I am super excited today to share with you part one of a series of podcast episodes that will help you become better at cooking seafood. We will be covering different methods of cooking. Each episode. This episode is on grilling. And the best part is I have my favorite seafood expert, Christina, from the weekday pescatarian back on the podcast. To share all of her amazing knowledge.
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Here is a transcript of the interview.
Eric: All right, everybody. Today, I'm excited to kick off a brand new series on the podcast here. And we're going to be talking about cooking seafood and not just cooking seafood. We want to successfully cook seafood. I know that's intimidating to people who want to get into seafood here and want to add to their diets.
And I've heard friends of ours say like, I don't know. how to start. Um, so we're going to start by looking at each individual method of cooking in an episode. Um, so today we're going to focus on grilling seafood. So I have Christina from the Weekday Pescatarian on once again today. Um, welcome back to the podcast, Christina.
Christina: Oh, Eric. So great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Eric: So for those who haven't got a chance to meet you on my podcast, or check out your website. Give us a little quick little intro about you.
Christina: Okay. My name is Christina Jolam, and I'm a seafood focused recipe blogger. My website and all my recipes can be found at weekdaypescatarian.com, where I share easy and impressive fish forward recipes from around the world that hopefully inspire us to add a seafood dish or two into our weekly menu rotation.
✉️ Foil Packet
Eric: Sounds wonderful. Yeah. She's, she's the person to go to find great seafood. She actually got our family into doing steelhead trout which is something that we had not tried before. And she got us into giving that a try. So today we're going to talk about grilling seafood. Um, so just, um, start hitting us with some of your best tips.
Christina: Uh, seafood pairs so well with produce, and I know that you have a great veggie spotlight that you do on a monthly basis now, and so many of the veggies that you and Amy talk about are things that pair beautifully with seafood.
So whether you're doing kind of a quick grill over coals or a gas grill, or even if you have just an indoor grill pan if you're in a little apartment or something. These are all great ways to enjoy seafood, whether that's fish or shrimp or whatever your favorite seafood is.
This is a great time to, um, to think about adding seafood to your diet. So, grilling can come in many forms, like I said, whether you use a, uh, an outdoor grill or an indoor grill, um, or a grill pan.
I also really like grilling in a foil packet. So, I'm sure that you've seen this, um, Outdoor for outdoor grilling, but kind of wrapping up.
I like things like a tuna steak I've got a great recipe for a garlic butter tuna steak that you marinate and then put into this foil packet It's it's kind of a gentler way to cook.
So let's say if you're cooking steak and chicken on the grill and you also want to add a seafood option for your party adding that is a great opportunity to introduce seafood I also think grilling and foil is in these packets is really great If you're doing a heavy or a wet marinade on your seafood
So, if you've got something white, you can put that straight on the grill, if it's heavier or very wet, keeping it contained helps kind of keep your fish together as well, and it eliminates the flipping of the fish, which for most people on the grill, that's their most stressful moment of the fish cooking experience, and so, putting that in a foil packet can kind of make it feel a little bit easier, less scary, more approachable
RECOMMENDATION - I recommend using heavy duty aluminum foil for making these foil packets, so they don't tear on you.
🗑️ Fish Basket
A couple of more options when you're grilling. A fish basket is something that, um, you can get whether, I mean really, Amazon, Walmart, Target, your local hardware store that has a grilling section.
It's widely available and I think traditionally these were used for some smaller fish like maybe a sardine or a mackerel to kind of, Hold it together so you could flip it.
I also really love fish baskets for doing more delicate fillets or even shrimp. If you're not putting shrimp on a skewer, putting them into that, fish basket is a great way to keep everything together.
Again, make flipping a very easy job. Um, and it just kind of keeps everything together and takes the stress out of it.
🌲 Cedar Planks
Grilling on cedar planks. I know Aldi, I don't know if they, they're still carrying it regularly, but they used to carry salmon already on a cedar plank. You can buy, you know, treated like food safe cedar planks at a lot of grocery stores near the seafood section.
You can find it at your hardware store, specifically by the grilling section. Don't just buy a regular cedar plank, they need to be treated. That's another great way to grill fish. It adds such a lovely kind of woodsy, smoky flavor to the fish. And again, If you're grilling on a wood plank, you do not need to flip your fish.
Just leave it, you know, cover the, put the grill lid down. Um, but then just let that cook through and then you're good to go and you don't have to worry about flipping it.
💨 Instant Read Thermometer
And then my last tip around grilling specifically is to use an instant read thermometer. Um, if you cook fish all the time, maybe you're like, Oh, I, I'm not that worried about cooking it through.
I have a good feel for it. But for a lot of us, especially on a grill where the heating is a little bit less predictable, it would be great to get a really precise temperature. The other time that I think it's important is when you're cooking something like. Tuna and even salmon, where you might have one person you're cooking for.
