Just close your eyes and imagine a dish of tender seafood, mixed with a savoury cheese sauce, rolled in pancakes and grilled in the oven until the cheese melts and turns golden. Have I got your attention? Read on and see how to made this delicious dish of cheesy seafood stuffed pancakes yourself!
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A delicious family supper
If you are looking for a supper that the whole family will love, then look no further than this recipe for seafood stuffed pancakes. The recipe is made by combining a chunky flaked fish with a mixture of prawns, mussels and calamari in a creamy cheesy sauce. Then the mixture is rolled in soft, slightly chewy crepes and covered with any remaining sauce and a sprinkling of grated cheese before being grilled to golden perfection.
It’s a bit like making stuffed cannelloni, but without the hassle of filling the cannelloni tubes!
The pancakes that we use are soft thin pancakes, similar to a French crepe, not the thicker fluffy American variety. If you have your own recipe for this type of pancake, you can use that, or if you need a recipe, follow this link for my recipe on how to make pancakes. If you don’t want to make your own pancakes, you can buy ready-made pancakes from any large supermarket.
I make this dish with a firm fish such as cod or haddock, but you could use a cheaper fish such as hake or even pollock. For convenience, I use a packet of frozen cooked seafood mix from my local supermarket that only needs to be defrosted before being added to the sauce.
The sauce itself is made from the milk that is used to poach the fish so that none of the flavour is lost. Then the sauce is thickened and mixed with grated cheese, to provide a thick lushious texture that coats the fish and seafood perfectly.
Why I think you’ll love this dish
If you enjoy seafood, then I think you will love these seafood stuffed pancakes.
- They are really quick to make. The total preparation time, including poaching the fish and assembling the dish takes less than half an hour, then it’s into the oven until the cheese is golden and bubbling.
- It’s an economical dish. Fish is quite a cheap protein and a little goes a long way in this dish. You could even use any leftover seafood a la king as a filling.
- Any leftover pancakes can be rolled around a scoop of icecream, drizzled with chocolate and served as a dessert.
Recipe information
You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making these seafood stuffed pancakes on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
- Prep time – 25 minutes (excluding the pancakes).
- Cooking time – 10 minutes
- Yield – makes 8 pancakes which should be sufficient for 4 people.
- Calories –
- Main equipment – Frying pan or large saucepan for poaching the fish and making the sauce. I prefer to use a frying pan because it is easier to turn the fish in a shallow pan than in a deeper saucepan.
Ingredients
Pancakes – you can buy ready-made pancakes from any large supermarket, or you can make your own using your favourite recipe. If you need a pancake recipe you can follow the instructions in my post on how to make pancakes. You should allow two pancakes per person (or three for very large appetites). Smaller children will probably only manage one pancake.
White fish – you can use any firm white fish fillets that flake nicely when cooked – cod, haddock, tilapia, pollock, hake or if you prefer, you could even use salmon. I prefer to buy it without the skin, but you can easily remove the skin once the fish is cooked.
Mixed seafood – I like to use a mixture of prawns, calamari and mussels – any large supermarket sells bags of frozen cooked seafood. You should allow about 120g (about 4 oz) of fish and mixed seafood combined per person.
Cheese – I like to use cheddar cheese, but you can use your favourite. Some of the cheese will be added to the sauce, and the remainder sprinkled over the rolled pancakes.
Milk – this is used for poaching the fish, and then used for making the sauce. It doesn’t matter whether you use full-fat or semi-skimmed milk. Full-fat milk will produce a creamier sauce, but if you prefer semi-skimmed the cheese will compensate for the lack of fat.
Butter – for making the sauce. I wouldn’t use margarine, it can tend to be a bit oily.
Dried parsley – for flavouring the sauce. You could substitute this for dried dill. I tend to keep bottles of dried herbs in the kitchen in case I can’t hold of fresh. Obviously fresh herbs taste better so if you have fresh, by all means use them. Dried herbs are more concentrated than fresh, so if you do use fresh herbs, you will need about three times the amount.
Cornflour – for thickening.
Salt – optional.
Instructions
This is a very easy dish to put together. There are only three simple steps.
- Poach and flake the fish
- Make the sauce and mix in the fish and seafood
- Assemble and bake.
Poach the fish
Defrost the seafood and set aside.
Pour the milk into a large frying pan or saucepan, stir in the parsley (and salt if using) and then add the fish fillets. Bring the heat to a simmer and allow the fish to cook for 6 to 7 minutes, turning once.
The fish should have turned opaque and be starting to flake.
Transfer the fish from the poaching liquid onto a plate and break into pieces with a fork. Discard any skin and check carefully for bones. Reserve the milk still in the pan. It will be used to make the sauce for the filling.
Make the filling
Add the butter to the poaching liquid in the pan and allow it to melt over a low heat.
