Steak and shrimp is one of my favorite meals – simple and classic in a supper-clubby kind of way. There’s very little prep involved and everything cooks fast on a hot grill, so just throw in an obligatory salad or baked potato and you’ve got a really nice dinner cheap and fast.

Spicy Asian Shrimp
I’m working on a base sauce for Kung Pao recipes, and these fiery shrimp are part of that experiment.

1 pound raw large shrimp, pealed and deveined
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon whole Sichuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon chili paste with garlic
1 tablespoon black bean chili sauce
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
4 bamboo skewers

Soak the skewers in water for at least 30 minutes. While the skewers are soaking, combine the salt and peppercorns in a food processor and give them a whirl until the peppercorns break apart and combine with the salt. Add the chili paste, black bean sauce, Hoisin sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and wine. Pulse to combine.

Put the shrimp in a resealable bag and pour in the marinade. Toss to coat, then squeeze the air out, seal, and stash in the fridge while you get the grill set up.

Set your grill up for direct cook at a roaring 700°+F.  While the grill is heating up, season  the steak. For this nice, thick ribeye I used just a little kosher salt and some fresh-ground black pepper. Now is also the time to thread the shrimp onto the skewers.

When the charcoal looks like a pool of lava, toss the steak on for 90 seconds of undisturbed searing. Flip it, and let it go another 90 seconds on other other side. Flip again and check the internal temperature. I was looking for a nice medium-rare – 130°F with a hint of red at the center. It only took another 30 seconds a side to get there.

If the steak is looking good and you are getting close to your desired degree of doneness, flip the steak one more time and check again. If the steak is getting too blackened, but isn’t done yet, pull the steak from the grill while you reduce the heat (on the Big Green Egg I just shut the lower vent down). When the heat has dropped into the 500°F range, return the steak for another minute or so a side and check again.

Move the steak to a warm plate, cover with another plate, and let it rest while you grill the shrimp.

Cook the shrimp for about 2 minutes a side – just until they start to curl up and turn pink.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
The ribeye was perfect with a nice char on the outside and a tender, medium-rare interior.  The shrimp really stole the show – sweet and spicy with a great depth of flavor. Black bean sauce can be tough to find, but it’s what makes the dish. I had to turn to Amazon to find a gluten-free version, but you can find jars of the non-GF at your friendly, local Asian market.

The Nutrition
The ribeye is 2 Weight Watcher’s points per ounce. The shrimp are only 1/2 a point per ounce. We split the steak and had about 6 shrimp a piece. Add a small salad and the whole meal was only about 12 points.

ONE YEAR AGO - The Best French Onion Soup

TWO YEARS AGO - Pork in Adobo

I had really hoped to make this dish on the Big Green Egg using a cast iron griddle, but the weather just wouldn’t cooperate. I ended up cooking it on the griddle (highly recommended) on the stove top (not so highly recommended).

It looks like there are a lot of moving pieces here, but if you are organized you can put this on the table in about an hour and a half.

The Chicken
4 boneless/skinless chicken thighs, sliced into 1/4 inch strips
Juice of 1 lime (about 1/4 cup)
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon Ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Cholula Chipotle Hot Sauce

Put the garlic cloves and salt in a food processor and pulse until the garlic is minced. Add the lime juice, pepper, cumin, chili powder, soy sauce, olive oil, and hot sauce and give everything a whirl until it is well-combined.

Pour half of the marinade over the chicken, toss to coat, and stash in the fridge for at least an hour, but not longer than 4 hours. Reserve the other half of the marinade in the fridge for later.

The Shrimp
1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon achiote oil
1 tablespoon Cholula Chipotle Hot Sauce

Pour the  oil and hot sauce over the shrimp and toss to coat. Stash in the fridge while you prep the veggies.

The Veggies
3 large bell peppers (assorted colors are pretty) cut into strips
1 medium onion, chopped
3 gloves garlic, crushed and chopped
3 scallions, roughly chopped

The veggies will pick up plenty of flavor from the griddle, so I didn’t season them at all.

The Cook
Think of the griddle as a flat wok – you want to get it hot and move the food on and off it quickly. So have all of your ingredients, and a large (pre-warmed if possible) serving platter arranged in front of you before you start.

Center the griddle over your largest/hottest burner on the stove (or across 2 burners if you have a large rectangular griddle) and heat over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.