Who's like, I love it rare, I want like a barely seared tuna steak. And other people you cook for are like, no, I want it completely cooked through. So if you're cooking to different temperatures at the same time, it's really helpful to have an Instant read thermometer that you could trust.
Eric: Oh, absolutely. I agree with that. And I myself, I use The Thermapen® ONE from ThermoWorks, which can do it in like one second. It's like... Ridiculously fast. It's just like boom, especially when you're doing seafood and you're grilling. You're not talking about long cooking time.
I don't want to sit there and poke something in there and like sit there and wait like 10, 15 seconds for the thing to finally like get to a temperature. So this one, it works really well. Very durable. Um, I originally learned about them from Alton Brown. He's like my food hero.
So when I got one in my hand, the first time it was like, so I'm like, I'm a whole new kind of so cool.
Christina: I hear that. I hear that.
Eric: Yeah, they're powerful. So like, I think that's really important. Cause I think too, it is a really great way to reduce your stress. Like, I think like, it's just easier to just go with the science, go with the math, go with the number and say like, I don't have to worry about, is this done or not here, you just poke it in.
It tells you whether it's done or not. So I think like that for me is like, it's a huge stress reducer just, just to have those on. It's just, uh, You know, you cook something enough, you kind of get a feel for it too, but like, there's also, , how thick, how thin something is, um, how high is your heat?
I mean, there's, there's just so many other variables that could like throw things off. So it's just easier to like, just get rid of those and just go ahead and use, use the tool you have at your disposal.
Christina: I totally agree. I do. We talked about this before, Eric, that cooking and it's kind of art, half art, half science. And I agree. This is a time to deploy the science. Like, let's, if it removes stress from your life, makes everything easier, like go with the science there.
Eric: Exactly. And then when you serve your fish up here, you can do your artistic thing and make your plate all fancy too. So you can, you can have it both ways.
Christina: Exactly. You can have your cake and eat it too.
❓ What to Do If Your Fish Sticks?
Eric: So, um, one of the things that people are probably most scared of happening is they go and try to turn that fish over and oh my gosh, it's stuck. What do I do? I'm trying to get it off now. Oh, it just fell into the flame. It's gone now. So what do you recommend? Um, what are your like troubleshooting tips for, Oh my gosh, my fish is sticking.
Christina: So some of the tips we talked about earlier, but if you, um, if it's not a good fit for a foil packet, if you don't have a fish packet, if you're not grilling on a cedar plank, if you want to literally put it directly on the grill grates, there are some specific things I would recommend. Number one, make sure you have very clean grill grates.
When you're cooking a, steak or something like that. I think sometimes people think, Oh, it's like seasoning a skillet. Like, you know, I'll do a quick scrub down, but like not be too crazy for fish. You really do need a clean grill grate to make sure that none of those proteins stick to the fish. So making sure the grate is clean.
Make sure that your fish itself, or your shrimp, whatever you're cooking, is well oiled. And I oil the grates as well. I know that there's a lot of, um, discussion about should you oil your protein, or should you oil the grates? You know what? Just do both. Like, I would rather just do a little bit of oil on both.
Um, and then an option in this kind of category that I've used previously, and I'm actually working on a recipe right now for it, is, um, a mayonnaise grilled salmon. And... So mayonnaise, of course, is oil. It's in a slightly kind of suspended liquid, but it is oil. And so brushing mayonnaise onto your fish fillet is a way to get oil with very little flavor, um, onto your fish.
And then it's also not like super drippy down into the, into the fire where you're gonna have a flare up. So that's a really great option also if you're trying to um, oil your fish. If you have mayo and want to use it, feel free. Um, another tip around sticking is really to wait for the fish to be cooked through.
I feel like a lot of the, the sticking issues have to do with an impatience like, oh, but what if I burn it? I want to, I want to flip this as soon as possible. The fish, as a rule, fish is going to kind of pull away from the grill grate, the hot grill grate as it's cooked. So as the proteins are cooked, it's going to kind of pull away.
And if you have like a thin metal fish spatula, you'll be able to slide it under pretty easily and flip it over with. With very little trauma undercooked fish on the other hand is going to stick every time
Eric: Exactly. Yeah. I think you definitely the nail on the head. There is like people get too impatient and want to flip it. Step back, be patient, and wait.
And I think that's the way, like, with other proteins, too. I think it's the same with pork and chicken and beef.
Just have, you just have to be patient with it. You just have to sit back and just, like, wait for it to do it for you.
Christina: Yeah, it'll tell you when it's ready
Eric: Yes. You'll be able to do it here. So don't, there's no reason to force it. Uh, we're not going to destroy it by doing that here.
