Cajun Shrimp Boil

For our third dinner with the larger Mann clan, I opted to serve a messy, but tasty Cajun Shrimp Boil.

This is easily adaptable to however many people you need to serve. If you aren't serving this on newsprint-covered tables, large baking trays still allow this to be a fun, messy, interactive dinner. You can use whatever Cajun spice blend you have on-hand. I used Black Magic from Spiceology for this round.

Ingredients

serves 4

• 1 gallon water

• 2 cups clam juice

• 1/3 cup Cajun spice (we used Spiceology's Black Magic Cajun Spice, but Old Bay is a favorite) + more for sprinkling

• 1 onion, peeled and quartered

• 1 pound potatoes, cut into thick wedges

• 3 ears of corn, shucked and chopped into quarters

• 2 sausage links, cut into 2" pieces (I used an Andouille sausage)

• 2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined

• 3 - 4 lemons, sliced into wedges

• chopped parsley

• melted butter for serving

• Also needed: lots and lots of napkins

Procedure

Place large pot on stove. Pour in the water and clam juice. Add in the spice mix, cover, and bring to a rolling boil. It's a lot of liquid, so it will take awhile. Add in the onion and Leave it at a low boil for 10 minutes. Add in the potatoes, corn, and sausages. Cover and boil for 10 minutes. The potatoes should be cooked, but not mushy.

Add in the shrimp and let boil for about 2 to 3 minutes. Remember, they cook quickly. You just want them to turn opaque pink.

Wrangle the food out of the broth onto the newsprint-lined table or baking sheets. Once the food is out of the broth, squeeze lemon juice over the top. Scatter with parsley. Drizzle with melted butter and sprinkle with more spice, as desired.

Let everyone dig in...just make sure everyone has plenty of napkins.