Swirl a couple of glugs of peanut oil on the griddle and let heat until it starts to shimmer (about 2 minutes). Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the marinade and arrange it on the griddle.

Let the chicken sear for about 2 minutes and then flip it over and let it cook for another minute or so until done (I like using a set of tongs for this).

Remove the chicken to the platter and put the veggies on the griddle. Cook these until they soften and start to char a bit, about 5 minutes (or until your smoke alarm goes off like ours did). Pour just a couple of tablespoons of water on the griddle to de-glaze it and steam the veggies a bit. Use a spatula here to scrape up the brown bits and work them into the veggies.

Remove the veggies to the platter and add the shrimp to the griddle. Cook these just until they turn pink and start to curl (about a minute), flip and cook the other side for another minute.

Remove the shrimp to the platter and drizzle the whole thing with the reserved marinade. Serve with warm tortillas and guacamole.

Nutrition
Lean meat and tons of veggies, what’s not to love? Just watch how many glugs of oil you use and go light on the tortillas and guac. Makes 6 (1 1/2 cup) servings. 270 calories. 6 Weight Watchers points.

The Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars
An outstanding weeknight dish. The griddle gave everything a nice char and the Cholula Chipotle Hot Sauce added a little heat with a lot of slightly sweet smokiness. Th achiote oil was subtle, but it added a richness that helped round out all the flavors.

While the griddle did its smoky/searing job, it was a little too much for the vent fan in the kitchen. Between the smoke and the splatter, this would have worked at lot better outside on the grill.

Food & Fire has been a little shy on posts lately because our household has recently adopted the Weight Watcher’s PointsPlus® program and it’s taking some time to get used to it.  Never fear – this grillmeister will still be churning out some dishes that Jennifer Hudson would definitely not approve of, but I will also be working to adapt some of my recipes to be a little more “points friendly.”

You wouldn’t usually think of gumbo as a dish that could be lightened up without losing a lot of flavor, but this version from Mark Bittman is hearty without being too heavy.

1 pound scallops
1 link andouille chicken sausage (Amylu’s), chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour (Pamela’s Gluten-Free Baking Mix)
1 onion, chopped
1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups vegetable or chicken stock, or water
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
1 -2 tablespoons Louisiana-style hot sauce
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves

Heat the oil and butter in a Dutch oven over medium-low heat until the butter is melted. Make a roux by whisking in the flour and cooking, stirring almost constantly, until the mixture darkens to a blond color and becomes fragrant (it should smell like popcorn or toast), about 15 to 20 minutes.

Add the sausage, onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic and bump the heat up to medium. Cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables have softened – about 10 minutes.

Add the stock, tomatoes, thyme, oregano, bay leaves and Cajun seasoning. Slowly raise the heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom to remove any browned bits. Reduce heat to medium-low and cover.  Cook for about 20 minutes to let all the flavors get to know each other. Add scallops and cook just until they are no longer translucent, about 2 minutes.

Add salt, black pepper, and hot sauce to taste. Serve in bowls as a stew, or poured over rice.

Nutrition
Makes 6 (1 1/2 cup) servings. 275 calories. 7 Weight Watcher points.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
W0w – sweet and buttery scallops in a rich sauce. The roux makes a big difference – it not only thickens the dish but helps to pull all the flavors together. It’s well worth the calories.

The fine folks over at Cholula Hot Sauce were nice enough to send me a 4-pack of their sauces to try out. I’ve been a big fan of their original sauce for years. It doesn’t have much heat or vinegar, but it’s got a solid chili taste that works great on almost any Mexican dish.

There are now 3 new flavors of Cholula – Chili Garlic, Chili Lime, and Chipotle. Of the three, the Chili Lime caught my attention first. I thought it would be a great addition to my Shimp Ceviche recipe.

1 pound cooked medium (41-50) shrimp, shelled and deveined (get the freshest you can find)
Juice of 2 limes (about 1/2 cup)
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup cocktail sauce (Trader Joe’s in this case, but any sauce with some horseradish in it will work fine)
2 tablespoons pickled jalapeños, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2-3 tablespoons Cholula chili Lime hot sauce
16 – 24 pimento-stuffed green olives, chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 avocado, sliced the long way

In a large, non-reactive bowl, combine the shrimp, salt, and lime juice. Let this sit for about 5 minutes. Add the onion, cilantro, cocktail sauce, jalapeños, oil, Worcestershire, horseradish, hot sauce, and olives. Mix well and let sit in the fridge for about an hour so the flavors all get to know each other.