Note – top up the poaching liquid so that you have 2 cups of milk in the pan. (Some of the milk may have evapourated while the fish was cooking).
Mix the cornflour with 2 tablespoons of extra milk and pour it into the milk. Stir until the sauce thickens and leaves a trail as you draw a spoon through it.
Stir in half of the cheese until it melts and then add the flaked fish and defrosted seafood.
The filling should have a thick consistency and should hold its shape when spooned onto the pancakes (see below). If the sauce is too thin you will find it difficult to roll the pancakes as the sauce will run out of the open ends.
Note – if you prefer to make the filling without cheese this is perfectly fine. However, the cheese does act to thicken the sauce so you may need extra cornflour and milk to thicken the sauce sufficiently.
Assemble and bake
Lay one pancake out flat and spoon some of the filling onto the bottom third of the pancake.
Roll the pancake into a cylinder around the filling and place the rolled pancake in a greased baking dish.
Continue with the remaining pancakes and filling.
Spread any remaining filling over the rolled pancakes and then sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Place the baking dish in a pre-heated oven (180C / 375F) for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and golden.
Serve hot with a leafy green salad and garden peas.
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Questions
Technically you can freeze these seafood stuffed pancakes. Just pack any leftovers into a rigid plastic container and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost and then reheat either in the microwave or place into a baking dish and reheat in a hot oven for about 15 minutes until piping hot.
Practically I wouldn’t advise freezing the assembled pancakes. The pancakes and filling turn quite stodgy on defrosting, and the reheated result is not particularly appealing (ask me how I know 🙂 )
You can freeze the filling separately for up to 3 months, defrost in the refrigerator and then roll it into pancakes as instructed in the recipe.
If you have made your own pancakes they can also be frozen separated with layers of greaseproof or baking paper. Allow them to defrost before trying to separate them. Pancakes can be frozen for 4 months.
You can make the filling the day before, and store it in a covered container in the refrigerator.
If you are making your own pancakes you can make these a day in advance, then store them in the refrigerator, either wrapped in tinfoil, or in a plastic bag large enough to hold the flat pancakes.
You can also assemble the dish in advance in the morning and pop it into the oven 20 minutes before you are ready to serve.
Other recipes you may enjoy
If you liked this recipe you may also like these other easy fish supper recipes:
- Cheesy fish pie with a crispy topping
- Salmon and broccoli pasta in a creamy dill sauce
- Fish Milanese with a buttery garlic and parsley sauce
- Seafood stuffed jumbo pasta shells
- Spicy fish and rice bake in tomato sauce
- Easy homemade fishcakes
Additional resources
Don’t forget to check out my handy Cookery Conversion Calculator if you want to convert any of your recipe measurements from grams to cups, ounces, tablespoons or millilitres and vice versa. You can also use the calculator for converting oven temperatures between Fahrenheit, Celsius and Gas marks.
If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read all about it in this post on baking at high altitudes.
Pin for later
If you would like to make this recipe for seafood stuffed pancakes why not pin it to your Pinterest board so you can find it easily. Just click on the image below.
The recipe
Cheesy seafood stuffed pancakes
(Click the stars to rate this recipe)
Equipment
- Spatula
- 7" x 14" (approx) baking dish
Ingredients
- 8 ready-made pancakes
- 8 oz (225g) firm white fish fillets
- 8 oz (225g) frozen cooked seafood mix defrosted
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup cheddar cheese grated
- 2 oz (60g) butter
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley or substitute with fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon cornflour or cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons extra milk
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Pour the milk into a large frying pan or saucepan, stir in the parsley (and salt if using) and then add the fish fillets. Bring the heat to a simmer and allow the fish to cook for 6 to 7 minutes, turning once.
- The fish should have turned opaque and be starting to flake.
- Transfer the fish from the poaching liquid onto a plate and break into pieces with a fork. Discard any skin and check carefully for bones.
- Leave the poaching liquid in the pan. This will be used to make the sauce.
- Add the butter to the milk that the fish was cooked in and allow it to melt over a low heat.
- Mix the cornflour with 2 tablespoons of extra milk and pour it into the milk. Stir until the sauce thickens and leaves a trail as you draw a spoon through it. Add extra cornflour and milk mixture to get the right consistency.
- Stir in half of the cheese until it melts and then add the flaked fish and defrosted seafood.
- Lay one pancake out flat and spoon some of the filling onto the bottom third of the pancake.
- Roll the pancake into a cylinder around the filling and place the rolled pancake in a greased baking dish.
- Continue with the remaining pancakes and filling.
- Spread any remaining filling over the rolled pancakes and then sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
- Place the baking dish in a pre-heated oven (180C / 375F) for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and golden.
- Serve hot with a leafy green salad and garden peas.
Notes
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.
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