Enjoy a special dinner of Seafood Doria! It‘s an impressive yet simple Japanese rice gratin dish loaded with clams, scallops, shrimp, or your choice of seafood over buttery rice and topped with melted cheese.

A white gratin dish containing Seafood Doria (Rice Gratin).

What’s your favorite comfort dish that comes to mind when the weather is cold outside? Growing up in Japan, one of those dishes for me was Seafood Doria (シーフードドリア).

What is Doria?

Some of you may not have heard of Doria before. Doria (ドリア) is a Japanese rice gratin dish with various ingredients on top. It’s one of the signature Yoshoku (洋食, a western-influenced Japanese dish) menus along with Hambagu, Omurice, and Napolitan spaghetti.

A white gratin dish containing Seafood Doria (Rice Gratin).

Typical Doria consists of steamed rice, covered with savory ingredients with sauce, and topped with melted cheese. The classic sauce is Bechamel sauce, also known as white sauce. This dish was invented in the 1930s by Swiss chef Saly Weil, the first master chef at Hotel New Grand in Yokohama, Japan.

I love Doria so much that I’ve shared non-white sauce variations of my Doria, Curry Doria, and Meat Doria recipes on my blog. Throughout the years, I received a lot of requests for the classic Seafood Doria recipe, so I am really excited to share the recipe and video tutorial with you today!

A white gratin dish containing Seafood Doria (Rice Gratin).

4 Components of Seafood Doria

1. Butter Rice

For Doria, you can use regular steamed rice to cut down on calories. However, I highly suggest making butter rice and indulging in the ultimate Seafood Doria experience. You can add garlic and make it garlic butter rice, or add chopped parsley and make parsley butter rice (2 of my favorite).

In today’s recipe, I sautéed onion and mushrooms with butter before adding cooked rice to the pan. It adds more flavors to the dish and it’s so delicious! Feel free to replace butter with olive oil for lighter calories.

2. Seafood & Toppings

This is where you can be creative with the dish and use your favorite choices of seafood. In today’s recipe, I put what you commonly see in Seafood Doria in Japan, shrimp, clams, scallops, and calamari. Feel free to add what you like! Mussels are a good choice too.

If you’re not a seafood fan, you can use chicken (however, beef or pork are not common for Doria) or try different vegetables of your choice.

3. Bechamel Sauce

The sauce I used is also known as white sauce. An equal part of butter and flour (by volume) are cooked together to make a roux, then heated milk is added to the roux and cooked to the right consistency.

It’s good to remember about 1 to 3 tablespoons of butter and flour per cup of milk, depending on the thickness of the sauce you desire. Today my recipe used a middle range of thickness: 2 Tbsp (butter) : 2 Tbsp (flour) : 1 cup (milk) ratio (but I doubled it).

In Japan, Bechamel sauce is used in many Yoshoku dishes, including White Stew (ホワイトシチュー), Cream Croquette (クリームコロッケ), creamy pasta, gratin and doria.

4. Cheese

For gratins and Dorias, I love using flavorful cheese like Gruyère, which is creamy but has a bit of salty taste to it. I sometimes add two types of cheese to add some complexity, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is always a good choice to add some accent.

A white gratin dish containing Seafood Doria (Rice Gratin).

Other Casserole Recipes

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A white gratin dish containing Seafood Doria (Rice Gratin).

Seafood Doria

4.86 from 14 votes
Enjoy a special dinner of Seafood Doria! It‘s an impressive yet simple Japanese rice gratin dish loaded with clams, scallops, shrimp, or your choice of seafood over buttery rice and topped with melted cheese.

Video

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients
 
 

For the Butter Rice

  • ½ onion
  • 4 mushrooms (cremini or button)
  • Tbsp unsalted butter (for salted butter, reduce the amount of salt you add while cooking)
  • 4 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice (about 1 cup or 150 g per serving)
  • tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
  • tsp freshly ground black pepper

For the Seafood and Sauce

  • 16 manila clams
  • 24 baby scallops
  • 12 large and jumbo shrimp
  • 4 small calamari
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup white wine (or water)

For the Bechamel Sauce

  • 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour)
  • 2 cups warm milk
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • ¼ cup reserved seafood sauce (see the instructions below)
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.

Instructions
 

  • Gather all the ingredients. For the cooked rice, please note that 1½ cups (300 g, 2 rice cooker cups) of uncooked Japanese short-grain rice yield 4⅓ cups (660 g) of cooked white rice, enough for 4 servings. See how to cook short-grain rice with a rice cookerpot over the stoveInstant Pot, or donabe.
    Seafood Doria Ingredients

To Prepare the Ingredients

  • Grease the gratin dishes with ½ Tbsp unsalted butter.
    Seafood Doria 1
  • Using the tip of a sharp knife or hands, cut off the smaller stalks of 1 head broccoli from the larger central stalk to remove whole florets, rotating the head of broccoli as you go. Prepare a medium bowl of ice water.
    Seafood Doria 2
  • Bring a small saucepan of water to a rapid boil. Add ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Add the broccoli florets and cook until crisp-tender, 1 to 1½ minutes. Remove with a fine-mesh sieve and plunge immediately into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.
    Seafood Doria 3

