Skip to main content

Archives: Recipes

Fried Shrimp Basket with Remoulade

Written by on .

Local creek shrimp dredged in seasoned cornmeal and fried hot and fast, the way it's done at every dockside shack from Shem Creek to Port Royal. A cornmeal coat stays crisp longer than flour and gives that Lowcountry crunch.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 lbs medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails on
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 1 cup fine yellow cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon Creole or whole-grain mustard
  • 1 tablespoon dill pickle relish
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 1 teaspoon chopped capers
  • Lemon wedges, to serve

Instructions

  1. Make the remoulade first: stir together the mayonnaise, mustard, relish, lemon juice, hot sauce, and capers. Refrigerate while you fry.
  2. Whisk the buttermilk and 1 teaspoon hot sauce in a bowl, add the shrimp, and let them soak for 15 minutes.
  3. In a shallow dish, combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne.
  4. Pour 2 inches of oil into a heavy pot or Dutch oven and heat to 360 degrees F. Set a wire rack over a baking sheet nearby.
  5. Lift the shrimp from the buttermilk a handful at a time, letting the excess drip off, then toss in the cornmeal mixture to coat fully. Shake off the loose meal.
  6. Fry the shrimp in batches so you don't crowd the pot, about 2 minutes per batch, until golden and floating. Keep the oil temperature steady between batches.
  7. Drain the shrimp on the wire rack and salt them lightly while hot.
  8. Pile into baskets and serve at once with the remoulade and lemon wedges.

Tips

  • A cornmeal-heavy dredge is the coastal Carolina signature and it stays crunchier than an all-flour coat. Keep the ratio at roughly two parts cornmeal to one part flour.
  • Fry in small batches and let the oil come back up to temperature between them. Crowding drops the heat and gives you greasy, pale shrimp.

Charleston Crab Cakes

Written by on .

Big lumps of blue crab held together with barely any filler, chilled firm, then seared in butter until a crust forms. The trick is a light hand: fold, don't stir, so the cakes stay loose and sweet.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb fresh jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over for shell
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs, plus more if needed
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon neutral oil
  • Lemon wedges and remoulade, to serve

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, mayonnaise, Dijon, Worcestershire, Old Bay, parsley, lemon juice, and salt until smooth.
  2. Add the panko and stir to combine, then gently fold in the crabmeat. Use a rubber spatula and a light hand so the lumps stay intact.
  3. If the mixture feels too wet to hold a shape, add another tablespoon of panko. It should just barely cohere.
  4. Divide into 4 to 6 cakes about an inch thick. Set them on a plate, cover, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes so they firm up.
  5. Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat until the butter foams.
  6. Add the cakes and cook without moving them for 4 minutes, until a deep golden crust forms.
  7. Flip carefully and cook the second side for 3 to 4 minutes more, until browned and hot through.
  8. Drain briefly on paper towels and serve with lemon wedges and remoulade.

Tips

  • Chilling is not optional. Cold cakes hold their shape in the pan; warm ones fall apart the moment you flip them.
  • Buy the best crab you can and pick through it twice for bits of shell. With this little filler, the crab is the whole show.

Charleston Deviled Crab

Written by on .

Lump crab bound with just enough buttered cracker crumb and mustard, packed back into crab shells and baked until the tops brown. The heat comes from dry mustard and a little cayenne, so the crab still tastes like crab.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb fresh lump or backfin crabmeat, picked over for shell
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
  • 1/3 cup finely diced celery
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup crushed saltine crackers (about 24 crackers)
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted, for the topping
  • Lemon wedges, to serve
  • 6 cleaned crab shells or 6 small ramekins

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the crab shells or ramekins and set them on a baking sheet.
  2. Melt the 4 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion and celery until soft, about 5 minutes, then add the garlic for the last 30 seconds. Let the mixture cool slightly.
  3. In a bowl, whisk together the egg, mayonnaise, Dijon, dry mustard, Worcestershire, parsley, cayenne, and salt.
  4. Fold in the cooked vegetables and half of the cracker crumbs, then gently fold in the crabmeat. Keep the lumps as whole as you can.
  5. Divide the mixture among the shells, mounding it slightly.
  6. Toss the remaining cracker crumbs with the 2 tablespoons melted butter and scatter over the tops.
  7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the tops are golden and the filling is hot through.
  8. Serve hot with lemon wedges.

Tips

  • Go easy on the binder. The dish should hold together when you cut it but taste mostly of crab, not cracker.
  • Real cleaned blue crab shells make the prettiest presentation, but buttered ramekins bake up just as well if you're buying picked crab.

Frogmore Stew (Lowcountry Boil)

Written by on .

Named for a tiny community on St. Helena Island, this one-pot boil of shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes is Gullah Geechee cooking meant to feed a crowd off a newspaper-covered table. Everything goes in by the clock so nothing turns to mush.

