Pescatarians rejoice! This Three Fish Roast is the most magnificent Pescatarian Christmas centrepiece you’ll come across! Looking for a Thanksgiving Fish Recipe? Look no further!
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Table of contents
- What is a Three Fish Roast?
- Three Fish Roast Recipe
- Stuffed Fish Recipe for Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter
- Don’t want a large Salmon Roast?
- Pescatarian Roast – Different Ways
- Change the flavour of this Christmas Salmon
- How to serve this Stuffed Salmon Roast?
- Are you having a Pescatarian Christmas? Or Pescatarian Thanksgiving?
- Images by LinsFoodies
- More Christmas Recipes
What is a Three Fish Roast?
You know how a 3 bird roast is a bird in a bird, in a bird? So a three fish roast uses the same principle, just assembled slightly differently. It’s more of a top and bottom thing.
So I’ve got 2 large salmon sides filled with smoked haddock and prawns (shrimps), tied together.
This will make a wonderful alternative to your traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Or Christmas. Or Easter. So if you’re planning a Pescatarian Thanksgiving, I’ve got your back!
My late husband was a huge fan of Flipboard. Every now and then, he’d come across a food photo that he liked and would show it to me.
I must admit many of them were a little out there, and not really something that appealed to me. He loved the wow factor, like milkshakes with mini burgers, bacon, olives, etc on a stick. Yeah.
But the two-fish fish roast that he showed me sometime in 2013 or ’14 was definitely one of the best ideas he came across. As soon as I saw the image for that two-fish roast, I knew exactly how I was going to do it and that it was going to be a three fish roast instead!
So cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year or Cristmas dinner? This is perfect for your holiday feast!
Three Fish Roast Recipe
For a start, I wasn’t going to stop at 2. I mean why do 2 when you can do 3? Right?
When I saw the image on Flipboard, I immediately thought about coulibiac and our traditional fish pie and how I could work those two to create our Christmas dinner fish recipe.
Coulibiac is a fish pie too but encased in puff pastry – perfect for Christmas. Click here for the recipe or on the image below.
It only took minutes for me to settle on the filling for our pescatarian roast. This is what my very first three-fish roast contained, and what I’m doing today:
- salmon (top and bottom)
- smoked haddock (from the traditional fish pie we make)
- prawns (to get a 3rd “fish” in)
- boiled eggs (from coulibiac)
- with a creme fraiche and Dijon mustard spread on the salmon sides
Then it’s just a case of assembling and roasting it.
The result is a richly flavoured Thanksgiving or Christmas baked fish that is full of contrasting flavours and textures. Meaty, smoky, creamy, tart and herby, and so deliciously fishy, of course! Good fishy!
And it’s going to be perfect in your Christmas or Thanksgiving menu. You can stop your search for Christmas dinner ideas for pescatarians!
Stuffed Fish Recipe for Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter
This fish roast will be the star of your Thanksgiving table or Christmas table. And most certainly your Easter table!
Your guests are going to be speechless when you bring it out to the table. Mine certainly are, without fail.
When I make this Christmas fish roast, I always ensure that everyone is sitting at the table before I go ta-da as I bring it to the table.
Before my kids went vegetarian, they loved salmon. But because my girls are allergic to eggs, I’ve made this three fish roast often without eggs too. I must admit, the eggs add a lovely dimension to this Pescatarian festive recipe, so use them if you can.
Edit: Sapphire went pescatarian last year, so she certainly enjoyed this last Christmas, as did the extended family that came over.
You can use any fish you like, and any seafood. Again, the smoked fish plays a part in the final flavour. But if you don’t like smoked fish, leave it out, by all means.
Don’t want a large Salmon Roast?
If you don’t want to cook a huge salmon roast for your Thanksgiving feast or Christmas feast, use half a salmon side, for the top and bottom. You could also just use salmon fillets, as many of my readers have done.
The fillets won’t be able to take as much filling, but you will still be able to do it, just remember you must still tie the fillets together.
Another alternative is to use boneless whole fish fillets. Bass is a great option, and you can just fill them as here, reducing the amount of filling. This way, you can still have a whole roasted fish dish.
