Vegan Low Country Boil?
Posted by kellystern on Nov 12, 2006 · Member since Nov 2005 · 2 posts
My boyfriends family is doing a low country boil for thanksgiving. What do I do? Does anyone have any suggestions on what to put in a vegan boil. I've done one a long time ago, but it was basically corn and potatoes and I kind of wanted somthing special to make all the meat eaters jealous! Any suggestions?
Excuse my ignorance, but what is a 'low country boil'??
It's a mess of corn-on-the-cob segments, potatoes, sausages, lemons, shellfish, and more that's cooked in spicy broth and then turned out and eaten picnic-style, if I'm not mistaken. It's a South Carolina-based regional specialty and is super-festive, informal, and very tasty (if you're omnivorous). It also goes by the name Frogmore Boil.
I've seen two versions in cookbooks, but I'll be darned if I can find the one Robin Robertson published, this morning. Anyone able to locate it? She mentions in the top-of-the-recipe descriptive blurb that the recipe is based on it... but it's not in the title of the recipe or the index, darn the luck.
Here's an abbreviated version of the thing that Ann Jackson calls "Frogmore Gumbo" in Heart of the Home--it's not quite the same, because it's actually a gumbo, but (since it has the word "Frogmore" in it) it may do the trick for you:
This looks an awful lot like straight-up gumbo to me, tbh. And it makes enough to feed an army, I imagine-- look at those ingredients! Darn.
Anyone got that Robertson citation?
If it might come in handy, here's a non-veg version:
http://www.beaufortusa.com/recipes1.htm
I imagine you could adapt it by using tinned seitan "mock abalone" (which is nothing like shellfish at all), chicken-style seitan, tofu, or something, in place of shrimp and by using veggie sausages in place of meaty ones. I definitely would add the potatoes. Those seasonings ought to be vegan already, and they're what gives it the classic flavor.
Enjoy!
Hmm. I've been thinking about this since I first replied to your post. Thanks to Duckalucky for the informative explanation. I'm still not clear on exactly what it is... but I'm attempting to consolidate all the bits I've learned about it with the other bits I've speculated on into something coherent... and comparable to traditions here in Newfoundland. We love boiled veggies here. Some people cook them every Sunday for supper (with the requisite baked Turkey/Chicken, gravy and stuffing---or sometimes just plain old boiled veggies and salt beef--called "Jigg's Dinner"). One of the (interesting?) things we like to do is make "peas pudding." You do this by putting split yellow peas in a cloth bag into your vegetable pot with some margarine and let them cook in the veggie liquid. They absorb the flavour of the veggies very well and are tasty covered in a vegan gravy paired with a tasty stuffing (we call stuffing, 'dressing' here). You need to mash them after they've boiled to a mush and add a little salt, pepper and margarine. Newfoundlanders also make an accidentally vegan steamed blueberry pudding (actually just a cake steamed in a pot of boiling water, served with a sweet syurp) which could be a fantastic dessert for such a meal. You'd need to find a metal pudding mold/tin thing though.
A Newfoundland woman actually wrote a vegan cookbook 11 years ago with many vegan versions of traditional Newfoundland recipes. I'll take it out of the library again this week and see if there's anything in there you could try.
This is the only recipe I could find online for a steamed pudding. I can get my grandmother's recipe from my mother if you really want to try it, just let me know if you're interested.
Figgy Duff
Ingredients:
2 cups bread crumbs, made from bread crusts
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp hot water
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp ginger, allspice, and cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Water Molasses Coady:
1 cup molasses
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vinegar
Method: To make bread crumbs, soak dry bread crusts in enough water to soften; drain and squeeze gently to remove excess water. Break bread into crumbs and measure out 2 cups. Grease a 4 cup mold. Mix crumbs, raisins, molasses, and melted butter together. Combine baking soda and water and add to crumb mixture; mix well. Sift together flour, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and salt; stir into crumb mixture. Pour mixture into greased pudding mold. Cover the top with a large piece of greased foil and fold snugly over sides of mold to keep steam out. Remember to leave some slack in foil because pudding will need room to expand. Place mold on rack in a steamer or large pot. Add boiling water to halfway up the sides of pudding mold. Cover and steam for 2 hours or until firm to touch. Serve topped with Molasses Coady. Pudding can be placed in a cloth pudding bag instead of mold. Place bag in pot with enough water to cover bag. Pudding can be cooked in a pot with Jigg's Dinner.
Making Molasses Coady: In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients. Heat until boiling; simmer, stirring ocassionally, for 10 minutes. Serve over steamed or baked puddings.
To me the original Low Country Boil sounds like what we would call a clambake...you could use the seasonings and just leave out the animals, and have some good tasting corn, taters and etceteras.