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First -Happy Father's Day to all those great Fathers out there.
First we have some different Summer traditions here at the OldNewGreenRedo Home.
One of these is having an outdoor fish boil or a fish fry for Summer holidays. This year the 'father's' all called for a Midwest Door County Fish Boil.
Typically, Wisconsin Trout Boils are done on an open fire in a huge kettle with Fish, Potatoes and onions. Large Trout and Salmon are quite fatty, so the secret is to boil everything until the kettle overflows and spills out the floating fats that are released in the water.
(We skipped this step by using trimmed Salmon sections)
This grim table setting was practical for the 90+ heat inside with a messy dinner. I've had too many table cloths stained from the seasonings from this delicious meal. Outdoors you can just hose everything down, but it was too hot by mid-afternoon to eat outside!
As a family, we are all lovers of ALL types of seafood, so we do a mixed Seafood boil. It starts with this huge kettle, on a gas burner, full of water and an entire can of Old Bay Seasoning+s1 1/c cups of salt for all that water.
Behind hubby is the table with one of those blow-up ice trays, all the raw products outside are set in ice and covered with a plastic tablecloth.
(THIS IS THE DELICIOUS SECRET TO a Fish Boil.)
Once the kettle is on a full rolling boil...small potatoes (pricked), large carrots are chunked, small onions and this year we added large fresh parsnips cut roughly an inch thick. These are all cooked until nearly done.
Time varies as you have to allow the water to come back to a boil, it's a matter of testing rather than timing. So the lid goes back on!
Once this is going about 3/4 done, Corn sections are added and brought back to a boil, again smaller pieces to cook evenly and lidded.
Once all the veggies are done---we added the Salmon sections. Coho or Lake Trout isn't always available, so we do Salmon instead. Rather that using the fatty large slabs, we opted for the trimmed servings. These are contained in a strainer inside the pot.
The fish really doesn't take very long---Hubby gently cooked these about 7-8 minutes depending on how thick your pieces are. The stainless strainer is perfect to keep the pieces from breaking. He removed the fish in order to finish up the rest of the seafood.
Next are the Shrimp...we used thawed raw shrimp, medium size which cook up tender. Shrimp take only a few minutes -3-4 min in a boil.
The clams and mussels were frozen pre-cooked and thawed, The will basically be tossed in at the end to heat up. We have found this is the safer way to do them as we know for sure they are cooked properly and less opening failures, actually more economical in the long run and still delicious.
Once the water boils one more time, the salmon is added back into the top to reheat.
Isn't this crazy----It's so good, the only table additions needed are lemons and butter, which basically is used on the corn. The huge bowl keeps everything warm, and everyone just picks and chooses what they want to gorge on...so NUMMY!
Don't forget plates for the rubbish!
My favorites are the mussels, fish and corn...
There were only two pieces of fish left in the end.
When the table is quiet and no one is talking you know the food is
FABULOUS!
seconds, thirds...you can't eat too much of this. And everyone gets to pick their favorite.
I think our Grandgirl ate 1/2 the clams, lol.
We are an International family with German, Danish, Lithuanian, Philippine, and Czech heritage, and everyone is happy with this meal...the
Family Favorite!
Thanks to my son for taking the table photos...I was too busy eating...LOL.
I hope you all had great food, family fun and memories!
I know we have some leftovers....but that's great no cooking for a few days, since it's in the 90's again.
What's your Family's
FAVORITE MEAL?
Fish Seafood Boil for 12
Very Large kettle (30 or 32qt with
strainer)
example of a fish kettle without the lid.
Ours is an old Mirro Pot just like this inherited from my dad.
Hot source of heat, fire or gas burner outside.
Water filled up to 3/4 full in large kettle
add 1-1 1/2 cups of salt
add 1 whole can of Old Bays Seasoning (a must) a savory mixture of herbs, paprika (not hot).
Bring to rolling boil and add
6 super big carrots chunked
4 large parsnips 1" slices
1 bag of small yellow onions (2-2 1/2") whole or 12-16
Small potatoes 1-2 per person (yukon gold or reds work well prick with fork or side sliced off so they don't explode)
Bring to boil covered and cook until beginning to go soft. (pierce test the veggies)
Add 18 thawed or fresh corn chunks (we actually used frozen-thawed out this year) and bring to rolling boil. (Later in the summer season we use fresh corn) cook for 4 minutes, Cook for 12 minutes or so.
Add fish(12-16 servings of Fish (Lake Trout, Coho, or Salmon) in colander. Submerge 7-8 minutes in the kettle, then remove the colander and set to the side covered. If you use full -size steaks it will take a few minutes more. We used 1/2 piece trimmed boned salmon steaks.
Then add:
3 bags thawed raw shrimp and cook no more than 4-5 minutes.
then add
3 bags of thawed pre-cooked mussels and
3 bags of thawed pre-cooked little clams
Bring this all to hot steaming--then add the fish colander again. Put the lid on for 3-5 minutes to heat it all through. Everything should be steaming when done.
Get help to lift the large strainer out of the kettle.
Serve in a huge bowl or trays with lots of clippers and serving pieces and let everyone, just dig in while it's hot.
You can balance out the seafood types for your crew.
From the initial rolling boil-total time cooking for this was @ 45-60 minutes. This depends on wind, air temps and your heat source.
We traditionally serve this with butter, lemons, hot sauce (if desired), homemade coleslaw, and marble rye bread.
We cooked extra for leftovers, there was only 8 of us, but this recipe could server 12-16 if you don't plan on leftovers.
This can all be done on a smaller scale in a large pot with less vegetables in the house. We sometimes do this for 4-6 in the house in the winter...so good. I'll cook the corn in another pot. The timing stays about the same to get the different types of foods completely done.
ENJOY!
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I will be sharing at these fine Parties!
The photos in this blog are my own or I have permission to use them from family. Any others will be attributed to source if possible
Sandi
