Author Notes
Every year, I head south to the Gulf Coast for vacation -- at least once, more if I can manage it. The last few years, it's been Orange Beach, Alabama, in the same condo complex, which is located (a) on the beach and (b) across the highway from a seafood market. And every day, I stroll across the highway at about 6 p.m. to pick up that night's dinner -- fresh shrimp. Shrimp, corn, potatos; homemade cocktail sauce; sliced avocados sprinkled with lime juice and chili powder; with ice cold Yuengling; with a caprese salad alongside. On the balcony, watching the sun set over the Gulf and listening to the waves. You can't beat it. And if there's more than one of you....just double, or triple, or quadruple everything. You just need a bigger pot. —Kayb
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Ingredients
- For the Boil
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1/2 pound
large shrimp in the shell, deveined
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2 to 3
golf-ball-sized new redskin potatos
-
1
ear fresh yellow corn, husked and silked
-
1
lemon or lime, halved
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6 tablespoons
salt
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2 tablespoons
Louisiana brand liquid crawfish boil seasoning (if you use anything other than this, use at least twice what the directions call for)
-
3 quarts
water
-
2 teaspoons
Louisiana brand powdered shrimp boil seasoning
-
2 tablespoons
melted butter
- For the Cocktail Sauce
-
1/4 cup
ketchup
-
2 to 4 teaspoons
finely grated horseradish
-
2 tablespoons
lime or lemon juice
-
1 1/2 teaspoons
Worcestershire sauce
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1/2 teaspoon
Tabasco or other hot sauce, or to taste
Directions
-
In large stockpot, bring water, salt, crawfish boil seasoning and halved lime to a boil. Rinse shrimp and set aside.
-
Scrub potatos and add to pot. Boil for 10 minutes. Break corn in half, to make two small ears, and add. Boil for five minutes more. Add shrimp; allow pot to return to boil and boil for exactly one minute. Drain shrimp and vegetables in colander.
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Separate shrimp from vegetables. Toss potatos and corn with melted butter, and sprinkle with powdered shrimp boil seasoning.
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For cocktail sauce, while potatos are boiling, mix all ingredients and refrigerate. Keeps for several days, so if you're at the coast and going to be eating seafood for several nights, make plenty!
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Enjoy with cold beer! (And the avocado on the side is a good touch, as well.)
I'm a business professional who learned to cook early on, and have expanded my tastes and my skills as I've traveled and been exposed to new cuisines and new dishes. I love fresh vegetables, any kind of protein on the grill, and breakfasts that involve fried eggs with runny yolks. My recipes tend toward the simple and the Southern, with bits of Asia or the Mediterranean or Mexico thrown in here and there. And a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a float in the lake, as pictured, is a pretty fine lunch!
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