It’s summer, and we are finally on vacation. We’ve turned off the cell phones, closed out of the email, turned up the beach music, and are raising some cold beverages. The stress is melting away, as each wave crashes upon the shore.
We are on the Gulf of Mexico, in one of our favorite places—Orange Beach, Alabama. Our spot is right on the beach. We look out on white sands, and turquoise waters. It’s a little slice of heaven.
The Gulf is clean, fun, and family oriented. At night, the kids run around the beach with flash lights, collecting crabs. We told the kids that the Alabama Game Warden limits each family to 30 crabs (figuring we needed to leave some for others), but there were plenty–we still counted at least 10 more as we walked back to our place. We set the crabs free near the door, sending them scurrying for new homes.
The Gulf coast it is a great place to fish. Just the other day we drove over to my favorite pier in Pensacola Beach, Florida to see what was biting. We always catch plenty of tuna—this time it was amberjack. These boys caught a giant 6 foot tarpon off the end of the pier, and had to walk it to the beach to release it. What fun.
Summertime beaches and fishing always make me crave a good Southern Shrimp Boil–a steaming pot of boiled shrimp to peel and eat, along with sweet summer corn, spicy sausage and boiled potatoes. It gets even better when you add some jalapeño hush puppies!
Here’s how I do it.
First off, you need good shrimp. Find a great local place. The one I shop at, Fresh Market Seafood, is run by the Wallace family, who founded the Lagoon fishing village in 1861. (That village was located just a few miles from the shop.) I like shopping local, at family places. They know their business, and they always give extra effort to be helpful. It’s clear they want you to have a great meal, and to return. So I take the extra time to go local, even if it means a slightly higher price. It always returns in quality, freshness, and good food karma.
At Fresh Market Seafood, they had great local gulf shrimp, but they also had some wonderful Red Royal shrimp (those are the ones on the left in the above photo). I had never seen them before. Huge, beautiful red shrimp. They said they tasted like lobster, so I just had to get some of them too. Once they are cooked, they really look like lobster too!
I ended up buying three pounds of gulf shrimp (uncooked, and in the shell) along with a pound of the Red Royals, planning a dinner for four adults and two kids. It was too much! With all the corn and potatoes and sausage and hush puppies, two and a half pounds of shrimp would have been plenty.
You’ll want to pick up some new potatoes, say three small ones per person, one large onion, two lemons and about eight cloves of garlic. I like sausage in my shrimp boil, so if you like sausage, buy a pound or so of smoked sausage. You’ll also need on whole ear of sweet corn per person, cut into halves. The spice comes from about a half cup of Old Bay seasoning, fresh lemon halves and sprigs of fresh thyme. Our market had homemade jalapeño hush puppies right from the fish market, so I threw those in the basket. (Cook those about 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Break them in half as you eat them, and slather them with butter.)
Get a large pot, about a foot in diameter and about 18 inches tall. If you’ve ever cooked lobsters, you will want to use that pot. Add about a half cup of Old Bay seasoning. Cut 2 of your lemons in half, seed them if you like (you don’t really need to because you will pour off the broth at the end), squeeze all four halves into the pot, and then drop them in. They will season the broth wonderfully.
Cut the ends off of the onion, and peel it down a layer or so to get to a layer that is not papery at all. Cut the onion into quarters and add them to the pot. Add the thyme sprigs. You can tie them up with a bit of kitchen twine, which will make them easier to remove in the end. If you’re lazy and don’t tie them, you will be picking out sprigs of thyme at the end! So you’ve been warned.
Smash about a half a head of garlic and add them to the pot. I cut the root ends off the cloves, and then crush them. If you have a fancy tool, go ahead and use that. If you have a 50¢ water glass, even better.
Add the crushed garlic to the pot.
Now it’s time to add cold water. You will want to add about a half a pot of cold water. Put it on a high flame and bring to a boil. Once the broth has boiled, add your potatoes. I keep them whole. If you cut them, they tend to mush up the broth and cover the shrimp and corn with little starchy bits of potato, so keep them whole. Re-covert the pot and boil the potatoes in the broth for about 5 minutes. Then add the corn and re-cover the pot.
After another 5 minutes of boiling the above, add the shrimp, stir the pot from the bottom to make sure everything is cooking evenly, and cover the pot once again.
You want to give it only about about 3 minutes of boiling, and then check the shrimp. Cook it just until the shrimp is cooked through. If you have grey shrimp to start, they should turn bright pink. Once they are done, get them out right away.
Drain the liquid into the sink. You can keep a couple cups of broth if you like. It is spicy and lemony and savory and is terrific, but most often, we eat the shrimp dry. (Or at most, dressed with a little more lemon juice and a final sprinkling of Old Bay Seasoning. That’s what the last lemon is for.) Some like to dump out the drained pot onto newspaper or brown paper bags, but I’m a plate man. Even paper plates. Unless we are eating Maryland crabs, and then dumping out on paper is great. Serve with a good Southern hot sauce, extra lemon wedges and a couple shakes of Old Bay Seasoning.
Here’s another shot of those buttery, lobstery, amazingly delishousy Red Royal Shrimp. Enjoy!
- 2 ½ pounds of shrimp
- 18 small russet potatoes
- 6 ears of corn
- 1 pound of sausage
- ½ cup Old Bay Seasoning
- 3 lemons, cut in half and seeded
- 1 onion, peeled and quartered
- ½ of a head of garlic, smashed
- Get a large pot, about a foot in diameter and about 18 inches tall. If you’ve ever cooked lobsters, you will want to use that pot.
- Add a half cup of Old Bay seasoning.
- Cut 2 of your lemons in half, seed them if you like (you don’t really need to because you will pour off the broth at the end), squeeze all four halves into the pot, and then drop them in. They will season the broth wonderfully.
- Cut the ends off of the onion, and peel it down a layer or so to get to a layer that is not papery at all. Cut into quarters and add them to the pot. Add the thyme sprigs. You can tie them up with a bit of kitchen twine, which will make them easier to remove in the end. If you’re lazy and don’t tie them, you will be picking out sprigs of thyme at the end! So you’ve been warned.
- Smash about a half a head of garlic and add them to the pot. I cut the root ends off the cloves, and then crush them. If you have a fancy tool, go ahead and use that. If you have a 50¢ water glass, even better. Add the crushed garlic to the pot.
- Now it’s time to add cold water. You will want to add about a half a pot of cold water. Put it on a high flame and bring to a boil. Once the broth has boiled, add your potatoes. I keep them whole. If you cut them, they tend to mush up the broth and cover the shrimp and corn with little starchy bits of potato, so keep them whole. Re-covert the pot and boil the potatoes in the broth for about 5 minutes. Then add the corn and re-cover the pot.
- After another 5 minutes of boiling the above, add the shrimp, stir the pot from the bottom to make sure everything is cooking evenly, and cover the pot once again.
- You want to give it only about 3 minutes of boiling, and then check the shrimp. Cook it just until the shrimp is cooked through. If you have grey shrimp to start, they should turn bright pink. Once they are done, get them out right away.
- Drain the liquid into the sink. You can keep a couple cups of broth if you like. It is spicy and lemony and savory and is terrific, but most often, we eat the shrimp dry. (Or at most, dressed with a little more lemon juice and a final sprinkling of Old Bay Seasoning. That's what the last lemon is for.) Some like to dump out the drained pot onto newspaper or brown paper bags, but I'm a plate man. Even paper plates. Unless we are eating Maryland crabs, and then dumping out on paper is great.
- Serve with a good Southern hot sauce, extra lemon wedges and a couple shakes of Old Bay Seasoning.
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