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Cookin’ on Hwy. 1 by Tim Acosta, Rouses

Add the lemon, onions, garlic, smoked sausage and potatoes to the pot, and bring the water to a boil. Let it boil for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and add the shrimp, mushrooms and frozen corn. Replace the lid. Once you see steam coming out it means the water is approaching a boil. Start your timer. Two minutes later, kill the heat and toss in some ice. You may have to go an extra 30 seconds to a minute more for larger shrimp. You’ll know the shrimp are ready when they are separating from their shells. Let the shrimp soak for 10 minutes before removing from the water or draining. Serve with a traditional dipping sauce — a simple yet addictive accompaniment that is also great with fried fish. And, yes, with crawfish too. We have a Rouses Markets Bayou Dipping Sauce, specifically designed for seafood. If you prefer to make the sauce at home, there is a recipe on page 33. WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 3-4 dozen fresh Gulf blue crabs 1 4.5-pound container Rouses Seafood Boil 1 8-ounce bottle Zatarain’s Concentrated Shrimp and Crab Boil 1 16-ounce bottle hot sauce 1 bag small red potatoes, about 3 pounds 3 pounds yellow onions, halved 1 stalk celery, root removed, cut into quarters 6 lemons, halved 8 ears frozen mini corn on the cob or 3 fresh ears corn, cut into thirds 1½ pounds Rouses Green Onion Smoked Sausage, cut in chunks 1-2 large bags ice 80-quart boiling pot HOW TO PREP: Fill boiling pot halfway with water. Fill boiling pot halfway with water. Add the seafood boil, shrimp and crab boil, and the hot sauce. Place lid on the pot and set propane burner on high. Bring water to a rolling boil. Continue boiling 8 minutes. Remove lid and add the crabs, vegetables (except the corn), lemon and sausage. Replace the lid and bring water back to a rolling boil. Remove the lid and add the corn. Replace the lid and continue HWY. 1 BOILED CRABS Serves 12-24

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The beautiful thing about a stovetop shrimp boil is that you don’t have to go through the fuss of

a full-scale crawfish boil. Here’s how I make a traditional Louisiana shrimp boil on my outdoor burner — or you can do it on a stovetop in your kitchen. Get five pounds of wild-caught local Gulf shrimp from the ice table display in our Rouses Seafood Department. We sell more wild-caught local Gulf shrimp than anyone else on the Gulf Coast, and they are always beautiful. I recommend cooking the shrimp in the shell, which adds flavor. Get a small container of fresh button mushrooms, a bag of small red potatoes, a couple of yellow onions, at least two whole heads of garlic (I like garlic), and a couple of lemons in the Produce Department. You can get fresh corn on the cob, too, but I usually use frozen. I also add Rouses Green Onion Smoked Sausage — except on a Friday during Lent. Now, you are going to need a large stockpot, not a crawfish boil pot. I have a 16-quart stockpot that I use for shrimp; I also use it for lobsters. It’s the right size for gumbo, too. Fill the pot no more than halfway with water (for a 16-quart pot, that’s 8 quarts) and turn burner to high. Add Rouses Down the Bayou Seafood Boil. This is where most of the flavor for the shrimp boil comes from. It’s a kind of dump-it-in magic that trans forms the water into a flavorful broth. You can add a couple of bay leaves (just because that’s how we cook on the Gulf Coast), some hot sauce and a couple of tablespoons of Cajun Power Garlic Sauce for more flavor — this is optional, but it’s how I like my seafood: cooked and spiced. With shrimp, I always add about half a cup of Italian dressing. You could use oil instead, but the dressing adds a little more flavor; the dressing (or oil)

will also make the peeling process easier. The vinegar in the hot sauce helps too. Halve the lemons and onions, slice into the garlic

cooking for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and shut off the flame. Add ice to the pot to stop the crabs from cooking.

halfway from the side to expose more of the cloves, and cut the smoked sausage (if using) into 1½- to 2-inch pieces. You can leave the potatoes whole if they are small. Otherwise, cut them into chunks.

Crack a beer and wait while the crabs soak for 10 minutes to absorb the seasoning. Pull the basket out of the water, let drain, and serve.

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