In my household, there's really only one way to entertain big groups in the summer -- get the grill going, or steam up a massive one-pot-meal of seasonal seafood (sometimes both!). As much as I love a good burger, I usually lean towards the latter.
Why? The delicious, epically time saving innovation of built in sides. I don't have to worry about what I'm serving alongside my hotdogs or steaks, because a seafood boil includes veggies (corn and onion), a starch (potatoes), a meat (sausage), and as much shellfish as your party can eat. All cooked at once, in less than 30 minutes.
It's so easy, I find myself wishing I could get away with seafood boils in the dead of winter. But perhaps the magic of a big, messy feast of tender shellfish and sweet summer corn is that it's best enjoyed outdoors, in the lingering sunshine of a long, lazy day.
The only rule to seafood boils is that there aren't any rules, but here are some of my best tips. When you're picking shellfish, go for one main event and one supporting player. Lobster is an obvious choice for the hero (I often use lobster tails, as pictured, because they're generally cheaper and truthfully I hate killing the live ones), but crab can be a showstopper too. Mussels or clams are great for support -- the shells are pretty, they're inexpensive and feed a ton of people.
Oh, and get a big loaf of crusty bread to dip in the extra broth and butter. You'll thank me later.
I like to use a massive steaming pot, like this (very inexpensive) option from Granite Ware, because getting a small amount of liquid to steam up is much less time consuming than getting a full pot to boil, and I prefer the taste of steamed seafood over boiled. If you must boil, make sure your pot is big enough for everything, or else use more than one small pot -- overcrowding will make it hard for everything to cook through.
Invest in a couple of butter warmers so everyone at the table has some of the good stuff nearby, and lemon wraps so you're not squeezing bitter pith and seeds onto your bounty.
A set of seafood tools (mallets, picks, crackers, scissors) makes everything easier -- a lobster tail is a thing of beauty when you've cut off the shell with seafood scissors rather than tearing the thing apart.
Now, what to drink? Crisp beer and champagne always have a place at my table, but adding a simple cocktail to the mix is truly the icing on the cake. I always cook up my seafood boils with tarragon, because tarragon and shellfish may be my all time favorite flavor pairing, and tarragon almost looks like it comes from the sea.
It also happens to go very well with gin, and so a Tarragon Tonic has become my drink of choice for this particular feast. The secret is to use lots of the herb, so you can be gentle with it, instead of smashing a tiny piece all over your glass and oxidizing the poor thing to smithereens.
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