To Make the Butter Rice

  • Chop ½ onion finely and cut 4 mushrooms into thin slices.
    Seafood Doria 4
  • In a large frying pan, heat 1½ Tbsp unsalted butter over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until tender.
    Seafood Doria 5
  • Add the mushrooms and sauté until tender. Then add 4 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice. Break up the big chunks of rice and combine well.
    Seafood Doria 6
  • Season with ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper. Divide the rice into 4 portions and transfer the rice to the individual gratin dishes. Cover with aluminum foil and keep warm.
    Seafood Doria 7

To Make the Seafood Mix

  • Clean 16 manila clams and 24 baby scallops, and peel and devein 12 large and jumbo shrimp. (For tips, see my posts on how to clean clams and devein shrimp.) Cut the bodies of 4 small calamari into rings. Finally, cut 2 cloves garlic into thin slices.
    Seafood Doria 8
  • In a large frying pan, heat 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and cook the sliced garlic on medium heat until fragrant. Then, add all the seafood to the pan.
    Seafood Doria 9
  • Stir fry to coat the seafood with oil. Add ½ cup white wine and cover with a lid. Cook until all the clams open up.
    Seafood Doria 10
  • Once all the clam shells are open (dispose of any unopened ones), season with freshly ground black pepper. Then, remove all the seafood to a plate/bowl and cover with aluminum foil. Set aside.
    Seafood Doria 11
  • Simmer the remaining seafood sauce in the frying pan until the sauce is reduced in half, roughly ¼ cup. Keep the sauce in a bowl or measuring cup.
    Seafood Doria 12

To Make the Bechamel Sauce

  • First, make a roux. In a large frying, heat 4 Tbsp unsalted butter on medium-low heat. Once melted, add 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour) to the pan.
    Seafood Doria 13
  • Blend the flour and butter until no more lumps. Keep stirring to avoid burning the roux.
    Seafood Doria 14
  • To the roux, gradually add 2 cups warm milk, a tiny bit at a time. Combine the roux and milk well, scraping the bottom of the pan, before adding more milk.
    Seafood Doria 15
  • Once blended well, season with freshly ground black pepper. Add ¼ cup reserved seafood sauce and keep stirring to combine with the béchamel sauce.
    Seafood Doria 16
  • Add 1 tsp soy sauce and mix well to combine. Keep stirring and cook on low heat until the desired consistency.
    Seafood Doria 17

To Assemble and Broil

  • When the sauce consistency thickens and you can draw a line on the bottom of the pan, add the seafood.
    Seafood Doria 18
  • Mix well and add the blanched broccoli.
    Seafood Doria 19
  • Pour the seafood mix and béchamel sauce on the butter rice in gratin dishes. Make sure each one gets all the different ingredients.
    Seafood Doria 20
  • Sprinkle with freshly grated Gruyere cheese and 2 Tbsp panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) for a crispy texture.
    Seafood Doria 21
  • Set the oven to broil (High) and preheat for 5 minutes. Put the gratin dishes in the oven and broil for 2–3 minutes until the cheese has melted and turned a golden color on top. Garnish with Italian parsley and serve warm.
    Seafood Doria 22

To Store

  • Keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month.

Nutrition

Calories: 766 kcal · Carbohydrates: 62 g · Protein: 54 g · Fat: 32 g · Saturated Fat: 15 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 3 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 11 g · Trans Fat: 1 g · Cholesterol: 437 mg · Sodium: 781 mg · Potassium: 1411 mg · Fiber: 5 g · Sugar: 10 g · Vitamin A: 1735 IU · Vitamin C: 143 mg · Calcium: 316 mg · Iron: 5 mg
Author: Namiko Hirasawa Chen
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: doria, gratin, seafood
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4.86 from 14 votes (13 ratings without comment)
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Could I use pasta (penne or macaroni) instead of rice? Should I cook the pasta according to package first?

Hi Pamela,
Yes, you can. If you use pasta, we recommend cooking 1 minute less than the package’s instruction, so you don’t get soggy pasta. (But it’s up to your preference.😉)
Thank you very much for trying this recipe!

Hi Nami. I love your recipes. I would like to make the strawberry shortcake. However, I noticed that the cake has no gelatin in it. If I pipe rosettes on top of the cake, won’t the whipping cream weep after a while and the rosettes lose their shape? How can I enable it to maintain its shape. Please advise.

Thank you

Hi Kathy, Are you making strawberry shortcake? https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-strawberry-shortcake/ The whipped cream will stay in shape if you whipped well until “stiff peaks”.😉

Thanks for your response. Yes, I am making Strawberry shortcake I am afraid that I might over whip it if I whip it until stiff peaks. How do I know that it has reached that stage? And how long will the whipped cream remain that way for without weeping?

Hi Kathy, When you hold the whipped cream on the whisk and hold it upside down, the whipped cream’s tips will stand straight up and hold their shape. If you see that, the whipped cream is at stiff peaks. It will hold the shape for about 2 days in the refrigerator. We hope this is helpful.

Hi Nami, is there an alternative we can use for white wine?