🔥 Cook Over Direct Heat
Christina: Yeah, and then the final thing really is to make sure that you position the fish fillets over direct heat
So, you know, we all know if you've cooked on a grill for a certain amount of time, you know If it's a gas grill, of course, you know where the heat source is but if you kind of get a sense for where the hot spots are and you know You can see where the embers are and all of that.
And so make sure that your fish fillets, I mean, we're not trying to flame broil them, but we do want to make sure that the grates are hot when you put the fish on that and that it is over a hot part of the grill because if your grates are kind of in a, um, you know, if it's in a lukewarm phase, the fish is not going to want to come off of that because it's not properly cooking through.
So do make sure that you're positioning those fish fillets over kind of the direct heat source, whether that's, you know, the coals or embers or if it's a gas grill over the heat source there.
🌡️ Infrared Thermometer
Eric: Exactly. And to bring, thermometers back up again, if you're trying to figure out like heat source in your grill, you could get an infrared thermometer and use that to kind of point, point at the things here and try to see like, where your hotspots are.
Like you, you may find something, Oh, this is like a hundred degrees off or something from here to there. So it's kind of maybe good to like, you have one of those on hand too, to kind of, check things out. Again, ThermoWorks of course, offers those as well, the Industrial IR with Circle Laser,
My friend before bought me one that was meant for a car engine. Like it was meant to see how hot a car engine was. But I still accomplished the same goal. So I got, like years ago, he gave me one like that.
Christina: I love it.
Eric: Yeah, so it really kind of helps, helps you to know like where your cool spots are.
Knowing about that on the grill is I think important as well.
🏆 Best Fish for Grilling
Christina: So then the other complaint that I hear or the concern that I hear from folks about grilling is my gosh, my fish falls apart. Like I'm trying to turn it. It's just, you know, it's, it's kind of disintegrating on the grill grates before I can even get to it. And so there are, you know, again, we talked about earlier, like using a fish basket that can help with that.
Certainly putting fish into. you know, a foil packet is going to help it not fall apart. Um, but I'll say if you're new to grilling seafood, maybe choose a kind of meatier fish option, something like salmon or, uh, to your point, Eric, um, steelhead trout is a great option. If you don't love salmon, uh, swordfish steaks.
If you have not explored swordfish steaks, please let me introduce you to a really delicious. Very mild fish. I like to think of them as the chicken thigh of the sea, like they just, they're, they're a super meaty option, they hold together, they take on whatever flavors you add to them, so that's a great option for grilling.
Tuna, of course, is a great option. That's a very meaty option. All three of those, or four of those, if you count the, um, trout, are great putting them directly on the grill grates. They will function very well. They should flip well. You shouldn't have an issue.
If you're super focused on whitefish fillets, something, you know, that's thinner and flaky, like a haddock or a flounder, or even a cod, which can be thick, but it's super flaky, I do recommend if you've got some concerns, you know, go ahead and spring for the grill basket, put them in a foil pouch with some, you know, fresh herbs and garlic and butter or olive oil, and then, you know, put them on your outdoor grill.
Or if you're intent on grilling them, put them on an indoor grill pan. I do that very frequently. You can get some great grill marks on it. You'll get a little bit of that, um, kind of caramelization, um, but you won't have to worry about literally losing your fish into the, uh, through the grill grates into the grill.
Eric: Exactly. Those are really good tips. Yeah. If you're getting started with it, yeah, start with something that's gonna be easier to do if you're not used to grilling seafood. I actually haven't done much, much of that by myself either here, so maybe I'll have to give the swordfish a try pretty soon.
Christina: There you go.
Eric: Okay.
💗 Favorite Grilled Seafood Recipes
So before we end this episode here, I wanted you to share some of your favorite recipes you have for grilling the seafood.
Christina: Yeah. So I'll talk about some concepts. So, um, I love skewering and I think skewering is super family friendly as well. Cause you know, what kids don't love, uh, Meat on a stick. Um, so I've got a great grilled shrimp skewer recipe where you you can put veggies in between or just put the shrimp skewers on the grill.
I really love Argentinian red shrimp if you have access to it It is a lovely and usually not super expensive Option for you if you're anywhere near the gulf, of course gulf shrimp are fabulous.
Eric: Yes.
Christina: You
Eric: I have been in New Orleans. Po'boys Fried shrimp po boys in the gulf, oh my gosh, they're so amazing here. And I think too, the Argentina red shrimp, you can find that at Costco. Aldi.
Christina: Trader Joe's has a good option.
Eric: Yeah. So it's something, yeah. So it's, that's something you can find if you want to try, you know, experiment more than just like the standard shrimp
so yeah, I would give that a try too.
Christina: Another great option for skewers are firmer fish like salmon skewers. I've got a salmon skewer recipe with a fresh pineapple barbecue sauce that is really lovely. You could also do that with swordfish. Swordfish is a great skewer option. Um, a couple of indoor recipes you could do on an indoor grill pan would be my grilled haddock.
