Low Country food

Wine and hot seafood snacks.

Wow, your feast rivaled anything I've ever experienced here in the Lowcountry!

cookinginvictoria great idea! Your best Lowcountry dish recipe contest! At least now I have a few under my belt and there must be so many great ones in the Food52 community.

Hey everyone, thanks for the fantastic suggestions for our Lowcountry Cookout. The food was amazing and there was so much of it! But there was so much we had to leave out. I learned how to steam oysters over a fire and shuck them. I learned how to make She-Crab Soup and shrimp and grits. I even learned how to spell Lowcountry. Check out our full menu and see how it went on my blog.
http://www.jacksonholefoodie.com/home/how-to-throw-a-high-country-lowcountry-cookout

Shrimp and grits

A yellow layer cake w/ sugary, fluffy white icing, and shredded coconut pressed all over topped w/ a maraschino cherry! When I lived down there, banana pudding w/ vanilla wafers was served w/ every meal, but up here it might not go over quite as well. Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis's books are about the best Southern cookbooks I've ever read if you really want to delve into the subject.

Chess pie. It's super easy to make and really tasty. Plus it travels easily

My SC side of the family almost always has Frogmore Stew as previously mentioned (Low country boil), the oysters cooked with a wet burlap bag are also standard fare. A ham or ham biscuits (which is just a piece of ham on a biscuit), dirty rice, mac-n-cheese, cheese straws and smoked trout dip (although that's more of a GA thing) how up regularly too. Desserts are big deal at Southern cookouts, the number of desserts rival the savory items. We usually have a coconut cake, hummingbird cake, pralines and strawberry shortcakes. The occasional ambrosia will show up too.

I think Virginia Willis got this one. (g).
If the hostess is doing the seafood and you're bring something..the seafood is her call. Although the shrimp should be low country boil with potatoes, sausage, and corn (in summer as mentioned).

If the hostess doesn't know....get some "Zatarain" seasoning. In the bag. Put the bag in the boiling pot with a can of beer and a couple of lemons sliced up (That helps extract the spice bag flavors). Add in the new potatoes, sausage..and boil until the potatoes start softening. Oh, the sausage is your basic smoked sausage that's already cooked.

When the potatoes talk to you, put in the shrimp. Then in about 10 mins drain it and serve. If it's in the winter...maybe someone will have a big crock pot to keep it all warm. In the south in the summer it goes on newspaper outside.

For a side dish to bring.
Cheese straws would be great. Also Cheese Biscuits or cheese/sausage balls.
Google up "Bisquick" sausage/cheese biscuits. (or balls). Leave out the sausage if you wish. Very easy and very popular. It's a basic "bisquick" dough mixed with cheese (and/or cooked sausage). and spoon dropped on a sheet and baked.

Oh! How lovely!! That sounds fantastic…. although I don't know what Caviar Pie is?
How will she prepare the shrimp? Sounds like Low Country Boil might be in order?
Potatoes, shrimp, and sausage simmered in a flavorful broth. (Corn is only added in the summer.) If you just need a side dish for potluck suggestions would include cornbread and collard greens. If you want more of a starter, pimento cheese is always a hit, deviled eggs are a year round Southern go-to, or perhaps cheese straws. PS Food52 has my recipe for deviled eggs. Have fun! Bon Appetit Y'all! Virginia

So many great suggestions here. Thank you all! I will let you know how our low country cookout in the high country turned out!

This sounds like a wonderful idea! If you would post your final menu, I'd love to see it! Some other ideas are spoonbread (as a side), sweet potato pie (dessert or a side) and cheese straws (hors d'oeuvre that you can make ahead). An hors d'oeuvre that I've not yet made but have had bookmarked for a while is for "Cheese Dreams" -- http://www.southernliving.com/food/holidays-occasions/cheese-straw-recipes/cheese-dreams-recipe. And I definitely second the shrimp and grits recommendation.

If you have time, I would also suggest browsing through Sean Brock's fantastic new cookbook, Heritage: http://www.amazon.com/Heritage-Sean-Brock/dp/1579654630. Some of his recipes are complicated and time consuming, but he offers lots of great ideas and inspiration about Southern and especially low country cooking.

My suggestion, since we just started a New Year, is Hopping John. There are a lot of variations on that food depending on which region of the south you originate from and it's a symbolic food to bring wealth and luck in the coming year. I think Serious Eats recently had an entire article dedicated to it and its various compositions based on region.

This sounds awesome!! Check out Garden & Gun magazine for inspiration... It's like if Southern Living and Town & Country had a baby. They've got tons of food-related articles and I seem to remember a few recent ones that were Low Country-related.

Shrimp and Grits is VERY Low Country. I would check out Nathalie Dupree's web site. A marvelous cooking teacher, cookbook author and tv personality, she lives in Charleston. Her web site www.nathaliedupree.com is full of good information and recipes.

I'm not from South Carolina or Georgia, but I would bring Macaroni & cheese, corn bread, she-crab soup and grits or Carolina Red rice to serve under the seafood boil. Fried Green tomatoes,fried pickles, hush puppies, pimento cheese, vinegary collards, Brunswick Stew, Oyster Stew, Fried chicken, pecan pie, red velvet cake etc.. Just typing this is making me hungry! It sounds fun!

If I were you (and it sounds SO fun), I would message Sam1148. He lives in the South and loves Low Country cooking.

I totally love that you guys are doing this.