| | Best Summer Meal Ever... the BoilPage 1 of 1 | Yes, they happen all over the country by different names...
In the South East they call it the Low Country Boil
In the North east it is the Lobster Bake
On the West Coast it is the Clam Bake
But in Texas and Louisiana it is the Crawfish Boil!
Now, always a Crawfish Boil includes whole Potatoes and Corn-on-the-Cob; almost always a Crawfish boil also includes Shrimp; and often it may include Smoked Sausage; and in some households, like mine, a Crawfish Boil includes
Crawfish, Shrimp, Blue Crabs and some Sausage with the whole Potatoes and Corn-on-the-Cob
You can do any amount you want, but typically I use a couple of 3-6 gallon stock pots, half filled with water, divide the following between (it is best to have the perforated basket inserts, but not essential):
5 pounds of potatoes
16 ears of corn that have been cleaned and cut into halves or thirds
Let these cook til about half done
Pour in a couple of bags of Zatarain's Crawfish, Shrimp and Crab Boil or
3 Tbls Zatarain's Liquid Seafood Boil plus 1 cup of salt. (These are per 3-5 gallons of water depending on how much heat you like)
Add 5# live Blue Crabs (at about 5" body diameter, that is roughly 15-20 crabs)
Let boil for 5 minutes
Add 5# live Crawfish and 4# of Smoked Sausage cut into 3" pieces, if using
Let boil for 15 minutes
Add 5# Shrimp in Shells
Let boil for 2 minutes. Let all sit off heat for 5 minutes while you do the next step.
*Note: Always adjust the water and maybe size of pan, so that water is always covering all of the contents.
Here is the best part. Outside, under trees in the shade, cover a picnic table with several layers of last Sundays newspaper, add a roll of paper towels to each end of the table and several paper bowls of c@cktail sauce, lemon and lime wedges, one of prepared horseradish and a mallet or small hammer for every person (You can do this at home, at a park, or at the lake, or the ocean. Those turkey frying set ups are great for this, but you can also use a grill or a campfire).
Now pull out those perforated inserts and let drain or remove the food with large slotted spoons or Wok baskets. Pour all of the boiled food in a line down the center length of the table. When everyone is done picking shells and eating all of that good lusciousness, simply remove the mallets and fold up the newspaper over the rest and throw it in the nearest garbage can! Who wouldn't love this?!
You will want to make ahead the c@cktail sauce and slice the lemons and limes and make dessert. I will always make a huge deep dish fresh Strawberry Pie and a Huge Key Lime Pie, because these are so fast to make and require very little effort at all. They are also very refreshing for summer. If you are doing this away from home, the Strawberry Pie would not be a good idea because of the whipped cream unless you have a giant piping bag of whipped cream in a 2 gallon ziploc in an ice chest.
In Texas we did this in the backyard once a month in summer. I miss those days!
**Note: If you want to make the seasoning yourself, just mix Old Bay, salt and Cayenne OR
2 parts each - yellow mustard powder, coriander powder, ground dill seed, garlic powder, celery seed, ginger powder, black pepper, onion powder, mace
1 part each - ground allspice, ground cloves, ground bay leaves, cinnamon
6 parts - ground cayenne
10 parts - sea salt or kosher salt
SS :-) | |
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| Best Summer Meal Ever... the Boil
Posted: 7/5/2012 1:27:39 PM | As I was reading over it to see if I screwed anything up....had to catch a phone call before I could finish editing... I noticed that I have 4# Smoked Sausage. With that amount of Seafood, I would only use 2# of Smoked Sausage. Sorry I didn't catch it in the edit.
I also forgot to mention that I put a few bowls of melted butter too, for the crab and a bottle of red and one of green Tabasco Sauce
I know a lot of people, including southern transplants to northern places, do not live where seafood in quantity is affordable. However, there are places online that you can order it for a reasonable price to be shipped to you. The shipping may be steep though. All of those places also try to sell you all of these foods cooked. DON'T buy the cooked. Only get the raw, whole and preferably live when frozen, if you have to get frozen.
You really hit the jackpot if you get whole shrimp with heads. The heads are the best part of the shrimp, not only for flavor, but for eating. Whether it is boiled, fried or otherwise cooked, shrimp heads are AMAZING!
SS :-) | |
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| Best Summer Meal Ever... the Boil
Posted: 7/5/2012 5:21:11 PM | Sure IS. There really isn't much variation in Key Lime recipes, because it is only 3 ingredients. How you present it is another story.
