4 Levels of Grilled Fish: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

[Music] hi i'm john and i'm a level one chef hi i'm julie i'm a level two chef hi my name is pollock i am a chef at the institute of culinary education and i've been a chef for 10 years so today we're going to be making grilled fish bronzino is a pretty easy whole fish to make as a side dish you're going to be making some broccoli rabe just sauteing garlic and olive oil i'm from jamaica and we eat snapper so many different ways so this is kind of an amalgamation of my mom's recipe this recipe is really great it reminds me of a vacation that i had in south india so today i'm going to be making a salt baked whole fish served with the fish i'm going to be making a charred corn salad which is very popular in india this is a whole bronzino that i got from the supermarket and i requested that it be cleaned with the head and tail removed and all the scales the key to making a beautiful grilled fish is to get the freshest and most beautiful fish possible and i gotta tell you this baby is gorgeous i feel like i want to name him but that might be a little weird the fish i'm using today is a porgy the first thing is just to kind of look at the eyes and make sure that the eyes are clear if they look a little bit foggy or white that means the fish is a bit older so to prepare the fish to get it on the grill the first thing we're gonna do is snip off the gills they're a bit sharp so using kitchen chairs just kind of take these away i have a lime here and i am going to squeeze this lime into the cavity of the fish and on the flesh of the fish i am going to make some cuts along the side of the fish that will aid in the cooking process put a little salt the inside of the cavity we're gonna move on to making the marinade our marinade is going to as i say have a lot of lime juice i'm gonna use probably two and a half limes crush some white peppercorns regular black peppercorns thyme dried and i'm also going to use a little fresh thyme some sweet paprika hot paprika i'm going to shave this fresh ginger into the marinade use your microplane and put a little lime zest can i just tell you that fresh lime smells so good also wouldn't be jamaica without allspice a nice good bit of salt i love garlic but i don't really like to use a lot of garlic with fish the last thing we're gonna do is we're gonna slice this scotch bonnet [Applause] and some of my fresh parsley now you want to pull it all together with some olive oil we're going to whisk it up here we have it this is my marinade for the fish now we're going to make the salt cure for the fish so for the size of the fish we're gonna use about eight egg whites we are gonna add some spices to that mixture so we're gonna start with coriander seeds adding those to a mortar and pestle i just kind of want to crush them up so that they mix nicely with the salt next up our fennel whole peppercorns here we have eight cups of salt we're gonna mix the egg whites into the salt i like when you're little and you make snowballs that's the consistency you're looking for once you've got that mixed in just a little bit of water just to bring it all together make a ball that's what you're looking for we're going to stuff the fish with some fresh herbs i have some parsley bay leaf oregano as well as some lemon that's going to go inside the cavity of the fish you've got some ginger left over why don't we just do three little slices of ginger thyme in here and we're just making like a little sort of cornucopia bowl so i slice my bermuda onion and kind of toss them around as you put them in this is a vidalia onion that's three quarters of a scotch bonnet slice it again very thin i'm going to be using two different types of citrus the first one is a margarita lemon two slices of lemon right in the cavity of the fish so it's really simple it's like filling a pita if you will just a dead fish for a little bit of that extra tanginess i'm gonna use lime these are anaheim peppers they look like a jalapeno but they're a little bit sweeter we are now going to take our little friend out of the marinade and dump the rest of this marinade in a side bowl because we're going to use this to brush the fish as we're grilling it now to stuff the star of the show i'm gonna take a nice amount of sprigs and again it's just fresh stuffing it right on top it's just to add some extra flavoring as you do with herbs not chopping it to bay leaves bay leaves are lovely and then lastly this is fun some whole fresh oregano let's go ahead and throw a few sprigs in there so i've got some scallions some onion a little red pepper i'm stuffing that bad boy right in this fish i'm going to just layer one of each inside of the cavity when the heat bakes in these will get really steamy and then our fish is going to be perfumed perfectly last but not least something that is very native to india these are called curry leaves and this is a perfect complement to the spices that we put in to the salt and now our peppers