Hello! If I want to use white fish instead of mix seafood how should I cook the fish before adding it to the sauce? I was thinking of deep frying it in batter first. Any advice? Thanks.

Hi Nami,
Thank you the many fabulous recipes. I have been trying a couple of recipes and all have turned out well so far! I cooked the Doria tonight and it turned out pretty well. The seafood sauce was beautiful and I think it salvaged the white sauce that turned clumpy after I mixed the butter and flour. Didn’t know what happened. I didn’t use most of the clumpy white sauce, only used the liquid part and luckily it was alright. Does using salted butter affect the white sauce?

Hi Nami I am excited to try cooking seafood Doria. Do I use fresh cook rice or overnight rice ?

Hi Nami, I a beginner to cooking. This dish looks yummy. Im just wondering what type of white wine do you recommend using on this dish? Thanks

Hi Nami,

I just made this last night for Valentine’s Day dinner and my husband and I both loved it! The seafood paired with the béchamel sauce omg! The flavors were so beautiful! I love seafood and this is going to be top on my list! Thank you so much for this recipe! Xoxo~

Made this today: yummy!!!
I took a frozen seafood mix instead of fresh, because I was lazy 😉
So it didn’t look as pretty as yours, but it was very tasty!
Thank you for another great recipe!

This looks incredibly delicious! However I am not allowed to consume white wine or other kinds of alcohol because of my religion. Is there any substitute for white wine?

Hi Nami,
It’s another rainy here in London and this dish was perfect for dinner tonight. Typically, I’m not a fan of béchamel sauce and find it to be bland/uninteresting but this was definitely not! Seafood Doria will be going into regular rotation.
Thanks!

I recently discovered your blog and let me just say thank you for doing this! My favorite cuisine of all time is Japanese, but unfortunately I can’t always go out and eat at restaurants since it gets expensive. My family cooks a lot of Italian and Polish food, which can be a little on the heavy side. I found a Japanese supply store near my house and have been making a lot of your recipes ever since. Each recipe is easy to make and very delicious (my favorites are vegetarian ramen, tomagoyaki and kitsune udon) I was just sick the other day and found your udon recipe, it truly did warm me up and feel better. I will definitely try this seafood doria next!

I remember that you told me about this seafood doria and also the common variation of using Bechamel sauce a while ago. This looks very impressive and exciting to try out! I’ll be doing this for next week before I’m away for 5 weeks (without cooking much unfortunately, except for every Saturday) and I’ll let you know of the outcome 🙂

The only difference would be though the type of seafood I might use. I can’t really say that I have tasted any good clams or squid in the UK (probably because of the dish). I’ll see in my store what seafood variations they have available but at the moment I feel tempted using king prawns and salmon.

Just wanted to get back to the Doria as I recently posted an image on Facebook of the outcome: Like the other two Doria’s I really loved it! The creamy texture of the Bechamel sauce, which I’m familiar with from my Spinach Rolls (only slightly differently), and the seafood (I did decide to use only Prawn for Ebi Doria at the time) had a delicious and harmonious taste to it, if I have to phrase it to a good word “musically” 😉

I have become a big fan of Doria thanks to you. I will think at this point what else for sauces could be made for a Doria, along with other food experiments I want to do. There is just not always enough time for everything though!

Best of luck and fun with making your first video with audio recording! In that post please let us know what audio recording equipment you used as I’m interested to hear about that! 🙂

Thanks for the google link – I was already captured by seeing your Doria recipes, but seeing that many at once is nearly overwhelming! 😉 And thank you for the tip to Doria!

If this tastes as good as it looks….DIVINE!!!!! I would love to make this for my girlfriend’s birthday dinner….:)

I’m so excited to see this recipe because I’ve been waiting for it ! It looks so scrumptious! I don’t have gratin dishes, though…I do have ramekins, but it’s probably smaller and have a higher side than your dishes. Or could I use a casserole pan instead of individual dishes?

So beautiful dish! I´m looking forward to make a vegan “seafood” doria, here where we live in the northern cold weather, gratins are very common food, but I have to admit I don’t enjoy such dishes so much… It becomes too much of everything, it feels somehow too heavy… And I’m very suprised by the fact att even japanese kitchen has some cheese gratins, it seems a little bit unusual? I see japanese dishes more with sauces separately, and not so mixed before servin, is that right? As I understand, there are no gratins or cheese (melt cheese) dishes in the washoku kitchen?

So interesting! I thought, I have a lot to learn about the traditional japanese kitchen, but now I understand there is an other huge part of the japanese food culture! I see forward to learn more about it! I’m really courious about if there are some countries that have influenced the yoshoku kitchen more than other and also about the attitudes japanese people have to traditional va international cusine. Thank you for this introduction to yoshoku! Have a nice evening!

Hi Nami,

This looks absolutely delicious!!! However, I couldn’t stop from laughing when I read that Gruyere is a mild cheese 🙂 Here in Switzerland it is one of the most stinky types of cheese! If you make a Doria with Swiss Gruyere I’m sure all you neighbours will smell it as well 🙂

Yes thats exactly it! I have no idea what American Gruyere tastes like 🙂 Thanks for the explanation!