Low Country Boil Kabobs

One of the many, many advantages of being married to a Southern man is that you learn about the complete fabulousness of something called Low Country Boil.  It's also sometimes known as Frogmore Stew (based on the hometown of the National Guardsman that invented it).  The town of Frogmore was eliminated by the Postal Service and incorporated into the nearby Beaufort, and the name of the recipe officially changed to Low Country Boil.  This is your culinary history lesson of the day.

Anyway, the way this usually works is that you boil up baby potatoes with a seafood seasoning, and then add the sausage, the corn and then the shrimp as time rolls on so that everything is cooked up perfectly.  Then you drain the whole thing and dump it all onto a platter and let folks dig in...forks optional.  We always have this a few times during the summer, so when I saw this version that called for adding the grill into the mix, my antenna went up.  I always do love to shake up a recipe that I've made a hundred times before.

In this version, you still boil up the potatoes, but after they are done you thread them onto skewers with uncooked large shrimp, chunks of andouille sausage, and pieces of corn on the cob that you have cut into 1-2 inch sections.  Now, the most challenging part of this entire thing is getting the dang corn sections on to the skewers.  The center of corn cobs?  HARD.  So the Southern husband sprang into action...he took each one and hammered a nail into it and then pulled it out - making a perfect little hole for me to slip it right onto the skewer.  There is nothing that makes this man happier than the chance to use his workshop skills in the kitchen.

Once everything is on the skewer, you brush it with a mixture of melted butter and Old Bay seasoning.  Or, if you are like me and THOUGHT you had a container of Old Bay and then remembered too late that you threw it out in a frenzy of purging the spice cabinet of old spices, you can fake it by putting together the mixture I found by clicking here.

Now pop the skewers onto the grill for as long as it takes to cook the shrimp and lightly char the corn - 5-8 minutes should do it.  Now you not only have the wonderfulness of Low Country Boil, but with the added flavor of the grill. 

Life is very, very good.

Low Country Boil Kabobs, from Everyday Food

1/2 pound baby potatoes

2 ears of corn, cut into 1 inch sections

1/2 pound cooked andouille sausage, cut into 1 inch rounds

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deviened

4 tablespoons melted butter

2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning

1. Boil potatoes in salted water for about 12 minutes or until tender.  Drain and cool slightly.

2. Thread skewers with potatoes, shrimp, corn and sausage.

3. Combine melted butter and Old Bay and brush onto skewers.  Grill on medium high for about 5-8 minutes or until shrimp is cooked and corn is lightly charred.  Serve immediately.

Print this!

Shrimp and Andouille Sausage with Grits

Okay, so I've been very good and patient -- I haven't posted yet another recipe for shrimp and grits in ages and ages. Well, not since May, when I put up the post on shrimp and grits with artichoke hearts. But I can't help it. I'm married to a Southern man, and with those vows come love, cherish and enthusiastically eat shrimp and grits for as long as we both shall live. And I do love all of 'em -- the shrimp, the grits and the Southern husband, so I'm always on the look-out for new variations, and this is a great one.

The grits you cook up the way you always do. I like this variety, which you can order online, but if the only thing available is the Quaker quick-cooking grits -- well, that's better than no grits at all. (And for those of you grits-doubters out there, feel free to subsitute the word "polenta" for "grits" throughout this post. It's all ground corn, and it's all good.)

This recipe is all about the topping, which is a glorious mixture of shrimp, spicy sliced andouille sausage, and a garlicky cream sauce. It all gets cooked up together and spooned over the grits and oh, my my. Broil up some of the cherry tomatoes that are springing up all around us to toss on the side, and you have a quick and luxurious supper that would make my Southern husband proud.

Shrimp and Andouille Sausage with Grits, from Everyday Food

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 cup grits
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 pound andouille sausage, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced
• 4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• Olive oil and salt and pepper
  

1. Cook grits according to package directions.
2. Place tomatoes, cut side up, on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Broil until lightly charred, 8 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through.
3. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add andouille and cook until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer andouille to a plate and reduce heat to medium.
   
