eat it: Seafood Boil

We hosted a Christmas dinner a couple of weeks ago for our friends. We wanted to make make the evening easy and so we thought a seafood boil would be the simplest. Nick was in charge of the boil and I would do the appetizers and shuck the oysters. We bought all our ingredients, (crab, cuttlefish, corn, potatoes, shrimp, leeks) the day before and I picked up the oysters from Oyster Boy right before the party.

For appetizers, I simply wrapped a slice of pear with prosciutto and drizzled honey on top, set out my favourite cheese, Prestige de Bourgogne and my go to foccacia from Forno Cultura. I started shucking and Nick even threw in the top shells into the seafood boil! Thank goodness Nick took care of the seafood boil, I was just going to toss everything in and hope for the best, he was seasoning and cutting up herbs. You can watch him cook the seafood boil here:

After it was done cooking, Nick started placing the crabs on the table and then the seafood, and then the vegetables to make it a work of art. There were some oohs and aahs. We huddled around the coffee table and dug in with our hands, this was a communal as it was going to get. The best part wasn't just getting to spend time with my friends over a meal but also truly sharing the food and the feeling of togetherness was the best Christmas gift I could ask for!