Steven Raichlen gets the grill out for drunken sailors (tequila-marinated oysters), ginger-mint buttered lobster, and a spectacular shrimp cocktail.
Credited with reinventing American Barbecue, Raichlen’s teaching style both entertains and educates viewers. From basic charcoal grills to today’s extravagant outdoor kitchens, Steven Raichlen covers all the bases to build confidence and talent at the grill.
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– Drunken sailors, oysters sizzled on the grill. Grilled shrimp cocktail. If you want shrimp cocktail with real flavor, serve it hot off the grill. Morton Bay bugs grilled with ginger mint butter. Nothing says luxury like lobster. From the ocean to the fire, it’s shellfish on the grill. I’m Steven Raichlen. From the beautiful Tubac Golf Resort in Southern Arizona, it’s time to grill. Shellfish dwell in water but there’s nothing for bringing out their briny succulence like live fire. Grill masters from California to Australia back me up on this. Today, I’m going to show you how to grill oysters, Shrimp, (percussive music) and lobster. (percussive music) First up, grilled shrimp cocktail. In my mind, grilling is the best way there is to cook shrimp. Think about Australian shrimp on the barbie. Why is it so good? Well, there’s something about the high dry heat of a grill that brings out a shrimp’s sweetness. If you think about it, boiling,
Like when you boil shrimp to make a shrimp cocktail, is about the worst way to cook shrimp because boiling water takes flavor away rather than adds it. Place the shrimp in a mixing bowl. And add finely chopped garlic. Finely chopped fresh tarragon. And finely grated lemon zest. Next, add the juice of a fresh lemon and squeeze it between your fingers to catch any seeds. Add coarse sea salt and cracked black peppercorns. And extra virgin olive oil.
And toss the shrimp well to coat on all sides. You can grill the shrimp right away, but they’ll be even more flavorful if you let them marinate in the refrigerator for one hour. Now. Traditional way to grill shrimp was on a slender bamboo skewer, like this. Problem is, when you’re grilling the shrimp,
They flop over in different directions. So instead, use a flat bamboo skewer, which will keep the shrimp from slipping. Instead of commercial cocktail sauce, a freshly made salsa. While the shrimp are marinating, let me show you how to make it. To one finely chopped fresh tomato, add sweet onion, diced cucumber, capers, chopped calamata olives, chopped fresh garlic, and more fresh tarragon. Season with salt and cracked black peppercorns.
And fresh lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. And now, the grill. It’s a ceramic Kamado cooker. I’ve loaded it with charcoal. We clean the grill grate with a stiff wire brush, and oil it with a cloth grill oiler or folded paper towel dipped in oil. To keep the skewer ends from burning, I’m using a stainless steel grill shield. Place it on one side of the grill. If you don’t have a grill shield, use a piece of folded aluminum foil. Last of all, position the shrimp kebabs directly over the fire. Once the shrimp are browned on the bottom, turn them over. The cooking time is quick. A minute or two per side will do it. To tell when the shrimp are done, give them a poke. They should feel firm to the touch and a beautiful golden brown. So, let me show you how to put this together. Spoon the Mediterranean salsa into martini glasses. Stand the shrimp kebabs upright in the glass. If you want shrimp cocktail with real flavor, serve it hot off the grill. The preparation was pretty simple. The pitmaster had built a beautiful bed of wood embers, and the oysters were shucked, and each one got a spoonful of barbecue sauce, and a spoonful of parsley butter. Then they were cooked on the grill just long enough to simmer the bivalve in the juices in the shell.
And the combination of the gently warmed oyster, the barbecue sauce, the wood smoke, they just conspired to make these some of the best oysters I had ever tasted. Barbecue means different things in different regions. in Tomales Bay, California, for example, it means just one thing: oysters sizzled on the grill.