and now we're gonna put it in and this is the cutest thing it's like shaped like a fish it's a grill basket now onto our salt mixture i'm going to be using a large cast iron sheet i'm going to rub a little bit of flaxseed oil we're going to take our salt and gently make a little bed for the fish to lie on gently pop it on to the salt bed gently take the salt mixture pat it onto the fish it doesn't have to be terribly thick just want to make sure that the entire fish is covered it's gonna go to the grill at 350 degrees i like to do a heavy amount of seasoning here just because why not it's fish the fish itself has a nice taste but the salt and pepper really enhance the overall flavor pepper really season this up we don't want sticking we don't want burning just oil up the little tines on the basket you know me in the hands i'm gonna oil up my fish gonna rub it in this will hopefully help prevent any sticking of the fish to the grill pan look at that wow it kind of works guys let's get grilling we're ready so now it's time to grill the fish so just gonna grill it on my handy-dandy grill pan so it's time to throw on the fish right in the center and i'm gonna leave it and let it cook for seven minutes and i'm not gonna touch it at all i'm just going to let it do its thing i've had the gas grill heating up on super high i'm just going to dab a little more marinade and let's put this baby on the grill we've got two minutes and it's on very high the first thing i want to make sure is that my grill is at 350 degrees take your cast iron place it directly on the grill close the lid and say goodbye for now wow and don't burn yourself so it's been seven minutes and i can see that that bottom layer of fish has almost fully cooked through this is the most challenging part so i brought two utensils for reinforcement let's pray here we go oh okay not too bad lost a little bit of skin but that's okay now what you do flip that baby just a minute or so on this side we've got flames we've got ignition what we're gonna do is turn our heat down put it between medium low and low and marinate and now what you do is you close your grill cover and keep it down for a good four minutes all right now it's time to take the fish off the pan hopefully we didn't lose any more skin we flipped it once it's on low it's smelling delicious our fish is done it's been about 15 minutes and i'm gonna actually check the temperature of the fish so the color of the salt bake is turning a little bit of a yellow and then golden at the bottom which is where the heat is and i can actually smell the spices they smell beautiful so i'm gonna turn this off my fish is done and now for the final part you can just use the back of a spoon and it should gently come apart it just falls like an iceberg get a little shake voila i've got a sharp paring knife and what i want to do is just find a little opening in the fish and gently just push skin back blush looks perfect it's nice and white and i'm gonna actually make an oil it's gonna be infused with mustard seeds and the curry leaves this is an avocado oil which has a very high smoke point and once it's smoky add your black mustard seeds you're going to hear a popping sound be careful with this one and tilt it once you hear the popping stop that means the oil is now infused and just drizzle right on top of the fish the last thing i'm going to do is drizzle with meyer lemon and with the infused oil that has mustard seeds and curry leaves this smells like my trip to india on a plate for my side dish i'm going to be making some simple broccoli rabe sauteed in garlic and olive oil it's super tasty very italian something that was a staple in our household and this is actually my mother's recipe i often like to pair something savory that i'm making with something sweet plantains platanos all over the caribbean everybody loves platino's plantains and served with the fish i'm gonna be making a charred corn salad the first thing we're gonna do is make the salad dressing and this salad dressing has some red onion so i'm just going to give them a little pickle so we want pretty thin rings um not paper thin but just enough so that they kind of nicely blend in with the salad i'm going to add some red wine vinegar a little bit of salt just gonna let them hang out for about 20-25 minutes until they're nice and quickly pickled first up we're just gonna take off the stems of the broccoli rabe and literally just a quick removal of the stems and now we're just left with these beautiful leaves and just like any good italian dish we're gonna compliment it with some garlic and olive oil rather than actually chopping it up you kind of press with your body weight into it and then the skin comes right off you've got to make sure you get ripe or platano maduro you're going to cut your ends off and you simply slice the skin you'll notice that the skin is much thicker than that of a banana and we are just going to slice them ideally this is really a good thickness for you now that we've pickled the onions it's time to make the dressing so the first thing we're going to do is get our lime juice and just add a little bit of lime zest to this maple syrup some salt and the two spices that i'm going to use are really special toasted cumin seeds that i've toasted and then ground in a mortar and pestle and some mango powder and now i'm just going to drizzle some olive oil just to incorporate all that together dressing's ready now onto the corn and i'm just going to massage the plantains with the oil and you are going to just nutmeg this up nutmeg just helps enhance the sweetness we're done all we need to do is throw these on the grill so today we're going to char this corn on open fire so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to husk the corn and go ahead and throw in all the broccoli rabe that i prepped it's going to become a nice deep green color you're gonna see it cooks so fast blanching really simple kind of blended for just maybe two to three minutes really quick not too long so we're gonna cook these in a basket as well we're gonna oil up the basket you're going to now just put your plantains in the basket place that basket directly on the grill i put it back up to high and i have a little burner on my grill i'm gonna put the corn directly on the fire what i'm listening for is these popping sounds and so as soon as the popping sound happens you just turn it and you're looking for an even char all around the corn so i took the broccoli rabe out of the water and now i'm gonna saute it in some garlic and olive oil i like to do a nice amount and you can tear it start to sizzle just when it starts to get a little brown that's when i throw in the vegetable i definitely don't want it to burn so i'm gonna watch this like a hawk so i'm just gonna go ahead and add right to this pan while it's in there gonna hit it with a little bit of salt and fresh cracked cracked black pepper i mean yes it's cooking it a little bit more but really you know it's just infusing the flavors of the olive oil and the garlic into the broccoli rabe it's going to taste amazing i flip these over look at those beautiful grill marks i'm going to turn it down just a little bit to medium and in a couple of minutes these will be done now it's time to take the corn kernels off the cob take a sharp knife and run it straight down i've actually cut the tip off just to make sure that the corn is super secure and go down into the corn in a sawing motion i have my warm corn in a bowl i have a jalapeno just for a little bit of heat i want small pieces so that each and every single bite of the salad gets a little sweetness a little heat and then while the corn is hot i'm just going to pop the dressing i'm going to do half the dressing first just to see how much the corn is going to absorb i am going to hit the corn with just a little bit of salt and now some cilantro pickled onions for topping so this is my charred corn salad and here's my grilled fish with a side of broccoli rabe and this my friends is grilled snapper and delicious grilled plantains and there you have it my beautifully grilled fish served with a charred corn salad the dish looks great it smells amazing i can't wait to try this out and without further ado mmm amazing fish is falling off yeah that's so flaky it came out so good oh my god better than i thought it was gonna come out oh my god i'm so excited this is really good i might eat the whole fish grilled fish is as delicious as it is ancient people all over the world have been grilling whole fish for millennia let's see how each of our three chefs put their own spin on this rustic dish john grilled branzino also known as mediterranean or european sea bass it's a white fish with a slightly sweet mild flavor and a medium firm texture it's easy to eat off the bone because of its simple skeleton and moderate flake flake refers to the fact that the fish's musculature is arranged in layers connected by tissues that are made up of a loose network of collagen that connects the backbone to the layers of skin john's fish was scaled and gutted with head and tail removed for easy preparation as well as presentation i didn't have to do all the dirty work because i don't know how to and i don't want to julie grilled a red snapper it's a white fish that's usually between one and five pounds with a medium firmness and flake this recipe transcends any type of fish as long as it's a nice big white fleshed fish this will be fabulous pollock used a whitefish called a porgy also known as a pink snapper they have a medium flake and firm texture and have a mild flavor and they can feed about eight to ten people used a simple and classic preparation for his branzino don't hate he stuffed the cavity of the fish with parsley and lemon and liberally added salt and pepper along with olive oil there's another reason lemon or lime are traditionally served with fish the ascorbic and citric acids in the citrus combine with the trimethylamines that may form in the fish neutralizing that unappealing and fishy kind of odor that may start to form after the fish is caught the olive oil he rubbed on the outside of his bronzino helps to conduct heat to crisp the skin ensuring that it doesn't stick to his grill pan and yes i did lose a little skin but just hide the evidence julie made diagonal slits in the side of her fish which allows for more even cooking of her red snapper while it's grilling in the culinary world sometimes we refer to diagonal slits as cutting on the bias i'm showing off okay she also added other tropical spices like allspice which is not a combination of spices as the name seems to indicate but is a berry that contains eugenol also found in cloves and gives a warming note to her marinade jamaica where julie's recipe hails from is the world's largest producer of allspice and it's used often throughout the nation's cuisine i really don't know the reason and that's what we've always done julia added scotch bonnet pepper one of the hottest peppers out there so i've been told its heat comes from capsaicinoids and it rates about 350 000 scoville heat units scoville heat units is a measurement of the number of times capsaicin needs to be diluted by a sugar water solution until you reach a threshold when you can't taste it the higher the scoville rating the hotter the pepper and also it looks nice pollock prepared a type of salt oven for her fish she first ground together whole spices she then added this spice mixture to a large amount of kosher salt not gonna lie this is a little fun you then cover the fish with the rest of the salt this is absolutely level three at her best it's like unwrapping a christmas present john used a grill pan on his stove this is a form of conduction heating because the grill pan was placed directly on the heat source and then cooked the fish when it came in contact with the pan he grilled on high heat and only flipped his fish once so it had a nice crispy outside not bad for level one julie grilled outside on a gas grill julie knew her fish was done because the flesh became white and opaque fish turns white and opaque because you have a lot of denaturation of the proteins so they coagulate it's not as translucent because it reflects light differently yeah man or should i say yama pollock uniquely did a hybrid of grill and bake to her salt crusted fish in cast iron on a gas grill at high heat this is the fun part the salt and egg white mixture insulated the fish and baked it evenly and very gently john made a side of broccoli rabe broccoli rabe is just a different form of broccoli this is a vegetable that's more closely related to the turnip than broccoli by blanching it first john deactivated an enzyme called morocinase it induces bitter compounds i don't know the science reasoning behind it but you know all the leaves get goopy blanching also intensifies and lightens the green color in part because air is removed from tissue as the broccoli rob is heated permitting the chlorophyll to be more highly expressed a new pigment called chlorophyllid is also formed during heating which is bright green in color julie grilled plantains as her side dish and she sprinkled them with freshly grated nutmeg which is dramatically different than using pre-ground nutmeg the flavor is far more fresh it's nutty it's slightly sweet with a warming quality the nutmeg and plantains certainly reinforce the jamaican flavors in julie's grilled fish that's it you don't need much more pollock made a delicious grilled corn salad as her side dish she did a quick pickling of red onions by slicing them thinly and tossing them in red wine vinegar the acetic acid from the vinegar stabilizes the anthocyanins in the red onion giving pollock that beautiful vibrant pink color in her onions i just like the color she shucked her corn and quickly grilled it directly over a medium-high heat caramelization also occurred as she grills her corn imparting a buttery caramel savory sweetness nailed it john's wonderfully simple bronzino is the star of his plate julie served her fish whole and plated it with plantains pollock's salt-crusted fish was a show-stopper with a drizzle of hot oil with mustard seeds and curry leaves grilled fish can be as simple or as wonderfully complex as your imagination allows so next time you're in the mood for grilled fish we hope you'll use some of these recipes and tips from our three chefs

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 761,476

Keywords: 4 levels, epicurious 4 levels, 4 levels epicurious, epicurious 4 levels of grilled fish, 4 levels of grilled fish, 4 levels grilled fish, epicurious four levels, four levels epicurious, epi 4 levels, 4 levels epi, epi grilled fish, epicurious grilled fish, grilled fish recipe, how to grill fish, expert grilled fish, best grilled fish, professional grilled fish, palak patel, ice palak patel, institute of culinary education, barbecue fish, how to barbecue fish, epicurious

Id: OB1sj5edS94

Length: 22min 54sec (1374 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 10 2020