BURHOP'S SEAFOOD STORE
FISH & LOBSTER BOIL RECIPES
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CAUTION: We don't guarantee our recipes with fish purchased elsewhere. A fabulous recipe won't help bad fish.
Burhop’s New England Seafood Boil with Lobsters, Mussels & Clams
Serves 8 Prep time 1 hour Cook time 40 minutes
Ingredients:
Herb butter:
2 sticks unsalted butter brought to room temp
1 cup mixed fresh herbs (chopped basil/parsley/tarragon and/or chives, well packed into cup)
Lobster boil:
8 small (1 ¼ lb.) or 4 medium to large lobsters (1 ¾-2 lbs.)
2 lbs. fresh mussels, rinsed
2 dozen clams, rinsed
½ cup sea salt
2 Burhop’s spice bags
3 large white onions, peeled, cut in half
4 stalks celery, cut into chunks
3 tomatoes, chopped and seeded
3 lemons, halved
4 heads of garlic, halved crosswise, unpeeled
3 cups dry white wine
4 lbs. new potatoes, red skinned
8 ears of corn, husked and halved
Directions:
Make the herb butter by blending chopped herbs with softened butter in a glass or ceramic bowl; mix with a wooden spoon until well combined. Form into a log on parchment paper or plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm. (This can be done a day ahead).
Prepare your cooking broth by filling a large, deep pot with 6-8 quarts of water.* Add the salt, spice bags, celery, onions, garlic, tomatoes and lemons. Cover and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 5 minutes. Add the wine and potatoes (if you have a large pasta cooker with a basket, that works really well) and allow to cook until almost done, about 12-15 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes. Add the corn and cook for another 8 minutes or so. Remove potatoes and corn from the pan and put on a serving platter. Cover with foil to keep warm.
Add the lobsters to the pot and cook until shells turn pink, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the mussels and clams, pushing them down into the broth. Cover and cook until the mussels and clams open., about 7 minutes. Discard any clams or mussels that don’t open. Transfer mussels and clams to a platter, and cover to keep warm. Strain the broth through a fine sieve into a saucepan. Keep warm.
To divide large lobsters, you will need a pair of sharp shellfish scissors. Using an oven glove to hold the lobster, cut the shell starting at the base of the tail, moving all the way to the head. Then take a large chef’s knife, and cut the flesh in half through the opening in the shell. This will take several minutes – ask for help! If you get one lobster per person, this won’t be necessary.
Serve lobsters and shellfish in large bowls with a ladle of the hot broth and a couple of slices of herb butter. Add the potatoes and corn to the bowl before serving. If you don’t have large enough bowls, serve the lobster on a plate and everything else in a bowl, with lots of napkins.
(To use Maine lobster tails instead of live lobsters, buy one tail per person. Thaw over night in the refrigerator. Cook for 3-4 minutes in the cooking broth before adding the mussels and clams).
*You may need to use 2 pots for 8 lobsters – divide the broth between 2 pans after cooking the potatoes and corn.
Burhop's Midwest Fish Boil
Prep time: 45 minutes Serves 10-12
INGREDIENTS:
1/2-3/4 lb. fish per person, fillets or steaks of whitefish, lake trout or pike
(halibut works, but not authentic)
12 quart kettle with removable basket (pasta cooker)
12 medium onions
24 medium new potatoes
2 Burhop's spice bags
2 sticks melted butter
1/2 cup salt
Lemon wedges, chopped parsley for garnish
DIRECTIONS
Peel onions. Clean potatoes (DON'T PEEL) and cut small circle off ends to help keep potatoes from bursting.
Remove the basket from the kettle, and place potatoes and 8 qts. of water in pot. Bring to a boil and add spice bags, salt and onions. Cook for 15 minutes at a steady, rolling boil, with the top of the kettle vented or partly covered. Stack fish in basket and add to the kettle when potatoes are almost done. Be careful about overflow - you may have to ladle out a little water. Cook fish for 12 minutes, with pot partially covered. Take pot to sink and drain fish.
Serve family style on big platters for a back yard party, or serve directly onto plates, as you prefer. Top the fish, potatoes and onions with a couple of tablespoons of hot melted butter and some chopped parsley, and serve with lemon wedges and Burhop's Cole Slaw.
The reason why they do a flame off at the end up in Door County is because of the quantity of fish. (For those of you who have't seen one, the fish boil is cooked outside over a fire, and at the end of the cooking, an accelerant is thrown on the fire, causing it to flare up and the cooking water to overflow onto the fire). The purpose of the flame off is to get rid of the oil etc. that floats to the surface when you have 30 or 40 lbs. of fish. With this amount of fish, draining it works just as well, and it's a lot safer. Not as spectacular, but safer.