Pescatarian Roast – Different Ways
You can change up our stuffed salmon recipe in different ways:
- use any kind of fish you like, as mentioned above.
- you can change the herbs from what I’ve got today. Dill is a common herb with fish, but I don’t really like the stuff.
- you could also turn this into a spinach stuffed salmon roast. Drop me a comment if you need help.
- size of the fish can definitely be changed – use fillets or even whole, smaller fish.
- rather obviously, you can turn this into a two-fish roast. Four-fish roast? Why not, but just go easy on the filling as the more you fill, the higher the risk of it spilling out.
- change the flavour of this pescatarian roast, see below.
Change the flavour of this Christmas Salmon
Over the years, I’ve given many flavour variations to this three-fish roast, and have also made it spicy on a few occasions. So you can also change it to your taste, if you like. Here are some suggestions:
- Indian Style is one of my favourites. All you need to do is use some Indian spices and yoghurt instead of the crème fraîche I’m using here. So think turmeric, coriander and cumin, and a touch of garam masala. Shall I do a post on that?
- Make it spicy! For all of you who love your Scoville scale, and must have spice in your Thanksgiving meal or Christmas meal, you’re going to like it spicy. Add any form of chilli (pepper) to the recipe, whether you are spicing up that crème fraîche base with chilli pastes, or adding sliced chillies to the recipe itself.
I’ve used the following very successfully for a few Christmas salmon recipes and the chipotle was a huge favourite for a Thanksgiving salmon recipe I did.
Change the Stuffing
- Love shrimp cocktail during the holiday season? Stuff your salmon roast with it! All those tangy flavours will be perfect.
- If you like Thanksgiving seafood dishes, feel free to swap the prawns (shrimp) with mussels or oysters. An oyster stuffing (or oyster dressing) is very popular with many, after all.
- Want to splurge? Think lobster tails instead of the prawns (shrimp)
How to serve this Stuffed Salmon Roast?
This Christmas and Thanksgiving fish recipe will fit right in your festive menu, along with the usual side dishes.
I have it with the usual classics:
- roast potatoes (any potato recipe would be good)
- regular or sweet potato mash
- brussels sprouts
- carrots
- cranberry sauce (the bitter and sweet flavours are amazing with the meaty and creamy salmon)
- want to keep it simple? Just serve it with a side salad
You could serve it with a standard gravy, whether that’s the thinner, Bristish gravy or American gravy. But I make a lemon-butter sauce to go with it. I’ve given you an easy one in the recipe card below.
If it’s for Easter, I’ll keep the butter sauce and swap the sprouts for in-season asparagus and some green beans.
You can also have a few different dips to go with this non traditional Thanksgiving dish. That can be tartare sauce, mayonaisse or even chilli sauce.
Are you having a Pescatarian Christmas? Or Pescatarian Thanksgiving?
Let me know with a comment below. I would love to know what your favourite Pescatarian festive recipes are, and what you are planning to do this Christmas. Or Thanksgiving, if you celebrate.
What do you think of today’s Three-Fish Roast? Fancy trying it? Well then, let’s go get our aprons on!
Looking for more pescatarian Thanksgiving ideas or just more seafood recipes? Click here.
Images by LinsFoodies
More Christmas Recipes
If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Three-Fish Roast (a Pescatarian Recipe for Easter and Christmas)
Equipment
- Large oven proof dish
- Oven
- deep frying pan or a wide, shallow heat proof pan x 2
- saucepan
- Knife
- chopping boards
- bowl and plate as needed
- kitchen string and scissors
Ingredients
Smoked Haddock
Prawns (Shrimp)
- 200 g raw prawns (shrimp) small-medium
- ½ Tbsp EV olive oil
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
Everything Else
- 2 salmon sides tail end, weighing about 600g (1.3 lb) each
- 3 Tbsp crème fraîche or soured cream
- 1 Tbsp mustard
- 3 boiled eggs
- 10 g chives
- 10 g fresh parsley (small handful)
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 lemon
Lemon-Butter Sauce (bonus!)
