook a sauce (in which case the whole thing will end up more like Crab Imperial anyway). Tell me about Hot Seafood Salad.

[Querencia]

Report from original poster: today was the big family party for which I made the Hot Seafood Salad. I don't think I'll bother making it again. It looked gorgeous on the brunch buffet but wasn't as good as it looked and I noticed that nobody was going back for seconds and more than half of it was left. It baked up with a lot of watery stuff in the bottom in spite of a good portion of the stuffing mix. I used two pounds each of large shrimp and bay scallops and two packages of "crab" chunk is surimi and the scallops just seemed like part of the surimi. The mimosas were good, though.

[southernitalian]

I make baked mussells with a topping of mayo and sriracha. Also, spinach artichoke dip with mayo. Works great.

[greygarious]

I mix shredded cheese with scallion and mayo, then spread it on toast and broil - this is
a great open-faced sandwich, with the combo of crunch and creamy, so I think your recipe sounds fine. Think of a tuna melt - that heats up tuna salad and is a classic sandwich favorite.

Years ago I copied a recipe (can't recall source) for, but have yet to make, Baked Vidalia Onion Dip. It makes 6 cups, and contains 2 cups mayo (also butter, swiss, water chestnuts, white wine, garlic, and hot sauce).

[jeanmarieok]

My mom has a hot tuna salad that has mayo in it, and is baked and served over popovers. It has mayo and hard boiled eggs, which sounds odd, but actually tasted pretty good. So I don't think it's a problem. The mayo just acts as a binder.

[MandalayVA]

I would seriously love to get that recipe, sounds awesome.

[Querencia]

What I have on the card is 2 cups celery, 1/2 cup onion, 1 chopped pepper, 8 oz water chestnuts, 6 oz crabmeat, 4 oz shrimp, 1/2 lb mushrooms, 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 cup stuffing mix, salt. I plan to increase and modify this using 2 lb shrimp, 2 lb bay scallops, 2 pkg surimi crab chunks, celery, green and red pepper, onion, mushrooms, water chestnuts, and then mix this up with enough mayonnaise, lemon juice, and Dijon mustard and enough unseasoned stuffing mix to make it look right---and season with the Chesapeake Bay and maybe some flaked chili pepper so it will have a slight bite. I think you could pretty well wing it. I should think, bake it half an hour covered with foil then get some buttered bread crumbs on top to protect any exposed seafood and give it another half-hour uncovered. I don't know, but I figure, how bad could it be?

[bushwickgirl]

"I don't know, but I figure, how bad could it be?" I don't think it will be bad at all, probably downright tasty. Cayenne is a nice touch, you need a little spicy bite. Add enough mayo to make it juicy, not wet, but you want the end result moist. Is the Chesapeake Bay seasoning you'r referring to called Old Bay?

I may try it myself. Give it a spin and let us know how it came out.

[LaLa]

This is a very common casserole in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

[chef chicklet]

This sounds like a giant crab cake mixture. I'd make it!

[Val]

Not sure but I have the remainder of a bag of mixed frozen seafood that I need to use up and think this might be the perfect way to do it....can you please post the actual recipe or link to it when you get a chance? Thanks very much! By the way, I know I've used mayo for adhering crumbs to fish, etc., for baking so why would it be bad in a casserole? Hopefully, others with more experience will chime in.