LOW LOW COUNTRY BOIL

My daughter and I love to make low country boil. Since we're way, way down south in Florida, we loving refer to it as low, low country boil.

This is an extremely easy dish to make and you can add and subtract just about any of the ingredients to suit your tastes. We love it all - so we usually start with a huge assortment of seafood.

Typically, this will include: (3) 1-1/4 pound live Maine losters, 3 pounds of crawfish, 6-8 cleaned blue crabs, 2 pounds of deveined large shrimp with shells left intact. (Use raw shrimp whenever available), and two pounds of littleneck clams which have been scrubbed. We also add in about a pound of smoked sausage which has been cut into 2 inch pieces.

For the vegetables, we usually use 3-4 large ears of corn that have been shucked and broken in half, and about 2 pounds of small red potatoes.

For the seasoning, we add in two whole lemons, which have been quartered, 5 whole cloves of garlic, and a large onion which has been quartered. Depending on the tastes of our guests, we also add in a palm full of Old Bay Seasoning and a couple of bay leaves.

In order to put this delectable dish together, first, you will need a LARGE heavy bottom pot. Place the potatoes , corn, sausage, onion and garlic in the pot. Cover these ingredients with water. Add additional water until the level is about 4 inches above the vegetables. Bring to a boil. Now, add the lobsters to the pot and cover with a lid. Let steam for about 4 minutes. Now, you will layer in the crabs, clams, and crawfish. Top with the shrimp. Add additional water to just below the level of the seafood. Add in the Old Bay Seasoning, if using. Cover it with the lid and allow to boil until shrimp just turns pink.

Begin removing ingredients to a large platter. Remove the shrimp first as it cooks very quickly. Then, remove the clams if they have all opened and the crabs (they should have turned pink), and the crawfish (these just need to be heated through). Now, you can remove the lobsters (they should be bright red). If lobsters are not fully cooked, let them steam for 4-5 additional minutes. Once the lobster are done, test the potatoes by sticking them with a knife or fork. If they are tender, the additional items in the pot are done. They can now be removed to the platter. Please note that everything has been layered in the pot according to the amount of time required to cook. As you remove each layer, if the next layer is not quite done, just replace the lid and continue to boil for a few minutes.

We serve this giant platter in the middle of the table with individual servings of drawn butter. It will serve 6-8 people (depending on appetites).