MY picky husband loves this.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/seafood-lasagna/

You can make ahead and then heat.

Ina Garten has some tasty recipes for scampi you might check. Her Linguine With Shrimp Scampi and her Baked Shrimp Scampi are both good.

Sherry’s suggestion would be nice. It made me think of a seafood lasagna I’ve made from the Silver Palate girls, although it’s been awhile.

https://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_0/2007/OCT/82213.html 

How about a seafood newburg?

Shrimp etouffee?

This is a fabulous seafood stew using a firm white fish and prawns...one of our favorites. Brazilian Seafood Stew

Ciopinno sounds like what .yu're looking for. We love it and now I've just realized that I haven't made it in a while. There are hundreds of variations, so would be easy to choose a recipe that suits you.

Seafood Gumbo? If that interests you, I can post a recipe. My T&T recipe takes all day to make. I have a bastardized version that only takes half a day. I use shrimp and sometime crab claws or crabmeat. On occasion, I’ve used oysters too, but I’ve really decided I don’t like oysters in my gumbo.

You can make the soup minus the seafood several days ahead. Then all you have to do is get the soup hot and add the raw shrimp and other seafood in the last few minutes.

We always have seafood ChristmasEve. I usually make crab cakes, then oyster stew, (Pops favorite). Lump crab prices have hit the roof this year. 50-60$ a pound. (i need 2 pounds)...so that is out this year. Fresh live lobster is half that.

A few years ago, pre-covid, i started making a few seafood appetizers to serve before the oyster stew. As well as a couple vegetarian ones....mini cod cakes, smoked salmon croquettes, mini shrimp rolls, sticky rice balls, etc.

Christmas dinner is all set, --shopping list ready.

ChristmasEve is a Saturday this year. Could be 6 or 12 at the table. Christmas is 15. Always an annoyance with my family that they never know how many i'm cooking for.

Decided fishermans stew it is, (Ciopinno).

It is festive, afforable, and everyone loves it. Like mentioned above, it is adaptable to what you have available locally. Its roots stem from what fishermen caught that day and can't sell so a stew is made to feed their families. Often trading their catch at the dock.

We like it brothy and minimal tomato---here is one of many, ciopinno-fishermans stew

I'm thinking of ordering from WildFork foods this year. Free shipping first order. I can have it sent directly to my parents.

The packages are cryovac'd, flash frozen, and small portions so i can quickly thaw what i need if more uninvited guests show up. (Pop has a habit of mentioning i'm home and cooking but forgets to tell me).

We met years ago when living in NewOrleans. Love Gumbo. We made it for neighbors in a small Canadian fishing village. 20+ guests. Not touched but by one couple. A shame as we were leaving the next day and had to dump it in the ocean. Should have packed it up for the friends that loved it for their freezer but did not think of it at the time.

My family would not like Gumbo. Or anything with coconut cream or a curry. Not adventurous palates. They eat well and clean but basic.

Thank you all for the ideas. I have decided on the ciopinno. That sounds perfect. My family doesn’t care for fennel or cilantro but can do most everything else, Hubs has a recent aversion to shrimp, ut all other seafood is ok. I think I could just use lobster instead. . Could I I substitute something for the fennel?

Mine would not eat the leeks, fennel, or wine. Maybe the wine. I'm not sure about the shells.

I also have my grandmother's recipe for gumbo. I adore it, but hubby won't eat. I also do not care for oysters in gumbo, I guess because she never did.

Lulu, I would just omit the fennel.

bbstx, I would like to see your seafood gumbo recipe. I did a search but didn't find it.

Lulu, cioppino’s a good choice…one of DH’s favorites. I agree with just omitting the fennel. You might sub with a little celery, depending on the recipe.

Could I I substitute something for the fennel?

Not at all necessary. Just omit. A few hundred recipes in a google search. I look at a half dozen or more recipes and use what i have available. Always good. I have 2 pounds of wild gulf shrimp at a good price. (i made shrimp rolls last night)...tossed in a NewOrleans creole remolade. Testing for a family meal as my neice loves them...maybe day after X-mas on boxing day?...don't sweat the recipes with ingredients you don't like or not have available.

The beauty of 'fishermans stew' is use what you have available.

I always have fennel, leeks, shallots, celery, in my crisper drawer. 365 year round. But not necessary at all if not available.

Agree with the above suggestions to just omit the fennel. I don't dislike fennel but it is hard to come by and ridiculously expensive (especially since you end up only using the bulb and maybe a few fronds) where I live, so I opt to spend that money on a little more seafood. Now I'm putting the ciopinnio on my list for New Years Eve. Thanks for jogging my memory of it.

Thanks so much!

I use the entire fennel bulb, fronds, and the stems. Stems minced like celery in miropoix. Stem ends saved in a bag with leek tops, celery root ends, carrot leafy tops, onion root ends, and all sorts of veg scraps for stock. I need a veg stock for a vegetarian appitizer that i will make probably tomorrow. One supplier leaves on the celery big leafy tops. Like a free bunch of parsley but has a par-cel flavor. If you shop farmers markets or CSA, do let them know you want all the extra foliage. So much food waste cut off and left in the fields.

Carrots will last longer in your crisper without the leafy tops, but can be saved for stock or blendered into humus or falafel....

I used to do a holiday shopping every year. A bit of every veg, a dozen or more. Special occasion vegetables. One big fennel bulb, a bunch of leeks, usually three, a few varieties of sweet potatoes, radish...but now stock year round consuming less protein per ounce, more veg.

Leeks and fennel are not expensive here.

Seafood risotto is good. Again, my family is confused by any risotto. Dad, after grazing all day on charcuterie, cheese platters, appitizers,...sat down for dinner, looking at the stovetop, confused, "rice for dinner?". "it is good but that is it?, rice?" 😂, Good grief, he ate/grazed all day long.

Best to not surpise family with unfamilar recipes. 😜. We have made fishermans stew for years. Usually summer beach home family reunions but i know it is well received.

bbstx, how in the world do you fry okra in deep oil for 40 minutes? It would completely cook to fried mush. Is that a mistake, maybe? Maybe you meant 4 minutes?

I made a turkey and andouille gumbo for Tday, but I got the sausage from a great place in Laplace and that great sausage was what made it great. Most andouille that you can buy in most grocery stores outside of southern Louisiana is not at all good.

I did sautee the okra before adding it in. But I dd so more for the sake of rich enhancement. I love okra but I have never been able to eliminate the texture of it, and I dont seek to because I love it just as it is .

Being of southern heritage I have eaten it all my life. Momma used to fry it up in cornmeal a lot. She raised her own in her big garden.

Lulu, have you considered maybe a cioppino? It is basically a seafood stew that is popular on the west coast.

Or, a bouilibase (sure I spelled it wrong) . Both are seafood stew/soup kinds of things.

Claudia, it is more like sautéing the okra. It isn’t deep frying individual pieces. And, yes the okra does mostly cook apart.