Arrange the avocado strips into a little nest on a small plate or bowl. Mound the ceviche in the center of the strips.  Serve with lime wedges, more hot sauce, and tortilla chips or (strangely, but traditional) saltine crackers.

The Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars
This dish just screams sand and surf. I really liked the addition of the last little tomatoes from our garden. They are so perfectly ripe and intense that they are just little flavor bombs.

The Cholula Chili Lime Hot Sauce really shines here – the base chili flavor isn’t too hot (more flavor than fire) and the zip of the lime brings out the freshness and sweetness of the shrimp. I think it’d be great with almost any seafood.

Next time I’d use a different size shrimp. I’d either go large/jumbo so you could pluck the shrimp out with a fork and scoop the remaining sauce up with a chip, or use little cocktail shrimp so you could just scoop the the whole works up.

Maybe it’s the end of summer blues? I don’t know, but rather than fight it, I figured I’d just sit around and eat Doritos while it ran its course. Thankfully, when my dear wife called and said she’d found some nice yellowfin tuna, I knew exactly what I wanted to make – Tuna Nicoise.

Tuna Nicoise is a traditional French composed salad usually served as an appetizer or a light dinner. I wanted something a little heartier that would benefit from some time on the grill, so I bumped up the amount of meat and potatoes and substituted grilled asparagus for the usual haricots verts.

Note: this recipe looks complicated, but the walk though is pretty straight forward.  If you have everything prepped and ready before the tuna comes off the grill, it goes together in moments.

The Tuna
2 pounds yellowfin tuna steaks
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup of the marinade (recipe follows)

The Marinade & Dressing
2 anchovy fillets, drained (or 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic
Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 cup olive oil
1 medium shallot
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon herbes de Provence

The Nicoise
1 pound red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into thick rounds
1 pound asparagus, trimmed
4 cups mixed greens or Bibb lettuce, washed and dried
1/2 pound plum tomatoes, cut into wedges
1/2 cup halved and seeded black brine-cured olives
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil

Make the dressing and marinade first by putting the garlic, shallots, and salt in a food processor and pulse until the garlic and shallots are minced. Add the anchovies, pepper, lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire, and herb blend and pulse to combine. With the processor running, add the oil in a steady stream. The mixture will begin the thicken and form an emulsion, kind of a like a thin mayonnaise. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Marinate the tuna by pouring about a 1/4 cup of the dressing/marinade onto the bottom of a lidded container. Arrange the tuns steaks on top of the dressing and turn to coat. Season both sides with a little salt and pepper. Stash in the fridge along with the remaining dressing.

Combine the potato slices, butter, and parsley in a microwave-safe container. Nuke for a couple of minutes until the butter melts. Stir to coat and nuke another 5-10 minutes until tender. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm in the microwave.

Put the asparagus in a zip-top bag and season with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Shake to coat and stash in the fridge.

Set your grill up for a direct cook over high (600°F) heat.

Grill the asparagus for about 5 minutes, turning frequently, until the spears start to brown and caramelize. Set asides and keep warm.

Grill the tuna steaks for between 30 seconds to a minute per side, checking for doneness often. For this dish, I like the steaks medium rare where the tuna will be gently yielding when you press on it with the tongs. Anything past medium is headed for cat food territory, so it’s best to pull the steaks off the heat just before they are done and let the carry-over heat do the rest.

Remove the steaks to a plate and drizzle with some of the dressing.

To serve, arrange all the goodies on the table and let everyone assemble their own plates. I like to put down a layer of mixed greens; top that with the tuna and some capers; then surround it with the potatoes, olives, eggs, asparagus, and tomatoes; and top it all with a healthy drizzle of the dressing.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
Wow, this was good! The meal was rich (perfect for a chilly early fall day) but not overwhelmingly so. I like grilled tuna anyway, but the marinade keeps the fish moist while adding an herby zip. All the other goodies then just come together to compliment each other. The olives and capers play off the salty tang of the dressing while the eggs and asparagus help to ground everything.