These drunken sailors deliver a quadruple blast of flavor. First, from the chipotle barbecue sauce, then Asiago cheese, then cilantro, and finally, from tequila. And it all begins with the oysters. These oysters are from California, but use whatever oysters are freshest in your area. Shuck them, leaving the oyster in the bottom shell.
This is a chipotle barbecue sauce. The recipe will be on our website. Place a spoonful of sauce in each oyster shell. Next, sprinkle a pinch of Asiago cheese on each oyster. Asiago is a cow’s milk grating cheese from Italy with a sharp, tangy flavor. Next, place a fresh cilantro leaf in each oyster Notice I have the oysters over a pan of ice. Always important when you’re working outdoors. Finally, get the sailors drunk by sprinkling on a few drops of tequila. I’ve preheated the grill screaming hot. Simply lift the tray with the oysters and place it on the grill grate. Cooking time is about three to five minutes. You wanna cook the oysters just until the juices start bubbling, the oysters firm up, and the cheese starts to melt. You can close the grill for a minute or two so the cheese melts and the oysters cooked through. So where did I first taste grill oysters? Well, I was on my way to my cousin Martha’s wedding. She was getting married in Salinas, California, and I saw a sign on the side of the road that said barbecue today. Well doing what I do for a living, I had to stop ,
And lo and behold, the restaurant was serving oysters grilled in the half shell. You can see the oysters are bubbling and brown. That’s just how they should look. So take the oysters off. Remember, each will cook at a slightly different rate. So, as soon as they’re done and the oyster is firm,
Take them off the rack. The whole key here is to cook the oysters just until done, but not so much that they overcook. And there are always a couple that take longer to cook than the rest. Drunken sailors hot off the grill. It’s a great new way to try oysters. Sesame grilled beans, cucumber salad, barbecued onions. Here’s a simple salad. It starts with thinly sliced cucumber, diced red onion, sugar, rice vinegar, and salt, and cracked or freshly ground black pepper. Toss these ingredients together until the sugar dissolves, then you can transfer the salad to a serving bowl. So what are some things you can do to take your grilling to the next level? Well, one: try grilling the entire meal on the grill. Two: try grilling something you never thought you could grill. Finally, remember grilling is performance art. Stand in front of your grill confidently and comfortably,
And let the flames begin. Here’s another cool idea. Indonesian long beans or green beans, blanched and salted water tied off with scallion greens. Simply brush these with a little sesame oil, and sprinkle with sesame seeds and salt and cracked black pepper. Quick brush and oil of the grill grate. Remember our good grill hygiene. And quickly grill the long bean bundles. And you can brush the tops of the beans with a little more sesame oil (percussive music) and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Our beans are ready. They look great. You can see the grill has actually toasted the sesame seeds. Is there anything more beautiful than grilled vegetables? I have always grilled and when I used to live in Boston, I would chip the ice off of my grill in February and go out and grill. But, it wasn’t really until I started doing research for my first barbecue book and I started traveling around the world
To see how people grilled in other countries. I like to look at what’s done traditionally, and then figure out how can I combine those elements to deliver even more flavor? How about barbecued onions? Here’s how you do it. Start with a Vidalia or other sweet onion, and through the root end,
Make a cone shaped incision to create a cavity. Then, step number two. Make a shallow slice and peel off the outside layer. I first saw this dish at the Memphis in May international Barbecue Contest in Memphis, Tennessee. Barbecued onions are made in Italy, South Africa, all over the world’s barbecue trail.