Key Lime Pie
I like a really big deep one, like a NY Cheesecake would be, so I use a 9" Springform Pan. I never make it like a pie in a pie pan.
As you know, I do not like graham cracker crust, so I use a regular pie pastry, which I love for this, because it cuts the sweet. You can use grahams, shortbread, or even vanilla wafers. You will probably need a double recipe of whatever cookie crust you make if you want it to go up the sides of the springform pan. Bake the crust and allow it to cool with the sides of the pan still closed.
I double and triple this for my springform pan, but for those using a pie pan, this is what you will need:
2 - 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
6 egg yolks
1 cup Key Lime Juice (comes in a bottle in the regular grocery store beside bottled lemon juice and other juices)
a few (start with 3) drops of green food coloring (or it will be a creamy yellow color)
1 tsp - 1 Tbls lime zest
Whisk the egg yolks into the condensed milk, then whisk in food color. Add the lime juice little by little, whisking until mixture starts to thicken nicely. Scrape the mixture into the pie shell and let it chill and set up, at least 6 hours, covered with plastic wrap over the top of the pan, tightly. Remove side ring from pan. Being careful with crust, you may need to run a plastic spatula or knife between the crust and side of pan. If you didn't put crust up the sides of the pan, wrap a hot towel around the outside of the pan for a minute, then use a thin dull knife to slide around the congealed pie sides to loosen from pan.
Some people make flavored meringue with the remaining whites and dress the top of the pie (not browned as with banana pudding).
Some people prefer it with whipped cream or whipped topping.
Others will decorate it with fruit.
Sprinkle lime zest over to serve.
*Note: I always use organic free range eggs that I get direct from the grower, but the eggs are cooked by the lime juice just like ceviche would be, so no need to worry, but play it safe and get good fresh eggs.
SS :-) | |
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| Best Summer Meal Ever... the Boil
Posted: 7/6/2012 4:46:38 AM | If you're lucky you can find fresh key limes at the grocery store, we get them here in Texas. Fresh squeezed juice is my first choice when making this pie, but takes lots of them because they're so small, but worth the effort.
Crawfish boils, oh my gosh, one of the best parts of living in Louisiana in the spring time! It's like fast food really because a crawfish stand is on nearly every corner, you just find the one you like best. They'll fill grocery store bags with just the crawfish and another with corn, potatoes and so on, then set your bags in a cardboard beer flat for the drive home. Don't forget to stop for cold beer and dinner is a done deal, just eat till you can't,,,, but take all the trash to the dumpster when you're done, it's some smelly stuff!
Good times!
tb | |
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| Best Summer Meal Ever... the Boil
Posted: 7/6/2012 7:15:14 AM | | What fabulous cooks you all are in here!! Key lime recipe....good gravy!!! It would be amazing IF I ever saw key limes in our stores here in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Possibly I MIGHT have seen key limes in the grocery stores but rare though. | |
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| Best Summer Meal Ever... the Boil
Posted: 7/6/2012 7:19:38 AM | M. They're tiny little things, but big on taste! But, you can still get a really good pie with regular limes or the bottled juice SS uses. Quick to make too, waiting for it to chill takes the longest time.
tb | |
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| Best Summer Meal Ever... the Boil
Posted: 7/7/2012 7:31:11 AM | I just saw an interesting twist on the crust for the key lime pie on just a pinch. Instead of cracker or cookie crumbs they used crumbled pretzels, sugar and butter. Salty, sweet and tangy pie,, sounded tasty to me..
tb | |
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| Best Summer Meal Ever... the Boil
Posted: 7/7/2012 10:33:14 AM | thanks salmon...thats the basic recipe i used before i believe...very close anyway...someone requested it at a restaurant i worked at so i gave it a whirl using a recipe i found on the net...they liked it...i never used key limes tho...i have never seen them here...or the juice...
the damn waitresses kept calling it kiwi lime pie tho...no...no...no | |
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| Best Summer Meal Ever... the Boil
Posted: 7/7/2012 4:11:24 PM | LOL Rax, you're funny
High_Flight You are very kind. I know how hard it is when you are limited by lack of availability
IS that is funny because I often decorate mine with kiwi
Texasbaby, YUM on the pretzels! I may try that. As far as using fresh key limes, you are so right, but since my mother sold my $300 juicer and kept the money when I only LOANED it to her, my citrus juicer attachment for my mixer disappeared and my wooden Mexican hand citrus juicer disappeared and I can't get Mexican tools here, I just said screw it and have used the bottled juice. Besides, I knew a lot of people here would only be able to use bottled juice. I am just too lazy to use a fork to squeeze 50 limes, anymore and it is messy that way.
