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Jun
18
Frogmore Stew!
Filed Under Uncategorized
The Shop Tart was shocked - shocked! - to learn one of her friends had never - ever! - tried Frogmore Stew. She grew up in South Carolina and spent plenty of time with the same Frogmore Stew-eatin’ types that the Shop Tart did. How could this have happened? A real travesty. After some prodding, she recalled ever so vaguely that she might have tried it before she actually cared about food. Perhaps. In any case, the Frogmore Stew had to happen. The Shop Tart had brought potatoes from her Five Leaves Farm share in Columbia and two kinds of Caw Caw Creek sausage - Chorizo and hot Italian - specifically for the stew.
And what a Frogmore Stew it was. She started with an appetizer, this lovely cold bottle of Foss Marai Prosecco, one of her favorites.
A certain very happy eight-year old enjoyed an appetizer of Extreme Cookies N Cream ice cream with Magic Shell. That’s right, Magic Shell. And, nope, it was not from the hippy store. Oh, the things we let kids eat on vacation…
First off, she boiled two pots of water, one for a stew with sausage and one without, for the pescetarians in the house. To the water, she added some shrimp stock made previously by the brilliant Tracie, a fellow beach-house dweller. She also added loads of Old Bay seasoning and a few heaping spoons full of sugar. By the way, how cool is the faucet over the stove? Answer: So cool.
Next up, she added several pounds of small potatoes, halved, to the boiling water.
While those were boiling, she made cocktail sauce, which is very, very hard to make. It has two ingredients.
After the potatoes had boiled for fifteen minutes, she added the sausage.
After five more minutes, she added the corn, chopped into halves or thirds. A boy had to do that part, because it’s harder than you might think.
While the corn boiled for five more minutes, the Shop Tart contemplated this lovely still-life in the window, heirloom tomatoes from Wadmalaw Island and herbs from Tracie’s garden in Columbia.
Finally, she added several pounds of local shrimp from Simmons Seafood and let them cook until they were, you know, done. Speaking of Simmons, the Shop Tart learned - after driving quite a ways in the other direction - that Simmons Seafood is now right here on Isle of Palms, like a three-minute drive from where she’s staying. Who knew?
Et voilà: All-local Frogmore Stew. She served up the whole thing with cocktail sauce for dipping the shrimp, French baguette for dipping in the broth and a green salad. Speaking of the salad, it was a good one and easy to make. In a frying pan, sauté some corn (frozen works fine, but this was fresh,) a handful of pine nuts and some boiled quinoa in olive oil. Toss the mixture into a huge bowl of mixed greens and drizzle olive oil and Balsamic vinegar to your heart’s content. Lemon olive oil is nice if you have it. The Shop Tart did not and should have squeezed a lemon into the salad, but she forgot. Mwah!
She is really looking forward to a quick trip into Charleston today, where she will hit the Bits of Lace sale and - finally! - the Pop Up Shop on King. She will try to take lots of pictures and not buy too much stuff (wish her luck on that one…) She might have to pop in to Willy Jay (always something interesting and often not too pricey) and grab a snack or ten at Caviar and Bananas.
In other news…
- Lola has new clothing by Velvet and Three Dots.
- Kicks has new shoes from BCBG and Kate Spade, as well as the totally awesome Jeffrey Campbell rainboots in black. If you don’t have a pair, you really, really need them.
- Don’t forget to check out the calendar which, in its infancy still, is already new and improved. A friend of the Shop Tart’s who happens to be sharing her vacation did cool webby-type stuff to make it bigger and more readable.
Happy Shopping and don’t forget to tell them you read it on the Shop Tart!
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