Way back in 2012 I posted about one of my favorite dishes in Charleston, SC, Seafood a la Wando at Hank’s Seafood. It is indeed still one of my favorites. The crispy grit cakes, the fresh seafood, the rich buttery cream sauce. Oh and mushroom, bell pepper and green onion add earthiness, color and crunch. So good.

About a year after I posted the review, I tried to make it at home (that recipe is here: Seafood a la Wando). Below, the picture on the top left is what it is supposed to look like. The image on the bottom left is what mine end up looking like. The image on the right is my second attempt. Ummm, yeh, a little better.

If you read my original attempt, it was pretty funny. I wasn’t patient enough with the cream sauce and it never thickened up. I also didn’t use enough saffron so it looks like milk. I cooked the grit cakes and kept them too warm in the oven and they basically got burnt. I forgot to put the mushrooms on but they were cold any way. The fish and shrimp were both also cold. So basically it wasn’t great. Oh, and the picture was blurry. So here in 2020, I decided to try it again, a REBOOT. This time I was MUCH more successful.

I’ve become a better cook in the 7 years since I first tried this. There are not a ton of ingredients but it does take patience and good timing. Some of the more obvious tweaks, I switched the white fish for scallops. They cook faster and are easier to manage plus I love them. I added a roux to the cream sauce. This made it thicken a lot easier. I swapped out the heavy cream for lactose free half and half. My wife doesn’t do lactose and the half and half made it a little less rich. I swapped out half the butter for olive oil. I also used prepared polenta in a tube to speed the whole thing up.

All my tweaks worked out very well. The two changes that I will make next time are reflected in below directions but, I would add more mushroom. It seems weird to add mushrooms but they do it at Hank’s and it really adds an earthiness that makes a difference. I also used WAY too much saffron, but after my first attempt turned out basically white, I wanted to make sure it got that beautiful saffron color. Getting “mise en place” or all your stuff prepped and ready is essential. I try to demonstrate that in the directions below.

Ingredients

• 3/4 lbs diver scallops
• 1 lbs fresh shrimp, peeled, deveined with tails on (I used fresh SC caught)
• 8 oz, prepared lump blue crab
• 3 green onions sliced thin
• I package Cremini (baby portabella) mushrooms (quartered or halved depending on their size)
• Red bell pepper diced
• Canola oil
• Salt and pepper

Ingredients for Polenta Cakes

• 1 package prepared polenta
• AP flour for dredging
• 1 egg
• Bread crumbs for dreding
• Salt and pepper

Ingredients for Shellfish Saffron Cream Sauce

• 1 cup of Sherry wine
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons AP flour
• 1 shallot, finely minced
• 2 cups shell fish stock (or Seafood stock)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
• 1 1/2 lactose free half and half cream
• Salt

Directions

1. For the sauce, heat in a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil. Add shallots and cook until translucent. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of flour and continue cooking until it becomes a blonde, thickened paste. Whisk in ½ cup of sherry wine, bring to a boil, decrease the heat and continue to cook until the wine has reduced to 1 tablespoon. Add the shellfish stock and reduce the liquid by one-half. Add the saffron and half and half and reduce by one-half or until the sauce is thick. Season with salt to taste if needed. This will take time. Cover and keep warm over low heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Prepare a breading station with 1 bowl with flour, 1 bowl with an egg wash and 1 with bread crumb. Season all three bowls with salt and pepper to taste. Cut the prepared polenta into even slices, about 1 inch each. Toss each cake in the flour, then the egg wash and then the bread crumb. Set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 190° F. Heat a large non-stick pan over medium high heat. Coat pan with olive oil and cook the polenta cakes on both sides until browned. Place the cooked cakes on a sheet pan and place in the oven to keep warm.
4. Coat a large stainless steel sauté pan with 50/50 canola and olive oil. Heat over high heat. Season the scallops and shrimp with salt and pepper. Sear both sides until just cooked through, in batches if need be. Don’t over cook or they will get rubbery.
5. At the same time in the same pan you cooked the polenta cakes, add 1 tablespoon of olive. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender. Add a tablespoon or two of sherry to deglaze the pan.
6. To assemble, pour the cream sauce on the bottom, sprinkle the crab, add 3 scallops, 3 shrimp with two stacked polenta cakes in the middle. Top the grit cakes with your best looking shrimp. Garnish with mushroom, green onion and red bell pepper. Enjoy.