Chilled Seafood Platter

Name: Chilled Seafood Platter
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 1 pound mussels; 1 pound clams; 1/2 cup white wine; 4 shucked oysters; 4-8 large shrimp; 1/2 cup water; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; Salt and pepper; 1 pound ahi tuna; 1 tablespoon avocado oil; 2 lobster tails (cut in half); 2-4 cooked king crab legs; 1 lemon (cut into wedges, for serving); 1/2 cup cocktail sauce; 1 teaspoon horseradish; 1/2 small shallot (finely chopped); 1/2 cup white vinegar; 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar; 1/4 teaspoon sugar; Freshly ground black pepper; 1/2 cup oyster sauce; 1 teaspoon soy sauce or tamari; 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger; 1/2 teaspoon honey

Ingredients

Crab Legs: King Crab legs are used in this platter but smaller snow crab claws would work great as well. Use a crab cracker and scissors to cut through the thick shell to make it easier to open.

Mussels: Scrub the outside of each mussel with a Shellfish scrubber or something similar and remove the fibrous "beard" off each mussel. There is a more detailed tutorial on cleaning mussels in my mussels mariniere recipe. Once they are cleaned, mussels cook in less than 10 minutes.

Clams: Once you bring the clams home, submerge them in ice cold water, this will help the clam spit out any sand. Use a small brush or towel to clean each clam before steaming.

Ahi Tuna: Ahi is the same protein used in poke and can be eaten raw or seared. Tuna is often found frozen in stores.

Lobster Tail: Many seafood sections in grocery stores will have lobster tails steamed and cooked already, which makes it incredibly easy. If buying raw, steam, grill or boil the lobster tail and chill for the platter.

Shrimp: Look for large shrimp with a count size of 31/40. Meaning, that there are 31-40 shrimp per pound.

Oysters: Oysters should be bought fresh and eaten the same day. Many seafood departments in stores or seafood markets will even shuck the oysters for you. Some favorites are kumamoto oysters and blue point oysters.

Cocktail Sauce: A good quality cocktail sauce with horseradish is great to serve with the shrimp and crab.

Mignonette: This is a quick and bright vinegar sauce that pairs well with the oysters.

Oyster Sauce: Mix oyster sauce with soy sauce and honey and ginger and serve alongside the seared tuna.

Save the Shells from this platter: Make your own Simple Homemade Seafood Stock get more flavor and stop spending on store bought Stock.

Seared tuna is layed out on a chilled seafood platter along with shrimp, clams, oysters and crab legs.

Choosing and Buying Seafood

When buying seafood, it should smell fresh like the sea and not have any "fishy smell".

Clams and mussels should be alive and kept on ice. Discard any broken clams and mussels with broken shells or ones that do not open. Here is a detailed guide on how to clean clams to get all the sand out.

Unless you live in a tropical place, such as Hawaii, you will most likely find tuna already frozen, which is exactly what you want. Some packages may say "sushi grade" tuna as well.

Assemble the Seafood Platter

Cook the Seafood

Steam the cleaned mussels and clams in a small pot with a splash of white wine. Cover the pot and cook until the shells just open up, anywhere from 6-8 minutes. Then chill until ready to serve.

Boil the shrimp in a small pot with water, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. Cook shrimp until just cooked through and turn pink, about 3-5 minutes. Then remove and chill until ready to serve.

Sear the tuna in a hot skillet that is drizzled with avocado or vegetable oil. Sear on all sides for 1-2 minutes until a deep crust forms, but is still raw in the center. Remove the tuna and let cool for a minute, then slice into thin slices.

Cut the uncooked lobster tails in half and steam, grill or broil the lobster tails until just cooked through. Then chill until ready to serve.

Make the Sauces

Mix the cocktail sauce with 1 teaspoon of horseradish or more if you like it spicier.

For the mignonette, add finely diced shallot of a bowl along with white vinegar, rice vinegar, black pepper and a pinch of sugar and stir to combine. Set aside until ready to serve.

For the oyster sauce, add oyster sauce to a bowl along with soy sauce, fresh ginger, and a touch of honey. Stir to combine and set aside until ready to serve.

Arrange the Seafood Platter

Add crushed ice to a wide platter and sprinkle the ice with Kosher salt, this will help prevent the ice from melting too quickly.

Arrange the seafood onto the platter, making sure all of the seafood touches the ice to keep cold.

Nestle in lemon wedges and serve with accompanied sauces on the side.

Can a seafood platter be made ahead of time?

Seafood is best bought and served the same day. However, you can cook and chill the seafood earlier in the day and chill for a few hours before serving.

Recipe Tips

Mussels and clams can be cooked together in the same pot.

Many stores will have pre-cooked lobster tails and crab legs.

Ahi tuna is often sold in blocks frozen. Thaw before cooking.

Sprinkle Kosher salt liberally over the crushed ice on the platter, this will help the ice from melting quickly.

More Seafood Recipes to Try

Cold seafood platter with assorted seafood including oysters, mussels, steamed clams and seared tuna.

New2Cooking says

July 09, 2023 at 9:43 am

I needed to bring an Appetizer platter that would impress clients. This not only did that job but it was a great way to introduce them to new things like Chilled mussels, oysters and clams. I made the cocktail sauce a bit too spicy but added a splash of lemon juice to mellow it out.