This blog is world famous. That’s what we like to believe. Our opinion of ourselves is occasionally boosted by a PR firm sending us a package of stuff. A few weeks ago, we got an email from a firm hired by Old Bay Seasoning offering to send us a shrimp boil kit. “Sure,” we responded, “we love free stuff…send away.”
A few days later, we had a big fat pot, a bunch of Old Bay Seasoning and a recipe. This was in the middle of summer. Last week, we got some friends together and had a full fledged shrimp boil. Going into it, we made a few assumptions: 1) this is going to be a lot of work, 2) it’s going to be messy, and 3) we’ll never do it again. As it turns out, we were totally wrong: 1) it’s dirt easy, 2) it is messy, but…meh…messy is fun and 3) we’re going to do it again.
The shrimp boil, or really, seafood boil is a big community event with a long history in the south east. As devoted northerners, who enjoy grits, we’ve heard of shrimp boils, but never really done one ourselves. Having done one, we’d probably compare it to making a big pot of chili. Take a bunch of rough cut food, mix it up with a bunch of seasoning, and you’re done.
Here’s the recipe we followed:
Ingredients
* 1/2 cup Old Bay Seasoning
* 2 tablespoons salt
* 4 quarts water
* 1 (12 ounce) can beer
* 8 medium red potatoes, cut in quarters
* 2 large onions, cut in wedges
* 2 lbs smoked sausage, cut in 2 inch lengths
* 8 ears frozen corn on the cob, thawed (I use Birdseye Little Ears)
* 4 lbs large shrimp, in shellsDirections
1. In an 8-quart stock pot, bring Old Bay, salt, water and beer to a boil.
2. Add potatoes and onions; cook over high heat for 8 minutes.
3. Add smoked sausage; continue to cook on high for 5 minutes.
4. Add corn to pot; continue to boil for 7 minutes.
5. Add shrimp in shells, cook for 4 minutes.
6. Drain cookin liquid; pour contents of pot into several large bowl or shallow pails.
7. Sprinkle with additional Old Bay.
Another misconception we had was that it would take a few hours to finish. Totally incorrect, it took about a half hour, including rough chopping vegetables.
If we were totally hard core boil-folk, we’d dump the finished food out onto newspaper and eat with our hands. We’re far from hard core, so we just put it on a big serving plate. We still eat with our hands, so we’re still relatively tough.
Sounds very easy and the smaller kids can help with this meal also. basically you can switch the contents if somwone wants crawfish, scallops, etc. How do I get a free kit??????????
This stew is known as either Brunswick stew if youre from the csea islands of Georgia, Beaufort stew if youre from the lowcountry of South Carolina or Frogmore stew. My dad calls it frogmore, my mom calls it beaufort and my cousins call it Bruswick. Nobody calls it shrimp boil.