I can see mixing the leftover dressing with some canned tuna for an outstanding tuna sandwich.

My dear wife caught a great sale on these monstrous 10/12 count JUMBO shrimp. I knew I had to do these babies proud, so I went with my version of the chili lime marinade that we first had at Wish Willy’s in Belize.

1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
4 tablespoons fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon hot sauce (preferably Marie Sharp’s)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
Juice of 1 lime, about 1/4 cup

Put the salt and garlic in a food processor and pulse until the garlic is minced. Add the remaining ingredients, except the shrimp, and give them a whirl until they are well-combined.

Put the shrimp in a freezer bag and cover with the marinade. Squeeze the air out of the bag and seal. Marinate in the refrigerator for as long as it takes to get the grill going.

Set your grill up for a direct cook over high (500°F) heat.

Put a veggie tray or grill pan on the grate and let it heat up for about 10 minutes.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the shrimp from the marinade and put them into the pan. Reserve the marinade.

Grill the shrimp until they are pink and curly – about 3 to 5 minutes a side. Remove to a bowl and top with the reserved marinade.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
The shrimp really took on that lovely Caribbean blend of tangy/sweet/hot/salty/spicy. Each bite was a big burst of flavor, but nothing got overwhelmed.

The only change I would have made was to cook them just a little more – they were so big that even though the outsides had picked up a bit of char, the insides were a little underdone. If I get a bunch this big again I might skewer them together tightly so they cook more like one big piece of meat.

Keep watching those sales, honey!

As smoked salmon can be awfully pricey, the only way I can afford to keep the outin-laws happy is to buy fresh salmon when it goes on sale and smoke cure it myself.

The Salmon

1 salmon fillet (1-1/2 to 2 pounds), preferably wild-caught
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 tablespoon Chesapeake Bay seasoning (I use Penzey’s, which is a blend of paprika, salt, mustard, celery, ancho, black pepper, red pepper, dill, caraway, allspice, horseradish, cardamom, thyme, ginger, bay, mace, cinnamon, savory and cloves)

Combine all of  the dry ingredients in bowl, mixing well. This is the dry cure.

Put the fillet flat in a large zip-top bag. Cover one side of the fillet with half of the cure, working it in with your hands to cover. Flip the fish and repeat on the other side. Squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible, seal, and lay flat in fridge for at least 12 hours, but no more than 24. Turn the fillet over every 3-4 hours.

Remove the fish from cure and rinse it well in cold water. Let soak in fresh water for 30 minutes.  Remove from water and pat dry. Place the fish skin-side down on a rack (I use a small baker’s cooling rack). Move the fillet to the fridge until surface is dry but slightly sticky to the touch – 1 to 3 hours.

This semi-gloss finish is called the pellicle, and it helps the fish hold both moisture and smoke.

Set up your grill for a 3 hour indirect cook at 225°F. Add your smoking wood (I used guava) and smoke until the fillet starts to flake – about 2 hours. Remove from the grill and let cool to room temp. Package and store in the fridge overnight so the flesh gets a little firmer and the flavors get to know each other.

I’ll often smoke several fillets up in advance, vacuum seal them, and freeze them for later. I’ve not noticed much loss in quality and it’s a ton cheaper than buying store-bought smoked salmon.

The Dip

1 smoked salmon fillet (1-1/2 to 2 pounds), skinned and de-boned
24 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 ounces sour cream
4 ounces mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh ground horseradish
1 teaspoon Chesapeake Bay seasoning
1 (3.5-ounce) jar capers, undrained
Fresh ground back pepper to taste

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine everything but the black pepper. Blend until smooth and almost paté-like (you can add more mayo or sour cream if the mixture is too dry). Season with black pepper. Store in a sealed container in the fridge. Top with more capers and/or a few pomegranate seeds scattered on top before serving. It goes great with almost any dipper – crackers, pita chips, corn chips, baguette slices, even sliced veggies.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
This dip is always a monster hit – smoky and rich with just enough tang from the capers to keep everything in balance. This recipe will make a good 2 quarts and we can finish it off during the course of a long weekend just hanging with my brother-in-laws and their families. Sometimes I’ll just make the smoked salmon and serve it as an appetizer with a fancy cheese log.

