Category: Seafood

Live Smoke: Mackerel On The @WeberGrills Kettle at www.northeastbbq.com

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

7:20AM  Cleaned the mackerel by head and gutting them and then making cuts every 3/4 of an inch down each side of the fish so the marinade will penetrate.

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Next patted them dry with paper towels and placed them in my go-to fish marinade-

soy/ginger/sesame seed/red pepper flakes.

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I’ll let them sit in the marinade til 9:30 or so.  Check back around 10 for the next update!

9:45 AM

Changed plans and opted for the Kettle as it was such a small cook.  Set up the kettle for the snake method (arrange a fuse of coals around the perimeter so the coals act as a fuse with only so many coals going at once) looking for 225-250 degree grate temps.

Once it hit 200 I shut down the bottom vent to 3/4 closed and left the top vent wide open.

Placed the mackerel on offset of the coals.

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Setting up the @webergrills kettle to smoke up some whiting courtesy of Danny Murphy Aboard The F/V Bantry Bay 

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

First deheaded,  gutted and scaled the whiting.  Then gave them a bath in some soy/sesame/ginger/red pepper flake marinade for about an hour.

Then took them out of the marinade and placed them on the grill  grates to dry for an hour or so while getting the coals set up for smoking using the snake method on the Weber Kettle.

When the temps on the Kettle reached 190 I placed the marinade and dryer whiting on.

Looking to bring them up to about 140 degrees internal temp. Check back in to see the results!

After 45 minutes I pulled off a small one and OMG!

Fillet falls right off the bone

I’d say that was a success!

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Live Smoke- Tuna Steaks On The @WeberGrills Smokey Mountain Smoker 

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

5:29AM 6/28/16

One of my fishermen was kind enough to donate some tuna to the cause. -A simple soy/sesame/red pepper flake marinade overnight and now they are placed on the grates to dry for an hour or two.


7:00AM

Light eight briquettes in the chimney and set up the charcoal basket in the smoker using the snake method with cherry chips and mesquite chunks.  The charcoal will slowly work its way around not having the entire basket of charcoal going at once will help keep the temps down.  We are looking to smoke around 250 degrees.

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The tuna is placed with small gaps in between so the smoke can come on up through hitting each piece of tuna.  The Maverick 732 grate probe is placed and another probe for the internal temp of the tuna.  We will look to bring the internal temp on the tuna to about 135 F.

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8:35AM

130 degrees internal temp,  Pulled the steaks off.

Done!

GRILLING CALAMARI ON THE @WEBERGRILLS KETTLE WITH @JOEY_C

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Grilling Calamari (Squid) on a Weber Kettle With Two Different Marinades

The calamari grilled with the butter/evoo/minced garlic/salt/pepper marinade was very good.  The calamari grilled with the soy/ginger/sesame/red pepper flakes was absolutely ridiculous and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to enjoy calamari any other way after this.  It was OUTSTANDING!!!!

Key is to get the grill red hot and then get a little char on the calamari basting them once or twice quickly over high heat while they are on the pit.  A little flare up is not a bad thing as the char will give it great flavor.  Note: “char” not burnt.

 

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Day Boat Scallops Seared In A @LodgeCastIron Skillet On The @WeberGrills Kettle

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Step one was to place the scallops on a paper towel to dry them off.
Then season them with a generous coating of Sea Salt.
Put a half a chimney of coals into the Weber Charcoal baskets and then get your Lodge skillet heated up.
Next put a couple of turns of EVOO and a couple of tablespoons of clarified butter in the skillet and place your scallops down flat onto the skillet surface.
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The key is to not move the scallops on the skillet to let them develop that golden  browning effect. Resist checking the bottom for at least two minutes.  Once you see good color, flip em over-

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Let them develop the same color on the other side.  The smaller ones will cook faster so if you need to, leave the larger scallops on for a minute longer.  (You could also cut them in half)

Buttery goodness!

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Smoked #Bluefin #Tuna Dip Using Helen’s Famous Smoked Fish Dip Recipe

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Found This Recipe here The recipe was written by Tommy Thompson From Florida Sportsman Magazine and Helen is his mom.

Here are the pictures and the method that I used following Tommy’s mom Helen’s recipe in pictures-

Here’s how I smoked the tuna-

Live Smoke at www.northeastbbq.com Soy/Ginger/Yellow Cayenne Pepper Marinated Tuna Steaks

They were put in the fridge overnight and here’s a good size bluefin tuna steak that I’ll be using-

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I broke the tuna into 3/4 inch chunks because I figured that when I mixed all the ingredients together it would break it down a little more and I didn’t want it to be a mousse, I wanted every dip of a cracker to have a decent amount of solid smoked tuna on it.

2 cups of broken up smoked tuna chunks

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1/4 cup chopped scallions

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I ended up chopping up 5 sweet baby gherkins

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The juice lemon of one lemon and a 1/2 cup of mayo

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I added 1.5 Tablespoon of tabasco.  Also salt and crushed black pepper to taste.

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Mix it up and let it chill for an hour or more.

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It was a monster hit for the boys on the HomieCast which we taped last night

This recipe was easy to make, didn’t include too many crazy hard to find ingredients and was absolutely delicious.  With the nice kick of the salt and Tabasco it went perfectly well with some nice cold beer.  I will be making more for Thanksgiving!

You can get smoked fish all the time at Connolly Seafood in Gloucester MA to use if you’re not all about that smoking/BBQ lifestyle.

Thank you Tommy Thompson for sharing your mom’s recipe.

Live Smoke at www.northeastbbq.com Soy/Ginger/Yellow Cayenne Pepper Marinated Tuna Steaks

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Follow along this morning at www.northeastbbq.com

Thanks to skipper Brian Higgins aboard the F/V Toby Ann we’ve got some beautiful tuna steaks to smoke up today.
Last night I trimmed them up and put out my ingredients for the overnight marinade and added two more ingredients: Fresh Ginger which I’d grate into the bowl and finely chopped up yellow Cayenne Pepper.
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The marinade consisted of-

A Bottle of Veri Veri Teriyaki Marinade and Sauce

A Turn In the Bowl of Chili Oil and Japanese Sesame Oil

A Very Generous Amount of Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (I like stuff spicy)

A Half a Tablespoon of Granulated Garlic

Tablespoon of Freshly Grated Ginger

I Finely Chopped  Yellow Cayenne Pepper

A Cup Of Light Brown Sugar

Here’s one of teh tuna steaks before i put them to bed sealed in Ziploc bags overnight.

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This morning virtually all of the liquid of the marinade got sucked up by the tuna and it turns the tuna almost candied with the soy and the brown sugar getting all sucked up inside the flesh.

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5:15 AM Lay out the tuna on the Weber Smokey Mountain racks to dry.

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6:45AM Set up the smoker using the snake method apple wood chunks and cherry wood chips dispersed along the fuse.

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Lit 8 briquettes in the chimney and dumped them onto the left hand side of the charcoal fuse.

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8:00AM Update: Tuna steaks are cranking along but pit temps aren’t climbing the way it was the last time I smoked tuna.  Pit temp 165 at grate level one hour into the smoke. I opened the feeder door to let some air in and added some cherry chips to stoke the coals a bit.

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9:00AM Update:

Tuna internal temp 150 degrees and they come off.  I take the tuna steaks off and place them on the cool grates of the Weber kettle to dry.

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9:45 Tuna dried and ready to package:

 

Live Smoking #Bluefin #Tuna On The Weber Smokey Mountain

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Follow along all morning at www.northeastbbq.com
Tuna Assassin Jimmy Santapaola was kind enough to bring me some tuna steaks from his latest trip, landed less than 24 hours ago, I’ve got them cut into one inch mini steaks and into an overnight marinade.
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The marinade consisted of-

A Bottle of Veri Veri Teriyaki Marinade and Sauce

A Turn In the Bowl of Chili Oil and Japanese Sesame Oil

A Very Generous Amount of Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (I like stuff spicy)

A Half a Tablespoon of Granulated Garlic

A Cup Of Light Brown Sugar

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Put a third of the marinade in a heavy duty freezer bag, added tuna, added another third marinade, added a third of the tuna, and then the rest so its covered and placed in fridge overnight.

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6:00AM Update
Tuna has absorbed most of the marinade and I’m going to lay it out on the smoker racks for a couple of hours to dry and form the pellicle.

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8:35AM Update: Setting Up the smoker using the snake method.
Arranged a course of briquettes stacked up three high around the perimeter of the charcoal holder with chunks of apple wood and hickory chips.
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Lit eight briquettes in the chimney and once they were glowing red and ashed over dumped them on one end of the course of the briquette “snake” so it will slowly work it’s way around the end and not too many coals will be going at once.
We are looking for temps of 225 for a couple of hours. If we simply filled up the charcoal basket with lit coals it would be difficult to keep the temps in the pit down. In this way it should be easier to keep the temps low for the duration.
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Filled the water pan to help moderate the temps, put the grates on and set up the remote maverick temperature gauge.
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10:56AM Update Grill Temp 235  Internal Tuna Temp 135

Pulled the thinner pieces of tuna off.

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Unbelievable.

Sweet and spicy.  Tuna is still very moist.  I don’t like when smoked fish is dried out.  I wouldn’t change a thing except maybe add more red pepper for a little more heat.  Otherwise perfect.

Large Shrimp Wrapped In #Bacon On The @STOKGrills Charcoal Drum #GetStoked

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

First up I’m going to split up a pound of bacon into thirds and will set up the STOK Drum for offset smoking around 225 degrees for about an hour. I started my coals and pushed them to one side of the grill and tossed a hunk of apple wood on for smoke. The bacon is placed on the opposite side of the grate from the charcoal. The idea is to partially cook the bacon because the shrimp will cook quickly and we want the bacon to finish around the same time once they are wrapped so the shrimp don’t dry out and get rubbery.

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While the bacon is smoking put the wooden skewers we’ll be using in water so they don’t burn up once they’re on the grill. You’ll want to soak them for at least 20 minutes.

The STOK Drum is chugging along holding at 225 with the top and bottom vents about half way closed.
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About 45 minutes into the smoking of the bacon I’ve decided it’s partially cooked enough and I decide to pull them off and start prepping the shrimp.
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U12 shrimp about to be deveined, leaving the tail on.
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Getting ready to stuff em and wrap em!

The shimp butterflied and stufed with three cheese blend and a jalepeno spear-

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All Prepped and ready to hit the grill
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Added to the grill opposite side of coals

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Once the bacon browns up a little baste with favorite bar b que sauce and place over the coals for a minute to let that sauce glaze up but be sure not to leave on too long or the sugars will burn. then baste the other side and flip, a minute or two on the other side and they’re ready!

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Finito!
Holy Frickin Cannoli Batman!
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We also grilled up some russet potato wedges after par-boiling them patting them dry and tossing them in olive oil, Atlantic Saltworks Coarse Salt and black pepper. they come out crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside-

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