Ingredients

  • 5 quarts water
  • 1/2 cup Old Bay seasoning, plus more to serve
  • 3 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 2 lemons, halved
  • 1 lb smoked sausage or kielbasa, cut into 2-inch lengths
  • 2 lbs small red potatoes
  • 6 ears corn, husked and halved crosswise
  • 1 large yellow onion, quartered
  • 4 lbs large shell-on shrimp, head-on if you can get them
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (to serve)
  • Cocktail sauce and hot sauce, to serve

Instructions

  1. Fill a large stockpot with the water and add the Old Bay, salt, and lemon halves. Squeeze the lemons in as you drop them. Bring to a rolling boil.
  2. Add the sausage and potatoes and boil for 15 minutes. The sausage flavors the water and the potatoes get a head start since they take longest.
  3. Add the corn and onion and boil for another 8 minutes.
  4. Add the shrimp and cook just until they turn pink and firm, 3 to 4 minutes. Watch them closely because they overcook fast.
  5. Turn off the heat and let everything sit in the pot for 2 minutes to soak up seasoning.
  6. Drain the pot into a large colander or lift the food out with a spider. Pour it all onto a table lined with newspaper or butcher paper.
  7. Serve with melted butter, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, and extra Old Bay for dusting. Eat with your hands.

Tips

  • The order and timing matter more than the ingredients. Potatoes first, then corn, then shrimp last, so each item comes out cooked through but not falling apart.
  • Head-on shrimp from a Beaufort seafood dock taste far better than the peeled frozen kind. Suck the heads if you know what's good.

Charleston She-Crab Soup

Written by on .

A silky cream soup thickened with a light roux and finished with a pour of dry sherry at the table. The name comes from the roe of the female crab, which tints the soup and gives it a mineral richness you can't fake.

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
  • 1 rib celery, finely diced
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups whole milk
  • 1 cup seafood or fish stock
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 lb fresh lump crabmeat, picked over for shell
  • 1/4 cup crab roe (or 2 hard-boiled egg yolks, pressed through a sieve, as a substitute)
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground mace or nutmeg
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper
  • 6 teaspoons dry sherry, plus more to serve
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook until soft but not browned, about 6 minutes.
  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, to make a pale roux.
  3. Whisk in the milk and stock a little at a time so no lumps form. Add the bay leaf, mace, salt, and cayenne.
  4. Simmer gently, stirring often, for about 15 minutes until the soup coats the back of a spoon. Keep the heat low so the milk doesn't scorch.
  5. Stir in the cream and the crab roe (or sieved egg yolk) and warm through for 5 minutes.
  6. Add the crabmeat and Worcestershire and heat just until the crab is hot, about 3 minutes. Fold gently so you keep some lumps intact.
  7. Remove the bay leaf. Taste and adjust the salt.
  8. Pour 1 teaspoon of sherry into the bottom of each warmed bowl, ladle the soup over it, and scatter chives on top. Pass more sherry at the table.

Tips

  • Real crab roe is hard to buy since harvesting female crabs is restricted in many waters. Sieved hard-boiled egg yolk is the classic stand-in and gives the same color and body.
  • Add the sherry at the table rather than in the pot. Cooking it off dulls the aroma that makes the soup smell like a Broad Street dining room.

Charleston Shrimp and Grits

Written by on .

Stone-ground grits cooked slow with a little cream, topped with shrimp in a pan sauce built on bacon fat and a splash of stock. This is the breakfast dish that shrimpers ate before dawn, dressed up just enough for supper.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup stone-ground grits (not instant or quick)
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1 1/4 lbs medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (shells reserved)
  • 6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
  • 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup chicken or shrimp stock
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, plus more to serve
  • 3 scallions, thinly sliced
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Rinse the grits in a bowl of cold water and skim off any chaff that floats to the top. Drain well.
  2. Bring the water, milk, cream, and 1 teaspoon salt to a gentle boil in a heavy saucepan. Whisk in the grits in a slow stream so they don't clump.
  3. Reduce the heat to low and cook the grits uncovered, stirring every few minutes, for 40 to 45 minutes until they are thick and tender with no raw graininess. Add a splash of hot water if they tighten up too much.
  4. Stir the butter and cheddar into the finished grits, taste, and adjust the salt. Cover and keep warm over the lowest heat.
  5. While the grits cook, render the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Lift out the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the fat in the pan.
  6. Cook the onion in the bacon fat until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds more.
  7. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir for 1 minute to cook out the raw taste. Pour in the stock and whisk until the sauce thickens and turns glossy.
  8. Add the shrimp and cook, turning once, just until they curl and turn pink, about 3 minutes. Do not overcook them.
  9. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, hot sauce, and most of the reserved bacon. Season with black pepper.
  10. Spoon the grits into wide bowls, top with the shrimp and sauce, and finish with scallions and the last of the bacon.

Tips

  • Save the shrimp shells and simmer them in the stock for 15 minutes before you start; that quick shellfish stock is what separates a good version from a great one.
  • Stone-ground grits from a Carolina mill like Geechie Boy or Adluh have a corn flavor that yellow supermarket grits can't match. They take longer to cook, so don't rush them.