I would no more go out to eat on Valentine’s Day than I would go out celebrating on New Year’s Eve.  It’s amateur night – too many packed restaurants with uninspired food and iffy service. Plus, since we’d both been sick, I didn’t want to be out with a whole bunch of people. I just wanted to be home with something tasty – oh, and a good meal too.

Earlier in the week I had gotten a couple of really nice ribeyes out of the freezer and my dear wife had caught a deal on a some king crab legs, so we were set.

I fired up the Big Green Egg and set the oven to 350°F. I seasoned up the steaks with a little sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. When the Egg got up to 600°F, I put the crab legs on a jelly roll pan in the oven and headed out to the grill.

The ribeyes went on for 90 seconds of undisturbed searing. Then I rotated the steaks 90 degrees and gave them another 30 seconds on that side. I flipped the meat and repeated the process on the other side. I flipped them back over and checked for doneness. I gave them another minute on the grill and pulled them when the big one had hit 130°F.

I pulled the steaks off to a plate, covered them with another plate and let them rest for 10 minutes. By then the crab was heated through and my dear wife had bowl of roasted brussels sprouts ready.

A better-than-going-out Valentine’s dinner on the table by 7pm. Not too shabby.

Tired of holiday leftovers yet? I sure am, and this dish was a quick and spicy cure for the post-holiday blues.

1 pound raw shrimp (36-40 count) peeled and deveined
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (4-ounce) can tomato sauce
1-2 tablespoons cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon bacon fat
Salt and pepper

In a large chef’s pan, melt the bacon fat over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, celery, pepper, and garlic and sweat until soft (about 5 minutes). Add the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the veggies are tender.

Add the cajun seasoning. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Add the shrimp and cook just until they turn pink and start to curl.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
I served this over some brown rice and it was great – spicy with plenty of veggies and shrimp. This dish is better if you take the time to make a roux and add some andouille sausage, but I’ll give it 4 stars for being a quick way to get something on our weeknight table that didn’t have a spec of leftover ham or turkey in  it.

Being about as far from either coast as you can get, fresh oysters are a real treat around here. This year we got some fresh-shucked, farm-raised MONSTERS, so I had to make our usual oyster stew and a new (for us) treat – fried oysters.

Fried Oysters

6 large fresh oysters, shucked
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used Ener-G Gluten Free crumbs)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup peanut oil
Hot sauce

Drain shucked oysters in a colander.

In a shallow dish, combine the bread crumbs and spices. Pour the beaten egg into another shallow dish. Dip oysters in the beaten egg, and then into the bread crumb mix, coating each oyster thoroughly.

Heat oil in frying pan over medium-high heat until it just starts to shimmer. Add oysters a couple at a time and fry until they are golden brown on one side, about 3 minutes. Turn and brown the other side for another 3 minutes, or until they are golden brown and edges are curled. Remove from frying pan and serve immediately with some hot sauce on the side.

Oyster Stew

2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 pint oysters and liquor
4 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 stalks celery,  finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon Chesapeake Bay seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons hot sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon dried parsley
Salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic, and celery and sweat until translucent, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add celery salt, Bay seasoning, and hot pepper sauce.  Add the cream, milk and bring to a simmer. Do not let boil.  Add the oysters, lemon juice, and parsley and simmer until the oysters start to curl, about 3 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with crusty bread and more hot sauce.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
For as rich and elegant as these two dishes are, they took no time to make. I wanted to serve the fried oysters as an appetizer, so I got a little over a pound of oysters and separated out a few of the biggest ones for frying. I got the oyster stew done to the point of adding the oysters and just set the heat to low while I fried up the reserved ones. When we’d finished with the appetizer, I add the rest of the oysters to the pot, raised the heat, and the stew came together in minutes.

The fried oysters were briny and sweet, with a crunchy coating – wonderful. And the oyster stew was rich and savory. The oysters were so big this year that they really stood out in the dish. Of course, I used hunks of gluten-free baguettes to soak up all the broth.

My dear wife and I used to get this dish at a little palapa-covered restaurant that sat right on the Caribbean. We’d order the Ceviche de Camaron, a couple of margaritas, and just sit there staring at the incredibly blue water and sighing. Since we’re looking at up to a foot of snow and single-digit highs this coming weekend, it seemed like a fine time to make this dish.

