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Home Friendly Summer Shrimp Boil

Home Friendly Summer Shrimp Boil

+ sausage, loaded dogs, air fryers, & expensive butter

Ethan Chlebowski & Keith McBrayer
June 11, 2023

Vietnamese Shrimp Boil Ingredients

In This Week’s Edition:

Try Something New 🤯 — Lemongrass Shrimp Boil

Throwback Time 🍳 — Kielbasa Sausage

The Leftover Shelf 🥡 — Loaded Dogs

Extra Helpings 🤤 — Air Fryers, International Butter, & More

Shopping List ✅ — Ingredients sorted into categories for easy shopping!

Try Something New 🤯

Learn a new flavor profile.

Lemongrass Shrimp Boil

This recipe gets you all the flavor and eating experience of a Vietnamese crawfish boil, but achievable in a home kitchen. If you haven't had seafood tossed in lemongrass-ginger butter, you're in for a treat.

Shrimp Boil Components*

Extra large peel-on shrimp, deveined
Andouille sausage, sliced into coins
Corn cobs, shucked and sliced into chunks
Small red potatoes, cut in half
Knobs of ginger, sliced into coins
Lemongrass, sliced into 2” sections & lightly crushed
Garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
Whole lemons, cut in half
Cajun seasoning or spices of choice
Butter
Water or stock

*Like any seafood boil, amounts are to your preference. Want more sausage and corn, or have access to crawfish or blue crabs? Go for it.
Make sure to taste the boiling stock and the seasoning butter as you go, which should taste heavily seasoned.

Instructions

Make the broth: Partially fill a large pot with water or broth, leaving enough room for the potatoes and corn later. Add a few handfuls of lemongrass, ginger, garlic, and squeezed lemon halves, and bring to a simmer. Add a generous amount of cajun seasoning and taste. It should taste stronger than you’d want soup — this will season all the other ingredients.

Boil: Add the potatoes to the mix and simmer until softened. When they are almost done, add the corn.

Make the butter: While those are boiling, make the seasoning butter. In a small saucepan melt butter and a few handfuls of chopped garlic, lemongrass & ginger. Once the butter is bubbling, but not browned, turn off the heat and set aside to infuse.

Sear: In batches, add the sausage coins to a hot pan until browned on both sides. Once done, add to the boiling pot. In batches, sear the shrimp to get some color on the shells (but not cooked all the way through, and set aside.

Blanch: Once everything is cooked through in the pot, add the remaining seared shrimp to the boil. Cook for 60-90 more seconds or until the shrimp is poached, but not overcooked.

Combine & serve: Using a spider or slotted spoon, remove all of the ingredients from the boil pot onto a serving platter. Taste each ingredient for seasoning, and adjust with a sprinkle of salt or seasoning if needed. Serve with additional lemons and aromatic melted butter (either over top, or on the side for people to dip into)

Instruct diners to eat with their hands, peeling the shrimp and eating around any whole aromatics.

Throwback Time 🍳

If you’re looking for a summer project, consider sausage making! This throwback video breaks down the recipe for Polish Kielbasa, but the process is the same for any smoked sausage.

Check out the video, or read the recipe here.

Got leftover sausage? Upgrade your summer grill outs with this week’s Leftover Shelf idea…

The Leftover Shelf 🥡

Leftovers are back in style…if you know how to use them.

This week’s move:

Leftover sausage (or hot dogs or brats) → Loaded Dogs

Get some extra ingredients, use what you have around, or host a loaded dog party: you provide the meat and buns, and everyone else brings a topping.

Ideas

The Esquite: Grilled corn, cotija, salsa verde
The Favorite: Chili with cheddar and scallions
The Iconic: Mustard and ketchup squiggles and pickles
The Bistro: Caramelized onions, cheese, and dijon
The Strongman: Sauerkraut and whole grain mustard

Extra Helpings 🤤

🚀 Viral Eats

Food trends explained.

Q: Are air fryers the new normal?

A: At this point, it seems like air fryers are more than just a passing trend. They're quickly becoming a household staple, much like microwaves did in the 1980s.

They're versatile and surprisingly efficient. In small batches, they tend to cook food faster than normal ovens, thanks to their convection-like airflow cooking method.

Convection cooking works by circulating hot air around the food being cooked. This helps cook food more evenly and quickly and can lead to a crispy exterior.

You can get a similar effect to deep frying, but with much less oil. Likewise, air frying is one of the only ways to reheat fried food back to its original glory.

Do you think they’re worth the counter space? Reply to let us know.

🧠 Reader Q&A

Q: “Can I use Irish butter when a recipe calls for European butter? I've come across a few of these recipes, especially in baking, and was unsure whether to buy the more expensive European brands of butter or if I should just opt for the cheaper Irish butter.” - Diego M

A: Hi Diego. You can use butters interchangeably, as long as they aren't cultured (which have a "cheesier" taste. Common among French butter, for instance).

Butter from different countries has different fat percentages and may be slightly richer than another, but the differences in the final dish will be very small.

It's just like cooking with a nicer olive oil, for example. There is a slight difference in taste, but it won't make or break the dish.

Look out for "salted" butter, however, and adjust your seasoning accordingly.

You're probably fine using the cheaper option, unless you are using the butter for raw applications, like on a butter board or by itself on toast. Then it might be worth the splurge.