Summer Seafood: Bakes & Boils

When we think of summer, Low Country boils and clam bakes come to mind for many of us on the East Coast. Up to the north, lobster bakes and crab boils are more common. We’ve compiled some recipes that celebrate the flavors of summer with seafood and other ingredients that can easily be found locally. You can start right here on St. Simons Island at Mainely Lobster and Seafood Too, a fresh seafood market offering Maine lobster that was recently opened by Del Sur Artisan Eats owner Hernan Stutzer and his partners. The owners of Mainely Lobster and Seafood Too are chefs who are passionate about using the finest ingredients and the freshest fish. To best succeed in this venture and learn all they could about the lobster business, they were trained by lobster professionals in Maine in a "lobster university.” Lobsters are flown in live several times a week, and they only use seafood companies that ensure the freshest and highest quality product.

Since it takes 5 lbs. of lobster to make 1 lb. of fresh lobster meat, at most times, there are several hundred lobsters in the tanks at the store. Hernan says, “The lobster from Maine has a very pronounced succulent taste. It is sweet tasting and the meat is very low in sugars. When purchasing, customers can take it home live or we are happy to steam it for them.” He adds, “Customers have really enjoyed having the opportunity to pick their own live lobster.”

Hernan explains, “Our seafood comes from a variety of places, Alaska, Norway, Faroe Islands, live lobster and wild mussels from Maine, and of course our local waters. Our shrimp is local, wild Georgia shrimp. As there is a constant demand for that, we are a certified vendor of wild Georgia shrimp. We also offer Sapelo clams. Depending of the season, we also carry other local fish.” He continues, “Prior to opening, we did a thorough search of where we would be attaining our seafood. We are working with one of the largest suppliers of seafood in the country, Bristol Seafood. We have visited the plant in Maine for a full understanding of their practices as well as extensive training in the proper handling of seafood. For example, the haddock we source is line-caught at sea. We only source our seafood from companies that follow strict sustainability guidelines.”

When asked for recommendations for seasonal seafood dishes, Hernan says, “Seafood is always great for the summer because it is quick cooking and very fresh and light. Mainely Lobster and Seafood Too makes it even easier by selling prepared dishes such as crab cakes, salmon cakes, shrimp kebabs, fish and veggies that you simply have to bake in the oven for a few minutes. In addition, we have launched the delivery of our line of cooked meals.” So stop by Mainely Lobster and Seafood Too to grab a great lobster roll, pick up quick and easy pre-prepared seafood dinners, or choose your own lobster and seafood to make one of the delicious recipes we’ve included here.

LOBSTER

It’s funny to think that lobster, considered by many to be a delicacy and sold for as much as $50 each at times, was once a pauper’s meal. In the early 17^th century, William Wood, a British historian visiting Newfoundland, said of lobster, “Their plenty makes them little esteemed and seldom eaten [except by the Indians who] get many of them every day for to bait their hooks withal and to eat when they can get no bass.” They were used as food for farm animals and their shells were ground up and used for manure. The sheer abundance of lobster in the waters off the Atlantic made it common and boring and an embarrassment for people to eat. “Lobster shells about a house are looked upon as signs of poverty and degradation,” wrote American observer John Rowan in the mid-19th century. Lobster was first seen on the salad section menus around the late 1850s. With a going rate that was half the rate of chicken salad, it was considered a bargain.

The introduction of canneries in the U.S. provided lobster with a big commercial break. It was difficult to convince fisherman to catch lobsters and even harder to persuade shop owners to buy the canned crustacean; however the assembly line of boilers, claw breakers, tail pickers, and shell sweepers, started popping up more and more in canneries along the Maine coast. In 1870 1,200 lobstermen were providing 23 canneries with enough lobster to produce two million cans per year. But the canning heyday was short-lived as aggressive fishing practices started decreasing the size of the lobsters. It went from 1-2 large lobsters to 10 or more of the now abundant smaller, younger lobsters to fill a one-pound can. The cost of shelling started to outweigh the profits for the meat (which incidentally, sold at less for pound than baked beans).

As canneries dwindled, upper-class vacationers from the cities started flocking to coastal Maine for the salt air and “exotic cuisine.” Savvy restaurateurs began to crown the smaller 1-2 lbs. lobsters, which were just the right size to fill a dinner plate, with butter and herbs, and serve them as a “specialty dish” on silver-lined china. These tourists and wealthy socialites brought their love of the dish home to Boston and Philadelphia, and created a demand for shipping. Refrigeration and ice packing gave fishermen the ability to ship live lobsters across the East Coast, and west to Chicago and St. Louis. During this culinary craze, they even began making their way to England, where they sold for ten times the original price.