I have used regular fresh limes when it was off season instead of key limes and it works, but it is not the same flavor. However, for those of you that have never had key limes, you wont know the difference. TB isn't living in New Orleans an amazing seafood experience? It is heaven if you love seafood, which is a relevant term since a lot of what is categorized as seafood is swamp or mud puddle in origin LOL Unless you are from the south, the term Swamp Food is just not appreciated.
UglyOldFatBaldUseless (that name kills me) YES let me tell you about eating shrimp heads. Their value is why you never see them on fresh shrimp anymore unless you are right by the shore where there is a shrimping industry. They have the most intense, yet delicate seafood shrimp flavor and make an excellent broth beyond compare.
The head is full of a very soft meat that is the true delicacy of the shrimp. You can compare it to the tomalley of a lobster, but it is pale pink in color. In the head of a shrimp is the stomach, heart and liver-pancreas (hepatopancreas, one organ). When the heads are pulled form the body, most of the stomach and heart are pulled away too, but the remaining sweet, delicate goodness is the liver-pancreas, just like the tomalley of lobster is.
The exoskeleton of the head is in sections and can easily be pulled off, like you do the bottom sections of the tail. Under that is a papery lining. If you get thin shelled shrimp, soft shelled shrimp, or remove a thick exoskeleton and tempura batter then fry the whole head, you have the most delectable food I can imagine. In shushi restarants when you order ebi at a shushi restaurant (sweet shrimp raw) you get the head from that shrimp along with it that has been lightly dusted with rice flour and deep fried. It is that good.
And that is how and why you eat a shrimp head. If you boil the shrimp with the heads on or are making broth with the shrimp heads, it is like the old crawfish saying...suck the head and eat the tails thing, it is the same reason. Good stuff in the heads.
SS :-) | |
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| Best Summer Meal Ever... the Boil
Posted: 7/7/2012 4:12:25 PM | LOL Rax, you're funny
High_Flight You are very kind. I know how hard it is when you are limited by lack of availability
IS that is funny because I often decorate mine with kiwi
Texasbaby, YUM on the pretzels! I may try that. As far as using fresh key limes, you are so right, but since my mother sold my $300 juicer and kept the money when I only LOANED it to her, my citrus juicer attachment for my mixer disappeared and my wooden Mexican hand citrus juicer disappeared and I can't get Mexican tools here, I just said screw it and have used the bottled juice. Besides, I knew a lot of people here would only be able to use bottled juice. I am just too lazy to use a fork to squeeze 50 limes, anymore and it is messy that way.
I have used regular fresh limes when it was off season instead of key limes and it works, but it is not the same flavor. However, for those of you that have never had key limes, you wont know the difference. TB isn't living in New Orleans an amazing seafood experience? It is heaven if you love seafood, which is a relevant term since a lot of what is categorized as seafood is swamp or mud puddle in origin LOL Unless you are from the south, the term Swamp Food is just not appreciated.
UglyOldFatBaldUseless (that name kills me) YES let me tell you about eating shrimp heads. Their value is why you never see them on fresh shrimp anymore unless you are right by the shore where there is a shrimping industry. They have the most intense, yet delicate seafood shrimp flavor and make an excellent broth beyond compare.
The head is full of a very soft meat that is the true delicacy of the shrimp. You can compare it to the tomalley of a lobster, but it is pale pink in color. In the head of a shrimp is the stomach, heart and liver-pancreas (hepatopancreas, one organ). When the heads are pulled form the body, most of the stomach and heart are pulled away too, but the remaining sweet, delicate goodness is the liver-pancreas, just like the tomalley of lobster is.
The exoskeleton of the head is in sections and can easily be pulled off, like you do the bottom sections of the tail. Under that is a papery lining. If you get thin shelled shrimp, soft shelled shrimp, or remove a thick exoskeleton and tempura batter then fry the whole head, you have the most delectable food I can imagine. In shushi restarants when you order ebi at a shushi restaurant (sweet shrimp raw) you get the head from that shrimp along with it that has been lightly dusted with rice flour and deep fried. It is that good.
And that is how and why you eat a shrimp head. If you boil the shrimp with the heads on or are making broth with the shrimp heads, it is like the old crawfish saying...suck the head and eat the tails thing, it is the same reason. Good stuff in the heads.
SS :-) | |
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