This is an Acapulco-style version, so it has some Spanish and American influences. The shrimp is pre-cooked, not cured in lime juice, and there are some odd ingredients like ketchup, olives, and horseradish that aren’t found in traditional ceviche, but it has a great taste and is always a big hit as an appetizer.

1 pound cooked large (26-30) shrimp, shelled and deveined
Juice of 2 limes (about 1/2 cup)
1 medium white onion, chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons pickled jalapeños, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh horseradish
1 to 2 tablespoons Mexican hot sauce (Búfalo Clasica if you can find it))
16 – 24 pimento-stuffed green olives, chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt

For garnish:
Lime slices
1 avocado, peeled, pitted and cubed

Chop shrimp into 1/2 inch chunks. In a large, non-reactive bowl, combine the shrimp, salt, and lime juice. Let sit for about 5 minutes. Add the onion, cilantro, ketchup, jalapeños, oil, Worcestershire, horseradish, hot sauce, and olives. Mix well and let sit in the fridge for about an hour so the flavors can develop.

Check seasoning and top with avocado cubes. Serve with lime wedges, tortilla chips or (strangely traditional) saltine crackers.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
Spicy, tangy, and sweet with a good fresh shellfish flavor. This was so good I could almost feel the sand between my toes!

Whenever I ask what I can bring for holiday parties, everybody asks for smoked salmon. Usually I’ll blend it with cream cheese and serve it as a dip, but this time I just chunked it up into bite-sized pieces and served it with a store-bought cheese spread and crackers.

1 salmon fillet (1-1/2 to 2 pounds), preferably wild-caught
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 tablespoon Chesapeake Bay seasoning

Combine all of  the dry ingredients in bowl, mixing well. This is the cure.

Put the fillet flat in a zip-top bag. Cover both sides of the fillet with  the cure mixture. Seal the bag and place in fridge for at least 12 hours, but no more than 24 hours. Turn the fillet over every 3-4 hours.

Remove the fish from cure, rinse well in cold water and pat dry. Place the fish skin-side down on a rack. Move to the fridge to dry until surface is dry but slightly sticky to the touch – 1 to 3 hours.

Set up your grill for a 3 hour indirect cook at 225°F. Add your smoking wood (I used apple for this batch) and smoke until the fillet starts to flake – about 2 hours.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
Sweet and salty and smoky – everything a holiday appetizer should be. I really like the complex flavors that the Chesapeake Bay seasoning adds. Next time I might even give it a light dusting of extra seasoning before smoking it.

This recipe is a pure product of the internet. It started off as an email from my dear wife asking if scallops sounded good for dinner. Sure thing. I figured I’d just grill them up on skewers, but I wanted a new recipe for a side dish.

Googled grilled scallops – 291,000 results. On about the third page of search results I hit a scallops with roasted red pepper sauce recipe. Looks good, but  not quite it. Wait a minute, didn’t one of the food bloggers I read do a red pepper sauce that had cheese in it?

Google Reader to the rescue – Nibble Me This: Roasted Red Pepper & Feta Sauce for Pasta. Now that’s the ticket. Do I have all the ingredients it calls for? No, but I’m sure Chris won’t mind if I improvise a little .

Red Pepper Pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3 medium red bell peppers, cut in half, cored and seeded
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup fresh goat cheese
8 ounces spaghetti noodles (gluten-free in this case)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika

Set your grill up for a direct cook over high (500°F) heat.

Put the peppers on the grill skin side down and roast until most of the skin has blackened (about 5 minutes). Flip and roast the other side until the flesh start to soften (about 3 minutes). Remove the peppers to a large zip-top bag and seal. Let them steam in the bag and cool while you get the rest of the ingredients cooking. Leave the grill up and running because you’ll do the scallops on it after the sauce is ready.

Start the water boiling for the pasta. Heat the oil in a 3 or 4 quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and onions and cook until they start to soften (about 3 minutes). Remove from the heat and set aside.

Remove the peppers from the bag and peel off the charred skin. Give the peppers a rough chop and add to the onions and garlic. Add the stock, salt, pepper, and paprika and bring the stock to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and, using an immersion blender or food processor, blend everything until it’s pureed. Return puree to the stove and bring to a simmer. Add the cheese and stir to combine. It should form a thick sauce, but feel free to add more stock to thin it or let it simmer for a bit to thicken.