With the decrease in supply and increased demand for the now prized dish, the price for lobster skyrocketed, hitting their first peak in the 1920s, when the going rate was about the same as today’s prices. During the Depression, lobster was no longer something that someone could afford to order in restaurants, so it was demoted back to canneries to provide a cheap source of protein for American soldiers, and the dwindling lobster population recovered slowly along with the U.S. economy. Since that time, consumer demand for special occasion lobster meals at restaurants and use of lobster as a “delicacy” seafood item have remained steady, keeping the lobster population from growing and prices relatively high.

The coastal visitors’ love for lobster figured strongly into the decision to open Mainely Lobster and Seafood Too on St. Simons Island, Stutzer explained, “When you think of the beach and the Atlantic Ocean, you often think of shellfish, and since there is no fresh lobster available in the area we thought it would be fun for the islanders and tourists to have access to fresh, live Maine lobster. It's a food that brings back good memories for many folks who have visited the northeast and loved the novelty and taste of lobster. It's a treat, a celebratory food for special occasions or for any day of the week.”

Lobster Bake

Ingredients:

1 lb. steamer clams, scrubbed

2 Tbsp. freshly ground black pepper

8 small red bliss potatoes (about ¾ lb.)

2 ears shucked corn, cut in half

4 (1 lb.) whole live Maine lobsters

1/4 cup unsalted butter

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

Rinse clams under cold running water; place in large bowl. Cover with cold water; add black pepper. Let stand 30 minutes; drain and rinse. (This helps clean the clams of any grit.) Add water to large stockpot to a depth of 2 inches; bring to boil. Add potatoes and corn; steam, covered, 5 minutes. Add lobsters headfirst, and add clams; steam, covered, 8 to 10 minutes. Discard any unopened clam shells. Combine butter and lemon juice in small saucepan; cook over medium-low heat until butter melts. Divide lobster, clams, corn, and potatoes among 4 large plates. Ladle broth from bottom of stockpot into a bowl for dipping clams. Serve with melted lemon butter.

BLUE CRABS

Blue crabs have been have been fished and caught by man since before the dawn of recorded history. The earliest reference to the culinary use of blue crab in the Mid Atlantic was in 1615 when Hamor described that the Indian chief Powhatan served visiting Europeans crab as part of a breakfast meal. During the 1700s, blue crab was commonly eaten along the Mid-Atlantic but not far from where it was caught. Salting and drying methods of preservation do not lend themselves well to crabmeat, and thus the blue crab was not transported until the birth of ice-cooling. Crabmeat will stay fresh on ice for a period of only 10 days, so there are also limitations on how far it could be transported before flash freezing and refrigerated trucking were implemented.

Spicy Boiled Crabs, Shrimp, Potatoes, Corn, & Garlic

Ingredients

24 live blue crabs

2 3 oz. packets Zatarain's crab boil or 5 Tbsp. Old Bay seasoning

1 Tbsp. cayenne

½ cup table salt

3 lemons, quartered

2 onions, halved

1½ lbs. small potatoes (about 2 inches in diameter)

2 heads of garlic (not separated into cloves)

6 ears of corn, shucked

2 Tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning, or to taste, for sprinkling over boiled seafood

2 lbs. large shrimp (about 30, preferably with heads)

Accompaniments: Horseradish Cocktail Sauce and French bread

Preparation

In a 7 to 8 gallon kettle bring 5 gallons water to a boil. While water is coming to a boil, in a deep sink rinse crabs in 2 or 3 changes of water. (Do not fill sink too full or crabs may crawl out.) Add Zatarain's crab boil or 5 Tbsp. Old Bay seasoning, cayenne, salt, lemons, and onions to boiling water and boil 5 minutes. Add potatoes and garlic and boil until tender, about 15 minutes. Transfer potatoes and garlic with a large sieve to a large platter and keep warm, covered with foil. Add corn to boiling water and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer corn with tongs to platter and keep warm, covered with foil. Return water to a boil. Transfer about 6 crabs carefully with long tongs to sieve, holding them down in sieve with tongs, and turn crabs out into boiling water. Add remaining crabs in same manner. Return water to a boil and cook crabs until just cooked through, about 10 minutes. (To determine doneness, remove a claw and crack it with the handle of a dinner knife. Use knife to extract meat from claw.) Transfer crabs with sieve to another large platter and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. Old Bay seasoning. Return water to boil and cook shrimp until just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Transfer shrimp with sieve to large platter with crabs and sprinkle with remaining Tbsp. Old Bay seasoning. Serve crabs, shrimp, and vegetables with horseradish cocktail sauce and French bread.