- 200 g unsalted butter
- pinch salt
- 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Poach the haddock
- Place the milk, water and bay leaf into a shallow pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Lower the heat down and poach the haddock for 5 minutes.
- Take the haddock out, place on a plate and flake with 2 forks. Set aside.
Fry the Prawns
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan on high heat. Add the prawns, season with salt and pepper, and fry on this high heat for 2 minutes, tossing the prawns.
- Add the lemon juice, toss and tip out onto a plate.
Prepping the Salmon, Herbs, Boiled Eggs and Lemons
- Turn the oven on to 200°C (390°F/180°C Fan).
- Cut 4 lengths of the kitchen string, about 45cm (17 inches) long. We'll cut the excess later.
- Get the baking dish of your choice and lay the string down, along the width and at even intervals. Place one salmon side on the string, skin side down. Move the strings along so they are evenly spaced.
- Place the other salmon side on a large plate or chopping board, and season both skinless sides well with salt and pepper.
- Chop most of the chives and all the parsley separately, and set aside. Keep about 12 chives for the finish.
- Slice the boiled eggs into flat rounds.
- Slice the lemons into rounds.
Let's fill the Salmon
- Mix the crème fraîche and mustard together, adding a pinch of salt and some pepper, then spread it on both salmon sides, on the skinless side.
- Get the flaked smoked haddock, and evenly spread it out along the salmon side that's lying on the strings (I forgot the strings here, ignore that). Season with salt and pepper.
- Sprinkle the chopped parsley all over, then top with the boiled egg slices. Season with salt and pepper. Top with half the chives. Season with salt and pepper.
- Top with the cooked prawns, and drizzle the small amount of liquid (if any) that's in the frying pan all over. Top with the rest of the chives. Season with only a little salt and generously with pepper.
- Now, we top all this with the second side of salmon. Lay it over, tip to tip. Don't press down. Tie the ends of the kitchen string together securely. Make it tight but don't squash the salmon.
- Tuck the lemon slices under the string and some chives (or parsley). If your salmon is super fresh and your eggs were freshly boiled, you can place this prepared salmon roast in the fridge, covered, to cook next day. Take it out of the fridge an hour before cooking.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 35 minutes for a lightly done salmon. If you like your fish well done, roast it for 45 minutes. Serve it with the lemon-butter sauce that follows.
Lemon-Butter Sauce
- Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat, stirring every so often.
- When it gets to be a light golden brown (about 3 minutes), take if off the heat and pour into your gravy boat. Stir in the salt and lemon juice, and whip with a fork to mix.You could turn this into brown butter, just heat it up a little longer, about 1 minute. Take it off when it's a mid brown.
- Finish with the pepper and serve with our fish. It will remain pourable for about 20 minutes, but can be heated up easily in the microwave oven.
If smoked haddock isn’t available, what’s the alternative ?
You can use any smoked fish, smoked trout is a good one for the flavour, smoked salmon will also work.
You don’t have to poach these, just flake the trout over.
If using smoked salmon, see if you can find smoked salmon trimmings, these are cast offs and already in small pieces. Otherwise, chop up the smoked salmon slices.
Thank you for taking the time to reply. Do you mean the ready to eat smoked trout or smoked salmon?
Yes, the ready to eat kind, so hence no need to poach.
I think the trout, if you can get it, will be especially good in this.
And it’s my pleasure, Dree.
i dont have access to smoked haddock. what other fish can i use?
This would be wonderful for Easter Sunday. So elegant and different from the traditional ham we are used to where I live!
Absolutely.
Such a delicious celebratory dish, the whole family was so impressed and it went down perfectly!
I’m so pleased to hear that, Freya.
I am just starting to branch out more with fish and cooking. I have always been pretty basic with cooking and eating fish. This sounds like a great recipe to try!
It will stretch those culinary muscles. 🙂
This sounds amazing as I’m trying to change up Xmas dinner.
Question: My Mom does not do shellfish; strictly fish. What can I added for the 2nd layer besides smoked haddock?
Can’t wait to try this for Xmas dinner 2021:)
Hi Michelle, do you mean your mum doesn’t do smoked fish? Because if she doesn’t do fish, the whole thing is a salmon recipe?
