Seafood bakes are a delicious wintery way of featuring seafood. Scallops, prawns, fish, mussels or a mixture of all them make a delicious base for seafood bakes. The following quick and easy recipes detail three different styles of seafood bake.

The name for this bake isn’t kidding. The preparation and cooking is so simple but the resultant flavour is amazing. This Scallop Bake can be used for either an entrée or a more substantial meal. I would suggest three scallops per person for a starter and six (or more) for a main meal.

Interestingly the Scallop Bake has a dual cooking process with the lemon juice in the dressing “cooking” the scallops in addition to the bake being cooked in the oven.

The following quantities will serve four as a main meal.

24 scallops

3 Tbs olive oil

3 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs (a splash) of dry white wine

1 clove garlic, finely grated

2 Tbs flat leaf parsley (no stalks), finely chopped

1 cup Panko breadcrumbs

3 Tbs freshly grated parmesan

Preheat your oven to 200C.

Line a shallow baking dish with aluminium foil. The foil allows for easier removal of the scallops for serving purposes. Alternatively, you could use small individual baking dishes (big enough for the scallops to be in a single layer) for each diner. If you are going the individual dish route, then you will need to divide the remaining ingredients between the dishes. There is no need to line the individual dishes with foil.

Place the scallops in a single layer in a baking dish(es). In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, white wine, garlic and chopped parsley. Whisk well to combine. Now pour the olive oil/lemon juice mixture over the scallops. Turn the scallops over a couple of times to ensure that they are thoroughly coated with the oil/lemon mixture.

Sprinkle the Panko breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese evenly over the top of the scallops. Place the baking dish(es) into the oven and bake until the breadcrumbs/ Parmesan mixture turns a golden brown. The Scallop Bake is now ready to serve.

I have used a combination of crab meat and prawns in this bake, but you could also include morsels of fish, scallops or squid rings as well.

500g crab meat

500g small green prawns, peeled and deveined

3 green shallots, sliced

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 Tbs chilli sauce (or 1 Tbs chilli jam)

1 cup egg mayonnaise

1 Tbs butter

1 cup Panko breadcrumbs

Preheat your oven to 180C.

In a large bowl combine the seafood, shallots, chilli, lemon juice, chilli sauce (or jam) and mayonnaise. Spoon this mixture into a shallow baking dish or individual ovenproof dishes.

Melt the butter over a low heat in a small frypan. Add the breadcrumbs and stir fry for a few minutes to thoroughly coat the breadcrumbs with the butter.

Sprinkle the buttered breadcrumbs over the top of the seafood mixture and bake for 20-25 minutes.

1 kg mussels (in the shell)

200ml dry white wine

2 Tbs olive oil

2 leeks, white part only, thinly sliced

4 green shallots, roughly chopped

1 cup cream

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup grated cheese

Scrub the mussels well and remove the beard from the shell. Place the mussels in a large bowl of cold water for about an hour. At the end of this time, remove the mussels from the water and place them in a pot over a medium heat. Place a lid on the pot and cook the mussels until they open. Remove the mussels from the pot and retain any juices in the pot.

Add the wine to the pot and continue to cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Sieve this liquid and return the liquid (sieved solids discarded) to another pot.

Remove the mussel meat from their shells and place the meat to one side (discarding the shells).

Heat the olive oil in a shallow oven proof cast iron pan and sauté the leek over a medium heat until the leek has softened.

Preheat your oven to 200C.

Add the green shallots and cream to the pot of reserved mussel liquid and heat over a low heat on the stove. Beat the egg yolks and add to the pot. Stir vigorously as you do this to prevent a “scrambled egg” issue happening.

Layer the mussel meat over the leeks (in the ovenproof baking dish) and then pour over the egg/cream/liquid mixture. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and then bake for about ten minutes or until the top of the bake is golden and bubbling.