MUSSELS, CLAMS, FRESH FISH

Spain’s classic dish of paella, named for the pan in which it is cooked, originated near Valencia and often contains a mix of chicken, sausage, seafood and vegetables over the saffron flavored rice. This version uses only seafood and allows you to choose your preference of fresh fish to add to the dish, plus wild Georgia shrimp, Sapelo clams and the wild Maine mussels that are available at Mainely Lobster and Seafood Too.

Seafood Paella

Ingredients:

6 cups clam or seafood broth

1 tsp. thread saffron

1 ½ pounds firm-fleshed fish (cod works well), cut in bite-sized pieces

1 dozen mussels

1 dozen small clams

12 large shrimp in shells

Spanish sea salt

2 Tbsp. parsley, minced

8 cloves garlic, minced

1Tbsp. fresh thyme

2 tsp. sweet smoked paprika

8 Tbsp. olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

6 scallions, chopped

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

1 large tomato, chopped

2 cups Bomba paella rice or Calasparra paella rice

Lemon wedges

Alioli (garlic mayonnaise)

Preparation:

Heat broth in large pot. Stir in saffron. Pat fish and shrimp dry with paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and let sit 10 minutes. Use a mortar and pestle to mash parsley, garlic, thyme and 1/8 tsp. salt into a paste; stir in paprika. Add water if necessary to form a paste. Heat 6 Tbsp. of oil in 15" paella pan over medium high heat and quickly brown the fish 1-2 minutes. Do not fully cook. Remove to warm platter. Add remaining 2 Tbsp. of oil, onion, scallions and bell pepper to paella pan and cook until the vegetables are slightly softened. Raise heat, add tomato and cook until it becomes sauce-like, 2 to 5 minutes. Pour in the hot broth and bring to a boil. Sprinkle the rice evenly across the pan. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring rice and rotating pan occasionally. Add all reserved fish (but not shrimp). Stir in parsley paste. Taste for salt. Do not stir after this point. Lower the heat, continue to simmer until rice is no longer soupy but enough liquid remains to continue cooking the rice (about 10 min.). Add extra liquid if necessary. Arrange shrimp, clams and mussels over rice, placing edges of mussel and clam shells so they open facing up. Cook, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes until rice is almost done. Remove pan from the heat and cover with foil. Let sit 10 minutes. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve with fresh alioli.

CRAWFISH

Crawfish (affectionately referred to as “mudbugs”) are Louisiana’s offering to the seafood arena that people seem to either love or hate. Most Cajuns have a strong opinion about what should or should not go into the pot for a crawfish boil. Use this recipe as a guide and modify it to your own tastes by using more or less vegetables and spice as you prefer. And remember, when live crawfish are not in season, you may simply substitute Georgia white shrimp.

Crawfish Boil 

Ingredients:

1 gallon water

2 3-ounce packages crab boil

¼ cup salt

¼ cup hot sauce

2 Tbsp. cayenne pepper

1½ lbs. small red potatoes

6 small onions, peeled

4 - 6 ears corn, halved

1 bell pepper, coarsely chopped

2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped

1 head garlic, halved

3 large lemons, halved

5 lbs. live crawfish, rinsed and purged in salt water

Preparation:

In very large pot over high heat bring water, crab boil, salt, hot sauce, and cayenne pepper to boil. Add potatoes, onions, corn, bell pepper, celery, and garlic. Reduce heat to simmer; cover and cook until vegetables are barely tender, about 10 minutes. Squeeze lemons over pot, add lemons and crawfish, and stir to combine. Cover and return mixture to the boil. Cook until shells turn bright red, about 8 minutes. Serve immediately.

Go get out your claw crackers and picks, grab some bibs and lemons, and get down and dirty with delicious fresh seafood. Whether you bake or boil, or serve it up with Spanish flare, seafood is the way to go this season!