Low Country Boil — Weekend Food Project

This is a made-for-the-patio meal that serves large groups or small gatherings. We love to prepare this on a day that we know it is going to be nice patio weather. Boil up a feast and pour it out on the table covered in newspaper for everyone to enjoy. It is simple and quick and something you should make when the weather isn't too hot or too cold.

Low Country Boil

Research:

This is a dish that we have made in the past, but to refresh our memory we did some Googling around and ended up using Paula Deen's suggestions, along with Old Bay's. We also decided to add in fresh carrots because we had them.

Plan:

Fill up the big pot about three-fourths full of water and bring to a boil. Add in 1/4 cup of Old Bay seasoning. Once the water is boiling, we will add the potatoes, carrots and sausage. Add in one beer for good measure. After 20 minutes add the corn. Then 10 minutes later add the shrimp and cook for 3 minutes. Then serve!

Ingredients:

2 lbs of large shrimp
1 bunch of carrots
2 ears of corn
7 or 8 small red potatoes (2 per person)
1/4 cup of Old Bay
3/4 pot of water
2 onions
2 lemons
1 lb of kielbasa sausage

Execution:

Add in the Old Bay and turn up the heat. After you do this, you have a lot of time. On our gas stove it takes forever to get this much water to boil. So while waiting, go ahead and prep the other ingredients.

Sliced up 1 lb of kielbasa sausage, 2 onions and clean the red potatoes. Also note the beer that we added to the mix. Seemed a shame to pour the whole thing in so I had a taste. It was good.

Sliced up a couple of lemons and the carrots also.

Sliced up 2 ears of corn into small pieces.

Finally boiling, so add the potatoes

The sausage

Onions and carrots

20 minutes later add in the corn

Finally add in the shrimp and cook for 3 minutes. Go ahead and splurge on the shrimp for this dish. Get the large fresh shrimp. Cook them whole with the shell. The dish needs it for extra taste, plus it is fun to peel and eat when the dish is complete.

A few minutes later, pour it out on the table and gather your family.

A delightful family meal.

Verdict:

It was delicious, but there are a few things that we did wrong. First, use about 1/2 pot of water. That would be plenty. Second, the Old Bay site called for 1/2 cup of Old Bay, and we cut that in half because it seemed too much. It isn't, go ahead and use 1/2 cup.

Finally, pick a day when a rain storm isn't going to hit! We had to move it inside last minute because of a storm.