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Foodie Friday: Beat the heat - take the cooking outdoors!

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Shrimp, corn, potatoes in tin foil.

Southern United States cooking

I have yet to travel to the southern United States, but it is definitely on my list of top 10 places I’d like to visit. My husband’s grandparents are American and I’ve heard wonderful stories of the culture and food from their travels throughout the south. The closest I’ve gotten to experience southern cooking was a trip to visit my husband’s late grandfather in West Virginia where we got to attend an outdoor potluck complete with fried chicken and cornbread (so delicious!).

Shrimp boil

One traditional southern dish I hope to experience one day (in true fashion) is a shrimp or crawfish boil. Shrimp and/or crawfish, along with baby potatoes, corn and sausage, are boiled with seasonings, drained, and then the entire contents of the pot are dumped onto the centre of a paper-covered table for all to pick away at and enjoy. Sounds like my kind of meal (although I may not want to be on cleanup duty that day)! With the recent heat wave we’ve had in the North, I’ve been looking for new recipes to throw on my BBQ, since I try to avoid using our stove when temperatures rise about 25 degrees. To my delight, I came across a post on Damn Delicious for a modified shrimp boil made in foil and cooked on the BBQ. After doing a bit of reading about traditional shrimp boils, I made a couple of modifications to the original recipe by using Old Bay seasoning instead of Cajun (although you could use both) and adding garlic and onion for extra flavour.

If you’re trying to watch your salt intake, you can omit the sausage (or eat only a couple of slices) and stick to Cajun seasoning (which should be lower in salt than Old Bay depending on the brand). Lastly, I added green beans to amp up the veggie content.

You can find the recipe here:
Shrimp Boil Foil Packets (as seen on Damn Delicious)

Don’t have a BBQ? No problem! The foil packets could be baked in the oven at 425F for 15 minutes. They could also be cooked over a wood fire (on top of a grill).

What are some of your favorite BBQ recipes?