It's Time To Start Using Fingerling Potatoes In Your Seafood Boil

Tumbled onto newspaper or a platter and shared with friends al fresco, a seafood boil is the ultimate interactive meal. Each element of this communal dish has to earn its part though, which is why it's time to include fingerling potatoes in your next batch; they're the perfect size, texture, taste, and color.

Fingerling taters come with unique perks for a seafood boil. Firstly, they have a stubby but slimline shape, which means you can put them straight into your seasoned broth without chopping, eliminating heaps of prep work. While red potatoes taste great in a seafood boil, they require much more effort. Fingerlings, much like new potatoes, can be cooked and served whole (any bigger ones can easily be halved) without peeling them first because their skins are papery thin. Their diminutive size also means they stack up well against the proportions of shrimps, clams, mussels and shucked corn.

During cooking, fingerling potatoes retain their shape because of their inherent waxy and firm texture, but readily soak up the flavors of seasoned stock. They won't disintegrate if simmered in advance and reheated later with oodles of seafood, which is ideal if you're serving a crowd and want to get some prep work done in advance. Once cooked, the potatoes have a buttery and nutty flavor that complements the salty, savory taste of an accompanying dipping sauce. Plus, they're available in yellow, red, orange, and purple varieties, which can lend a seafood boil some extra color and visual interest.

As the fingerling potatoes cook, the starch inside them will begin to swell up. This starch is then released into the seasoned broth causing gelation, a slight thickening of the surrounding liquid, which can eventually be cooked down, along with butter, garlic and more seasonings, to create a lip-smacking seafood boil sauce. Your seafood of choice, from crawfish and lobster to clams and shrimp, will also imbue the broth with an ocean-like salinity, turning it into a flavor packed liquor. Serve your seafood boil with chunks of Andouille sausage and boiled eggs to amp up the protein content and make it go that much further when entertaining a throng of friends and family. The key is to keep it casual and provide plenty of napkins for people to wipe their fingers with after cracking and peeling crawfish at the table.

If you aren't keen on seafood, try switching the shrimp in a seafood boil for deep fried chicken wings. Simply dredge your wings in seasoned flour before frying until golden, crispy and succulent in the center. Finally, serve the whole lot with your veggies and a slurp-able garlicky sauce, flavored with creamy butter and Old Bay seasoning, that can be poured abundantly over the top.