4. Add garlic and scallion whites to skillet and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in flour. Whisk in broth and cream. Cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from skillet, until thickened, about 3 minutes.
   
5. Add shrimp and andouille and cook, stirring constantly, until shrimp are opaque throughout, about 5 minutes.
   
6. To serve, top grits with shrimp mixture and sprinkle with scallion greens. Serve with tomatoes.

Click here for printable recipe

Indoor Clambake!

Right now, at this very moment, this is what my mailbox looks like:

I mention this because it is usually right at this time of year that I start getting this deep yearning for a clambake. Not in the middle of July and August, when a clambake is a reasonable thing to yearn for. No, not me, I am a "need to have a clambake in February" kind of girl. I know, I know. But where there's a will, there's a way, and so....

INDOOR CLAMBAKE!!!

Honestly, it's one of the easiest dinners you can make, assuming you can handle the trauma of putting the lobster in the pot. (I can't. I tried. But as usual, I ran out of the kitchen like the coward that I am and left that part to the Southern husband.) Here's what you need: Lobsters. Clams. Mussels. Baby red potatoes. Sausage - I like andouille sausage, but keilbasa or any other hearty, good-sized sausage will do. Corn on the cob, if you can find it. A couple of onions. Garlic. Lemons. A really, really, really big pot. Some Jimmy Buffett music. Ready?

OK, take that big old pot and layer (in order) the onions, the garlic, the lobsters, the clams, the mussels, the potatoes, the corn and the sausage. At this point the lobster will start waving at you from the pot and you will need to run out of the kitchen while braver people settle them back in there where they belong. If you are me. Then add about 5 inches or so of water or chicken broth. Cover the pot and turn the heat on high. Check it after 20 minutes or so, and if the lobsters are bright red and the clams and mussels are open, you're done! Melt some butter, cut up some lemon wedges, line your table with newspaper and you are ready to roll. I usually put the whole lot into one big bowl, scatter some lobster crackers around, and let the games begin. If you use a pretty thick layer of newspaper you can just let folks drop the shells right onto the table, and then clean-up is as easy as rolling up the paper with the shells inside.

It's almost like summer.



Only four months to go....in the meantime, recipe below.

INDOOR CLAMBAKE!

• 3 onions, peeled and quartered
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
• 4 lobsters
• 2 dozen clams, cleaned
• 2 pounds mussels, scrubbed
• 16 small red potatoes, halved
• 4 ears corn, husked
• 1 pound cooked sausage, cut into chunks
• Melted butter for dipping
• Lemon wedges for serving

1. In a very large pot, layer from bottom to top: onions, garlic, lobsters, clams, mussels, potatoes, corn, sausage.

2. Add 5-6 inches of water or chicken stock

3. Cover and cook over high heat for 20-30 minutes until lobster is red, clams and mussels are open and potatoes are tender. Serve with butter and lemon.

Click here for printable recipe

Andouille Sausage and Shrimp Scramble

This recipe is one of my long line of "I adore New Orleans" recipes, and yes, I will be cheering loudly for the Saints on Sunday. If you have never been to New Orleans...well, it is one of the best and most unique places on earth, and home to some of the best food you will ever taste. From the beignets at the Cafe du Monde (best eaten really, really late at night with your true love) to the barbeque shrimp at Pascale's Manale, to the pile of perfectly cooked spicy peel and eat crayfish at that place on Decatur Street that I can't remember the name of, to my friend Emeril's spectacular restaurants....New Orleans is Food Heaven.

There are certain ingredients that immediately conjure up New Orleans for me, and andouille sausage is one of them. Spicy, delicious...you can toss it into everything from gumbo to scrambled eggs and whatever it is will be kicked up several notches of deliciousness. My friend R says that andouille sausage is made by little Cajun angels, and I think he is right.