When the sauce is to the right consistency, put a lid on it and turn the heat to low just to keep it warm.

Your pasta water should be boiling by now. Add the spaghetti and prepare according to the directions on the package.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the scallops.

Scallop Skewers

1 1/2 pounds sea scallops
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
6-8 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes

Rinse off the scallops and pat dry.  In a medium bowl, combine the scallops, oil, salt, and paprika. Mix well to coat.

Thread the scallops on the skewers, making sure to leave some space between them.

When the pasta is ready, put the scallops on grill. Cook on high heat for about 2 minutes. flip and cook for another 2 minutes, or just until they turn opaque. Scallops get tough if you over cook them, so pull them off a little early and let them finish cooking on the plate.

I served the scallops with the pasta covered in the red pepper sauce and a side of brussels sprouts.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
The scallops were pretty much perfect – just a little browned on the outside and still very tender. The minimal seasoning really enhanced the flavor.

The red sauce was another story. It was good – sweet and smoky and robust, but it lacked zing. The goat cheese gave it a nice rich taste, but Chris’s recipe called for feta and I think that would have been a better pick.

BTW – brussels sprouts covered in red pepper sauce are almost edible!

This is another rub courtesy of Fred’s Music & BBQ Supply. Fred helpfully included some recipes and suggestions to use as a starting point. His salmon recipe looks like a real winner.

1 salmon fillet (Alaskan wild in this case)
1-2 teaspoons of Signore Bernardo’s Salmon Seasoning
Olive oil

Use a food-grade plank that’s been soaked in water for at least an hour. Set your grill up for a direct cook over medium-high heat (about 400°F).

Oil both sides of the salmon and season with Signore Bernardo’s Salmon Seasoning.

Put the plank on the grill by itself for about 5 minutes, just until you can smell the smoke coming off the plank. Put the salmon on the plank, close the lid, and let it cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the fish hits 130°F internal and the flesh just starts to flake.

The plank almost wasn't wide enough for this lovely fillet.

Serve hot off the grill. If you’re being fancy schmancy, cover a serving platter with a bed of damp lettuce leaves and set the plank (with the fillet still on it) on the platter. The lettuce makes sure the plank is extinguished and serving off the plank makes for a nice presentation.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
When Fred sent this rub to me he said that it was “something special” and I have to agree with him. I’m a big salmon fan, and I really don’t like to overwhelm its natural flavor too much. Fred’s salmon seasoning does a great job of accenting without covering anything up. The garlic and black pepper in the rub are nicely balanced with sugar and citrus. You taste the salmon, but you also taste all of these other flavors at the same time. Outstanding rub!

Bayfield, Wisconsin is one of our favorite places to vacation. When we are there we often take the ferry over for a day trip to Madeline Island.  We love to kayak the lagoon at Big Bay Town Park, tour the island for a bit, and then hang out at Tom’s Burned Down Cafe.

So I was very excited to learn about Superior Planks on Madeline. The grilling planks come from trees that are sustainably-harvested, hauled out by draft horses, run by hand through their bio-diesel saw-mill, and shipped in 100% bio-degradable packaging. These guys are so green they make Kermit jealous.

I ordered up a 3-pack of their maple planks to give them a try. First up – wild Alaskan salmon!

I soaked the plank in water for 2 hours, then set the Big Green Egg up for direct cooking at medium-high heat (about 450°F).

I oiled the skin side of the salmon and seasoned both sides with a just little sea salt and a grind or two of black pepper.

I put the plank on the grill by itself for about 5 minutes, just until I could smell the wood smoke coming off the plank. I put the salmon on the plank, closed the lid, and let it cook for 10-15 minutes. I like salmon when it’s on the  medium rare side, so I took the fillet off when it started to flake, but was still a little translucent red inside – about 130°F internal.

The verdict? While cedar is traditional for salmon, I also liked the sweeter, more subtle taste that the maple brought to the party. It enhanced the flavor of the salmon without masking it.  I think it would be great for a variety of foods, particularly pork. The planks themselves are very nice (and at $4 a plank, they had better be). They’re a good 1/2 inch thick and tightly grained. Twenty minutes on the grill barely charred the back side. I ought to get plenty of use out of these and it’s fun to be able to cook with something from a place we enjoy so much.