Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Low Country Boil


Low Country Boil

My husband will be the first to tell you that I like trying new recipes.  I’m not that mom who cooks pasta on every Monday, meatloaf on every Tuesday, etc.  I like to try out new recipes and get my boys to try new things.  So, for Father’s Day I was looking for something that was not only good but fun.  Fun?  Yes, fun.  Food can be fun.

I lived in the south (as in North Carolina not San Clemente) for some time and fell in love with the food.  I love everything about southern cooking, except the waistline it gives me.  So as I was looking through the grocery store ads I saw that Albertsons had whole shrimp on sale for $4 a pound and it hit me.  I was going to make a Low Country Boil.  Yum.

This is what you will need (feeds about 6 people, you can adjust the recipe up or down to fit the size of your family):
Ingredients for Low Country Boil

A big pot
Old Bay Seasoning (they didn’t have this at Ralphs but I found it at Albertsons)
10 red potatoes (sliced into four)
2 packages of sausage (I bought Helshire Farms Turkey Sausage)
4 ears of corn (broke each into three)
6 lemons
1 large white onion
2 pounds of shrimp (mine was frozen that I defrosted)

Fill the large pot up with water, leaving enough room for you to add ingredients without it overflowing.  Add the Old Bay seasoning (I put in about 4-6 tablespoons, put in what you like, taste it and see) and bring to a boil. 

When the water boils, add the potatoes (I added the sausage also, but they overcooked; would recommend waiting to add them.).  

Cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add corn, sausage, onion, two lemon halves (squeeze juice into pot them throw them in) and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  
Squeeze that lemon and then just throw it inside.
Add shrimp and cook for 3 more minutes (don’t cook it any longer or it will ruin the shrimp).  Drain.
Don't overcook the shrimp. No longer than 3 minutes.

Put some plastic down on your table and some newspaper on top of that.  Pour the food right onto the newspaper.  Serve with melted butter, sliced up lemon wedges, cocktail sauce, French bread and lots of napkins.  We literally let the kids grab it with their hands and just dig in.  It was awesome.  The flavor was so good we didn’t even have time to talk in between shoveling into our mouths. 
All that was left over after my family grubbed! Pigs!
This recipe is easy to adjust; you can add different things to it like crab (whole or legs), mussels, or even lobster. Next time I will attempt the crab legs with the shrimp, but I could not find a good price and you know me… I’m cheap!

Once you try the recipe, come back and let me know what you think.  I would love to hear about how your family reacted to eating off the table.  Hopefully my kids won’t expect for our pasta to be served on newspaper tonight; that might get a little messy!

1 comment:

  1. You aren't cheap, you're smart. Never buy shrimp at the store that isn't frozen. Shrimp is shipped frozen, so for the "fresh" shrimp at the market they just thaw out the frozen shrimp.. which is super gross when you think about it.

    And you need to hit up a Ranch 99 market. They have great prices on whole live crab and can be super fun for adventurous kids to find cool, new foods.

    Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete