One of the best, tastiest and “big show” ways to entertain family and friends is to host a seafood boil. A seafood boil is an informal meal where an array of seafood are boiled in a seasoned liquid and when cooked, the contents are simply laid out for all to pick and eat what they want.
A recipe for a seafood boil varies and depends on what’s fresh and available in your market. It could be a big pot of crayfish, or crab or lobster and other fruits of the sea. The latter is the approach I took with lobster and crab as the main event, there were shrimp, clams, some smoked garlic sausage and I threw in some fresh sweet corn and baby potatoes. I was out shopping for some odds and ends and in a burst of inspiration that had to have come from the fresh seafood I saw that day in the market, the spontaneous seafood boil came into being. To host a seafood boil one needs a very large pot, some Old Bay seasoning, and some newspaper (even better buy some craft paper) to throw on to the table where your seafood will be served. A seafood boil is NOT a formal dinner gathering and you may want to host a more formal dinner for the boss. With a seafood boil, you’re up to your elbows in seafood juices, shells fly when you’re cracking the lobster and crab, you’re sucking the juices out of shrimp heads and pretty much eating with your hands. I like seafood boils. Despite seafood boils being messy to eat the flip-side is that these require little in cooking utensils (one large pot), no table cloths and since you’re throwing newsprint on the table – all one has to do is roll-up the shells in newsprint and chuck it in the trash can.
There are three key aspects to successfully cooking a seafood boil: choose the freshest of seafood (live lobster, crab and clams (or mussels), creating a flavourful liquid that will impart some flavours in the seafood and most importantly, plan and time when each component of the seafood boil gets added into the pot. Not all seafood cooks in the same amount of time and therefore lobster then crab go in first, then the clams and finally the shrimp. Your goal is to have everything in the seafood boil ready at the same time without overcooking any one element of the boil.
Tailor your seafood boil to your liking, calculate how long each ingredient needs to get cooked then arrange the order in which the seafood gets tossed in the pot. The main flavouring for my seafood boil is the favoured Old Bay Seasoning (from Chesapeake Bay) but if you can’t find it in your part of the world, you can make your own batch or simply create your own flavourful liquid based on your tastes.