I live in the Midwest, where the typical seafood boil is full of fish, corn, and potatoes. There's probably Old Bay seasoning involved (nothing wrong with that). This one has the corn and potatoes, but also an Asian fusion twist. The cooking liquid is loaded with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chili sauce, and five spice powder. The seafood is a mix of shrimp, clams, mussels, and lobster.
Alton has a method for the layers of ingredients, with the basic goal being that the clams and mussels will be above the liquid line, so that they steam rather than boil. It worked; everything had just the texture we wanted. Plus it smelled great. It was a better day than any parade in DC.
My aaunt gets credit for looking at the whole garlic cloves that were in it and realizing that the best thing to do was squeeze them onto bread as a side.
Difficulty Level: Easy (Seriously, the prep time is minimal and the cooking time is speedy. You can strip the directions down to pile in first batch of ingredients into the pot, bring to boil. Add steamer insert piled with seafood, walk away for 12 minutes. Dump resulting goodness onto platter and eat)
Will It Get Made Again? I don't typically have occasions that call for a seafood boil (and lobster is $$$) but if I have a reason, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.
