With that said, this party dish may or may not be a true taste of Louisiana, but it does have unbelievable flavors that will wow your friends. It will also wow your wallet so don't be ashamed to let your guests bring some of the ingredients. This really adds to the fun and community feeling of making this party dish happen. Although you are coordinating the boil, everyone is involved and it creates a wonderful party atmosphere. Your guests will have as much fun making the boil as they do eating it.
This is an all day event of food and drink so if you're like me, hide the car keys and get ready for a great day. At our boil, we had our pot showcased under a tent while we enjoyed numerous chips, dips and munchies. We have it in the dead of summer with numerous summer beverages that add the feel of a southern boil. Don't start the pot too soon, let the anticipation grow for a couple of hours. What fun it is to drink, munch and talk about the food that is to come!
Finally, timing is everything with this party dish, so I must abandoned my usual, "do this for about one beer" stuff. It simply won't work with a boil of this sort. Go ahead and get drunk, but not too drunk- you need to remember the order and time to cook each element. This is sooooo easy, but it is also easy to screw it up.
Enjoy!
Missing from pictures Crab Legs!
Ingredients-
Water- 5 gals
Medium to Dark Beer- 3 bottles
Zatarain's Crab Boil- 3 boxes
Kosher Salt- 1/2 cup
Black Pepper- 1/4 cup
Garlic- 2 heads
Lemons- 3
Small Red Potatoes- 2 lbs
Small Yellow Potatoes- 2 lbs
Red Onions- 3
Sweet Bell Peppers- 3 multicolored
Kielbasa- 3 lbs
Corn On The Cob- 10 ears
Lobster Tails- 1 per guest
Little Neck Clams- 3 dozen
Mussels- 3 dozen
Jumbo Shrimp- 4 lbs
Calamari- 2 lbs
Snow Crab Clusters- 4 lbs
I cannot stress enough that timing and order is everything for this boil. The ingredients are only guidelines for you. This was our boil, but you may want more veggies, different sausage or some other seafood. Whatever you want to put in this pot will work thanks to the broth that really makes it. Trust me, and as Trump says, "it's gonna be great, your gonna love it".
Preparations for my Louisiana Boil are easy. I use all fresh or thawed seafood, nothing frozen or the timing will be screwed up. Shuck the corn and break each ear in two. Quarter the onions and the lemons. Chop the sausage into 3/4 long chunks. All potatoes should be about salt potato size, if not, then cut them up. I prefer small whole potatoes. Clean and separate the garlic into individual cloves.
You need a massive pot for this boil, I use a 55 quart pot with an insert over a propane powered burner. Are you jealous or what?! I don't know how I ever lived without this thing.
First add the water and the dark beer. Then I lift the strainer out and put the 3 boxes of Zatarain's Crab boils under the strainer. Next, add the kosher salt and the black pepper to your water. Now turn on the burner and wait for it to boil.
Once a full boil is reached add the potatoes, garlic and lemons. The potatoes take the longest to cook and the garlic and lemon add deep flavors. Cover and wait 10 minutes.
Next, we add the kielbasa, onions and peppers. These are three items that require less time to cook than the potatoes. Cover and boil 10 minutes.
See what I mean about the order being important? Next, add the corn- cover and continue to boil for another 5 minutes. When this boil is finished, I think you'll agree that the corn steels the show! It sucks in and showcases all those wonderful flavors.
Now comes the serious shit. Here you must know your seafood and be cautious. At this point we add the thawed lobster tails because they require a bit longer to cook due to their 3-4 oz size.
Along with them we added the fresh clams to make certain that they too are cooked completely. Cover and wait about 3-4 minutes then check to see that the clams are opening. If your mussels are fresh they should be in with, and treated as the clams.
That said, our mussels were precooked and previously frozen, so we thawed them earlier and added them after the clams began to open. This was also the time to add our fresh, uncooked shrimp, because they cook so fast. Cover again and boil about 2 minutes.
The next thing we add are the calamari rings. Again, cover and boil about 2 minutes.
Finally we stuffed the precooked and thawed crab on the top to steam for about 2-3 minutes. We are really just warming them up!
Get some oven mitts, shut off the gas, pull up the basket and allow it to drain. We dumped it into trays on the table, but traditionally you dump it right on a table covered with newspaper.
Dig in!
