Anyone who follows Lynn’s Nightshade Noodle Bar on Instagram has no doubt drooled over the Viet-Cajun seafood boil that Chef/Owner Rachel Miller has been serving up. Definitely a spread out the newspapers and dive in with both hands affair — the intensely flavored mix of steaming crawfish and head-on shrimp is a party, leaving everyone dripping in butter and licking the fragrant spice blend — including Old Bay and lemongrass — from their fingers.
But maybe you don’t live close to Lynn and you’ve been admiring that dish from afar? Or you’d rather cook it up on your own time for a party or a group of friends? Wulf’s Fish has your back. In the second of their series of curated, limited edition seafood meals, pairing some of the world’s best seafood with the culinary sensibilities of great Boston-area chefs, the seafood distributor and online retailer has paired up with Miller to offer a home version of her famous seafood boil, alongside a menu of other decadent favorites.
The Wulf’s Fish + Nightshade Noodle Bar Chef Box is a seafood feast for four, including a crab dip appetizer, the seafood boil with Miller’s signature Viet-Cajun butter, a recipe for her famous garlic noodles, and pan-fried soft shell crabs. They’ve even tossed in a recipe for Nightshade favorite cocktail, Saigon Cigar Club, which mixes bourbon with a refreshing exotic combination of Thai banana, Vietnamese coriander and cardamom.
The seafood boil brings together many of the chef’s obsessions – her fine dining background steeped in French preparations, refined in the kitchens of celebrated Boston restaurants, and the deep dive she has taken into Vietnamese food, mixed with a love of what’s freshest.
“I grew up in a kosher household, but I would sneak out for a seafood boil,” Miller says, noting that in growing up in Louisiana, you can find a good boil even at a gas station. Vietnamese refugees who resettled in the area brought lemongrass, white pepper and fish sauce to make the classic boil even more exciting, she recalls, sparking a lifelong interest in that cuisine.
For Wulf’s part, the collaboration with Miller is a natural. “We love Rachel’s inventive dishes, eclectic influences, and spirit of adventure when using seafood on her menu,” says Wulf’s Alisha Lumea. “Her dishes always feel like a celebration.” She says all of the partners in this series are chefs the company works closely with on the wholesale side, chosen because “we love their restaurants and how they approach seafood, and we’ve structured the series to range across different cuisines and cooking styles.”
The first collaboration in the series was with Chef Michael Lombardi of SRV in Boston’s South End. The third will be with Chef Robert Sisca of The Banks and Bistro du Midi in downtown Boston.
The Wulf’s Fish + Nightshade Noodle Bar Chef Box is $195, shipping included in the northeast, and will go live for presale from wulfsfish.com on Monday, October 25. Boxes will go out for home delivery (or nationwide shipping) beginning Monday, November 8.
If you’re thinking (like we are) that this box would be ideal for the holidays, all the perishables are shipped frozen and will keep for a few months in your home freezer – or you can contact customer service at Wulf’s for delayed delivery. But don’t delay ordering — supplies of the crawfish in particular are finite. Once they are gone, there will be no more to be had anywhere until next summer.