It's one of the most popular recipes on my site. Very simple, you know, Dusting of spice mixture that you make and then throw it in your skillet or grill pan and literally you have dinner on the table in 15 minutes and it is so delightful. Um, whole fish. I know that whole fish can seem intimidating, but it is, if you can get it from a fishmonger that's already got it cleaned and scaled and all you do is bring it home and Season it with salt and pepper and olive oil and either put it on a grill or put it on in your cast iron skillet on on top of the stove, make a sauce on the side, something like fresh.
I have a recipe for, um, a Mediterranean green herb sauce that is so flavorful with garlic and some little fresh chilies if you want it. But you have this gorgeous whole fish with lemon slices that took, you know, Less than 20 minutes to cook. It's a great dinner party option for you Yeah, super healthy super delicious.
I think whole fish is an undersold option, but of course if it makes you super nervous start with the fillets and then we can build up to the whole fish. Um, and then we have just you know, some kind of specialty items, of course if you've been down in New Orleans I'm sure you saw grilled oysters. I've got a new recipe on the site for Grilled oysters you make a really Really lovely, uh, garlic butter and you pour it over once you put the oysters on the grill.
And I mean in five minutes your oysters are literally like bubbling up into their butter bath and you take them off the grill and sprinkle some parmesan and romano on them and they're good to go. They are so fabulous. Um, so you've got some great options for the grill. If you want to get a little adventurous, if you want to start very simple, I would recommend for a lot of folks, if you're not used to grilling seafood on the grill at your next cookout, just add one seafood item, right?
Do your usual steak or chicken or whatever and say, Hey, I'm gonna throw a couple of pieces of salmon or a couple of pieces of trout on the grill and, um, season them up. You can even season them with whatever you're seasoning your steak with, uh, Montreal seasoning or whatever. And you'll have a great option.
Give the family a taste, see who likes what, and start that way, start in a really low risk way, where you know you still have dinner, even if you don't, uh, pull this off. Um, but yeah, grilling seafood is such a fun way to approach pescatarian eating, so yeah, I love the idea of adding this to your, your monthly rotation.
Eric: Yeah, those are some really good recipes there. You had me at, garlic butter. I mean that just...
Christina: have
Eric: a nice garlic butter bath, especially when you can, um, you know, this time of year when you're able to go to like a farmer's market or something, get like real fresh garlic.
Because usually in the grocery store, the grocery store garlic is not really The greatest in the world. So if you can actually get some like really good, really good garlic here. And I've found some really amazing garlic vendors over the years at farmers markets that sell like multiple varieties of garlic and all different flavor profiles.
Christina: stopped there.
Eric: So yeah. So if you can find something like that, that'd
Christina: Farmer's Market garlic, plus seafood, plus butter, equals. Eternal joy.
Eric: We keep going. Let's go with some grass fed butter, you know, some Kerrygold or something like
Christina: There you go.
Eric: I think we got to end on that. That's just such a high note right there. Um, so thanks for coming on and, uh, we look forward to continuing the series with you.
Um, if you guys haven't checked it out yet, we did, uh, last month we did an episode on how to use leftover seafood. So make sure you check that out as well and make sure you check out, Christina's website.
Christina: You can find all my recipes at weekday pescatarian. com. I'm also active on Pinterest and all the other socials. And if you sign up for my weekly email, you'll be the first to get all of the new recipes, uh, from me. So I look forward to seeing you over there.
Eric: Exactly. And definitely go with the email so you'll definitely receive emails from Christina. Unless it goes to your spam folder, but you could actually add the person's email address. Uh, as opposed to trying to, you know, subscribe to all those people on Instagram. And you're like, I've never seen their posts ever.
So email. I think as always ,its the way to go. We love it. All right. Thank you again. And I look forward to next time.
Christina: Thanks, Eric. See you soon.
Do you have a Costco membership? Check out my Costco Fish Guide and Costco Shrimp Guide.
🍽️ Recipe Links
Check out these recipes from the Weekday Pescatarian.
- Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Pistachio Chimichurri
- Salmon Skewers w/Pineapple BBQ Sauce
- Grilled Haddock
- Whole fish with Olive Herb Sauce
- Salmon with Herby Mayo
- Grilled Octopus with Greek Vinaigrette
- Grilled Oysters - New Orleans Style
🔨 Grilling Tools
Here are all the tools we talked about for grilling in this episode.
- Indoor grill pan
- Heavy duty aluminum foil
- Fish basket
- Cedar planks
- The Thermapen® ONE from ThermoWorks
- Industrial IR with Circle Laser from ThermoWorks
🎧 More Seafood Episodes
Check out the complete collection of fish episodes on the podcast:
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