Just leave out the smoked haddock, if she doesn’t like it, you’ve still got lots going on.
I hope that helps, if not, get back to me, and we’ll figure it out.
Hi
Michelle said shellfish not smoked. She’s looking for a substitute for the prawns.
Interesting recipe. Will give it a go.
Tom
Thanks Tom, I was thrown by the consecutive words of shellfish, then fish. But yes, figured it out after the fact. Hopefully it was all good.
Let me know if you do make it, this is a regular for us at Christmas and Easter, to feed the pescatarians.
Hello, Lin!
We’d love to make this as our main for Christmas but we don’t have an oven. Can I make it in the microwave/frying pan? What do you suggest?
Thanks!
Es
Hi Es, the only thing you have to think about here is the size of the salmon. If you have a convection microwave oven (the sort that can also bake cakes), then you can definitely make the whole recipe in there, using the convection settings, just as they are in the recipe. The only problem will be making your salmon fit. Perhaps smaller sized salmon pieces?
Frying pan – you’ll have to cook the salmon and everything else separately, and just assemble and serve. Here, you can either fry or steam the salmon (you’ll need a big steamer).
1. First thing, you definitely want to use salmon that will fit your biggest frying pan.
2. Season the salmon, and cook in the frying pan on medium-low heat on the skinless side for 5 minutes. Then, lower the heat down, cover, and cook for another 10 minutes or so, depending on the thickness of the salmon. We cover to partially steam the salmon, and also to cook it thoroughly without turning over, to preserve the skin side for presentation purposes.
3. Cook all the other ingredients completely as in the recipe.
4. Then just assemble everything as in the recipe and serve.
ps: let me know how it goes.
Hi again!
So I made it using the pan and then assembled all together… a trick I used was I put the lemon slices under the salmon fillets in the pan, because I thought it would emulate the effect of the tied lemon slices when using an oven. I also substituted chives with the green part of a leek (because I couldn’t find any before Christmas) and left the shrimp out because my boyfriend doesn’t like shrimp. In the end it was absolutely delicious and I loved the perfect balance of all the flavours, even the eggs and parsley which I was not expecting to be such a perfect touch! It’s a shame that I cannot post pictures of the result here.
So, thank you very much for sharing this recipe and for helping me out with the method.
Kind regards,
Es
Hi Es, I’m really pleased to hear that, lemon slices on the bottom is a great idea. My readers tend to post pictures on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Those who aren’t on social media, send the the pics to me via email. I then create a gallery of readers’ images. I have 2 that I need to get done here.
Good fishy indeed, Azlin! Thanks for your tips on downsizing it using filets — my hubby isn’t big on salmon or fish in general. I MIGHT share some of the Scampi style shrimp with him though. 🙂 I don’t have access to smoked haddock, so I’ll probably have to sub bass poached in Court Bouillon, and play around with the creamy factor due to my dairy allergy. Your Indian idea sounds marvelous, too — maybe with coconut yoghurt? Thanks again!
Thank you, Kim, this is a real favourite of mine! And yes, the coconut yoghurt or plain yoghurt is a great idea for the Indian style.
Thank you, Kim. Coconut yoghurt would work if you want non dairy. But regular yoghurt is a an essential ingredient in the Indian kitchen.
We have a family member who doesn’t like shrimp. What do you suggest I use instead? Thanks.
Hi Jane, you have 2 options:
1. leave the shrimp out altogether, for a 2 -fish roast.
2. use FRESH crab meat. Don’t used canned.
Let me know how it goes.
can I freeze this 3 fish roast please?
Hi Julia, you can freeze it after assembly, but I would leave the eggs out, as egg whites don’t freeze too well, they tend to get chewy. You could, just use the yolks, if you like.
Cook it straight from frozen, for about an hour. The time will depend on the size and thickness of the fish as well as the amount of filling. Just stick a knife somewhere towards the middle at 50 minutes to see if the fish is cooked.
You will probably need to cover the fish with some foil if you are cooking it for longer, to stop it from burning.