This recipe was supposed to be made with crayfish, but sadly, crayfish are hard to come by in northern New Jersey. If you ever want to bring me a present, crayfish would be just fine. But since no crayfish were available I substituted chopped shrimp, and that was almost as good. This dish is pretty much as easy as it gets to make -- you saute the sausage and seafood and scallions in a little bit of butter, add in the beaten eggs, gently stir the whole thing around until the eggs are set and voila! Spicy, creamy, wonderful.

Which is all I have to say for now, except....

Geaux Saints!

ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE AND SHRIMP SCRAMBLE, adapted from Bubby's Brunch Cookbook

3 large eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 ounces andouille sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 tablespoon butter
2 ounces chopped shrimp (or crayfish, if you've got any!)
2 tablespoons sliced scallions
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Beat eggs until frothy

2. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat and saute sausage for 1-2 minutes. Add butter, shrimp and scallion and stir until shrimp are just cooked through, about 2-3 minutes.

3. Add eggs and cook, stirring continuously until they are set. Salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

Click here for printable recipe

Chocolate Sausage Bites

Okay, I can hear you now -- chocolate and...sausage?

Let me explain.

Don and I are always on the look-out for new restaurant adventures here in beautiful northern New Jersey. Yes yes, there is always New York City 20 short miles away, but that's not any kind of challenge. Finding a really great new place out here, on the other hand, is cause for celebration, and last Saturday night we found a keeper. For all you New Jerseyites, it is called the Spotted Rooster Cafe, and it is located in Mahwah NJ, in a complex with something called Ace Janitorial and something else called Scott's Turnpike Automotive. That might have been enough to scare away someone who is fainter of heart than my brave Southern husband (someone like me, for example). But he took my hand firmly and in we went.

It is a tiny place that specializes in brunches and lunches, and opens just on Friday and Saturday nights for dinner. There was jazz playing in background, little tables for two tucked along the red walls, sultry lighting, candles on the table, and it smelled DELICIOUS in there. Soon we were sitting at one of those cozy tables, holding hands, ooh-la-la, etc. etc. And then out came the very sweet waitress with "a little something from the chef, with his compliments," which turned out to be these unbelievably good little concoctions of toasted bread rounds spread with dark chocolate and topped with thin little slices of hot sausage. Don being adventurous and me being in a cooperative mood, we dove right in, and ooh-la-la all over again. Heaven, heaven, heaven.

So I took the first opportunity to try and recreate these little gems at home. I had some andouille sausage in the fridge, although I think it would be great with chorizo as well. I picked up a loaf of French bread and a jar of Silver Palate thick dark chocolate ice cream sauce (look in the supermarket aisle where they sell the sprinkles and cones), and we were in business. I made them the size I remembered them (see picture above) -- Don remembered them as being smaller, with just one slice of sausage on a smaller bread round. They are very tasty either way! So, with thanks to the Spotted Rooster, my adapted recipe is below. And if you are ever in Mahwah New Jersey and feeling romantic, or hungry, or both, here's a link to this great new restaurant:

Spotted Rooster Cafe

Or, you can just make these for your honey at home!

CHOCOLATE SAUSAGE BITES

• 1 baguette, sliced thin
  
• 1jar chocolate ice cream sauce (or any other kind of chocolate spread that catches your fancy. Nutella might be good!)
• 1 andouille or chorizo sausage, sliced into very thin rounds

1. Toast baguette slices until just slightly golden brown, let cool

2. Spread each toast with a spoonful of chocolate sauce

3. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and saute sausage slices until heated through, about 2-3 minutes

4. Using tongs, pick up sausage rounds and lay on top of chocolate-topped bread.

5. Arrange on platter. Convince those you are serving that even though these are a little off-beat, they will thank you forever if they try one.

And if you ever make it to the Spotted Rooster, I highly recommend the mussels gratin. I might try figuring out that recipe next!