Step number three. This is a mixture of sauteed chopped onion and bacon or pancetta. And we’re using pancetta. It’s cured like prosciutto, but it’s actually made from the cut that would give us American bacon. The last step is to make a depression in the filling,
And spoon in your favorite smokey style barbecue sauce. This is the lemon brown sugar barbecue sauce, and the recipe is on our website. And last of all, a pat of butter. Pretty easy. Now, to cook the barbecued onions, I’ve set the grill up for indirect grilling. Place the onions to be barbecued on the grate, over the drip pan, away from direct fire. Now, all you need to do is cover the grill. Remember, you want these vent holes open wide
So you get good draw of smoke. And does this look correct? No, you want to have the vent hole’s position between the two mounds of fire, so the smoke is drawn up evenly over the onions and then out the vent hole. Cooking time, about an hour to an hour and a half
At a medium temperature that’s about 350 degrees. You wanna cook the onions until squeezably soft. It’s been about an hour and a half, and those onions look beautiful. Again, we wanna check for doneness. And I like to serve them right on the rings. Barbecued onions with pancetta and butter. Something cool and different to serve on the side. Grilling may be a great way to cook shellfish, but lobster poses a particular challenge. It has a tendency to dry out. So this recipe features two techniques to keep the lobster nice and moist. First of all, we actually grill it in the shell, which protects the meat from the heat.
Second of all, the lobster is basted with a mixture of butter, lemon juice, and ginger. Again, which helps keep it moist, and gives it a savory crust. Nothing says luxury like lobster, especially when it’s served sizzling hot off the grill. Our next dish comes from down under: Morton Bay bugs grilled with ginger mint butter. A Morton Bay bug is a clawless lobster similar to a Florida lobster or Caribbean spiny lobster.
The first step is to cut it down the back using sturdy scissors. Next, cut through the tail meat, to but not through the soft bottom shell. Then, open the lobster tail like a book. This is called butterflying, and it maximizes the surface area of the lobster exposed to the fire.
Then, brush each cut lobster tail with melted butter or extra virgin olive oil, and season with coarse sea salt. And cracked or freshly ground black peppercorns. The next step is to make the ginger mint butter. Melt salted butter in a sauce pan, and add chopped fresh ginger, chopped fresh mint, grated lemon zest,
And finely chopped garlic. Place the pot on your grill’s side burner, and cook until the ginger and garlic are fragrant. Then, add freshly squeezed lemon juice, and Asian fish sauce or soy sauce. Simmer the basting mixture for another minute, and turn off the heat.
Set up the grill for direct grilling and preheat it. I’m warming up here. Preheat it to high, and as always, before grilling, clean the grate with a few strokes of a stiff wire brush and oil it with a folded paper towel dipped in oil and drawn across the bars of the grate.
This prevents sticking, of course, and helps give you well defined grill marks. Now, take the lobster tails and arrange them on the grill, cut side down. Cook the lobster tails for about six or eight minutes on the bottom, and speed up the cooking. You can close the grill. After three or four minutes, give each lobster tail a quarter turn to help them cook evenly. Once the lobsters are brown on the bottom, turn them over. Start basting with the ginger mint butter. And if you ever wanna impress your company, just drip a little butter on the grill, and you’ll get a dramatic flare up. And again, you can close the grill to speed up the cooking time. Total cooking time on these lobster tails: about 10 to 12 minutes. You can also grill Maine lobster in this matter. The procedure’s a little bit different. Cut the lobster in half, take off the claws. You wanna start cooking the claws about two minutes before the body because they take longer to cook. Then pour off the juices, baste the cut lobster with melted butter,
And start grilling it cut side down for about two minutes, then turn it over cut side up, adding the juices back. This will keep the lobster nice and moist. I think the lobsters are ready. To check for doneness, use the old poke test. They should feel firm to the touch. Just before serving, baste one more time. And with the lobster, here’s a mango pineapple salsa. The recipe’s on the website. So there you have it. Grilled shrimp cocktail, (percussive music) drunken sailors, (percussive music) Morton bay bugs with ginger mint butter. It’s shellfish on The Primal Grill. See you next time. Grilling is one of the best ways there is to cook shellfish. It’s certainly one of the most ancient and widespread. Think about a South Carolina oyster roast, or a new England clam bake, or the grilled oyster served in Tomales Bay, California. All rely on the high, dry heat of a fire
To bring out the succulence of a shellfish.
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