Seafood Boil Spice
One of my favorite things to do on a nice evening on the deck is work up a Low Country Boil or grab some seafood from my favorite takeout place up the road, spread up a mess of newpaper on the deck table, and go to town picking shrimp, crawfish, mussels, and crabs with no worry about the mess and smell of that delicious meal permeating my house.
Of course, maybe the most important things about working up your own boil is the spices added to your boil pot. If you're lucky, you can grab a Zatarain's packet from the spice aisle of your local grocery, but if you're bound on staying home and have a nice spice rack like I do, you can also make up a credible version yourself pretty easily, pop it in a little square of cheesecloth or a spice bag made for the purpose, and go to town. You can also use it without the muslin bag too if you're a fan of tasting little pops of spicy flavor throughout what you're cooking, but sometimes it's more frutrating han helpful to have to pick peppercorns out of your teeth and not everybody enjoys the surprise of crunching down on an allspice berry.
Not only is this mix good for spicing up a big pot of boiled shrimp, potatoes, and corn, it's one of the integral ingredients in my recipe for Cajun Boiled Peanuts, one of my very favorite snacks on any given day of the year, but particularly at the end of summer when the raw peanuts are freshly available in my neighborhood grocery stores. The usage is the same as for seafood, pop the bag in the pot and boil to impart even more flavor.
A general purpose boil spice to add depth and flavor to low country boils and boiled peanuts.
- 4 Tbsp whole mustard seed
- 3 Tbsp whole coriander seed
- 2 Tbsp whole allspice
- 2 Tbsp dill seed
- 1 Tbsp whole peppercorn
- 1 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 Tbsp dried onion
- 1 Tbsp dried garlic
- 1 tsp whole cloves
- 6 bay leaves
- Combine all ingredients in an airtight jar, shake to mix. Use about 1/4 C seasoning in a muslin or cheesecloth bag in boil pot.