4 Levels of Grilled Fish: Amateur to Food Scientist

[upbeat 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 Palak,

I am a chef at the Institute of Culinary Education,

and I've been a chef for 10 years.

[upbeat music]

So today, we're gonna be making grilled fish.

Branzino is a pretty easy whole fish to make.

As a side dish, you're gonna be making some broccoli rabe,

just sauteed in garlic and olive.

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 gonna be making a salt baked whole fish.

Served with the fish,

I'm gonna be making a charred corn salad,

which is very popular in India.

This is a whole branzino, that I got from the supermarket,

and I requested that it'd 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 got to tell you, this baby is gorgeous.

I feel like I wanna name him,

but that might be a little weird.

The fish I'm using today is a porgy.

The first thing is just to kinda 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 sheers just kinda 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 gonna use a little fresh thyme,

some sweet paprika, hot paprika.

I'm gonna shave this fresh ginger into the marinade.

Use your microplane and put a little lime zest.

Can I 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, woo!

And some of my fresh parsley,

now you wanna pull it all together with some olive oil.

We're gonna whisk it up.

Here we have it, this is my marinade for the fish.

Now we're gonna 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 kinda wanna crush them up so that they mix nicely

with the salt next up, in the funnel, whole peppercorns.

Here, we have eight cups of salt,

we're gonna mix the egg whites into the salt.

You know, 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 gonna stuff the fish with some fresh herbs.

I have some parsley, bay leaf, oregano,

as well as some lemon.

That's gonna go inside the cavity of the fish.

You've got some ginger leftover.

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 kinda 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 gonna be using two different types of citrus,

the first one,

is a Meyer lemon. 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 going to 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 friends out

of the marinade and dump the rest of this marinade

in a side bowl, because we're gonna 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, 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,

just go ahead and throw a few sprigs in there.

So I've got some scallions, some onion, little red pepper,

I'm stuffing that bad boy right in this fish.

And just layer one of each inside of the cavity.

When the heat bakes in these will get really steamy.

And then our fish is gonna be perfumed perfectly.

Last but not least something that is very native to India,

these are called curry leaves,

and this is a perfect compliment to the spices

that we put in to the salt.

And now our peppers.

And now we're gonna put it in, in this, the cutest thing.

It's like shaped like a fish, it's a grill basket.

Now onto our salt mixture,

I'm gonna be using a large cast iron sheet,

I'm gonna rub a little bit of flaxseed oil.

We're gonna take our salt and gently make a little bed

for the fish to lye on.

Gently, pop it on to the salt bed.

Gently take the salt mixture, pat it onto the fish.

Doesn't have to be terribly thick,

just wanna 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 seasoned this stuff.

We don't want sticking, we don't want burning.

Just oil up the little tines on the basket.

You know, me and the hands gonna oil up my fish.

And in a rub it in.

This will hopefully help prevent any sticking of the fish

to the grill pan.

Look at that.

Wow, 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 gonna let it show to 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 very high.

The first thing I wanna 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 in been seven minutes

and I can see that that bottom layer has a fish

has almost fully cooked through.

This is the most challenging part sort of 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.

Whew, 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.

Give a little shake, voila.

I've got a sharp paring knife

and what I wanna do is just find a little opening

in the fish and gently just push skin back,

that 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna 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, plantations,

'platanos', all over the Caribbean,

everybody loves 'platanos', 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 onions.

So I'm just gonna give them a little pickle.

So we want pretty thin rings.

Not paper thin, but just enough

so that they kinda nicely blend in with the salad.

I'm gonna 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 going to take off the stems

of the broccoli rabe,

and literally it's 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 gonna 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're 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 gonna do is get our lime juice,

and to just add a little bit

of lime zest to this, maple syrup, some salt,

and the two spices that I'm gonna 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 gonna drizzle

some olive oil. Olive oil.

Just to incorporate all that together.

Dressing's ready, now onto the corn.

I'm just going to massage the plantain 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 gonna char this corn on open fire.

So the first thing we're going to do,

is we're gonna husk the corn.

And go ahead and throw in all

the broccoli rabe that I prepped.

It's gonna become a nice deep green color.

You're gonna see it cooks so fast, blanching, really simple,

kinda blanch it for just maybe two to three minutes,

really quick, not too long.

So we're going to cook these in a basket as well.

We're going to 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 to 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 sautee in some garlic and olive oil.

I like to do a nice amount

and you can hear 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.

I'm just gonna go ahead and add right to this pan

while its in there, we're gonna hit it with a little bit

of salt and fresh 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 gonna taste amazing.

I flip these over, look at those beautiful grill marks.

I'm gonna 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 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 gonna pop the dressing.

I'm gonna do half the dressing first,

just to see how much the corn is going to absorb.

I am gonna 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 friend 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.

Amazing.

Spices falling off.

Yeah.

That's so flaky.

It came out so good.

Oh, man.

It came 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 connect to 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,

cause 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.

Palak used a white fish called a porgy,

also known as a pink snapper.

They have a medium flake and from texture

and have a mild flavor.

And they can feed about eight to 10 people.

John 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

combined with the trimethylamine 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 branzino

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.

I mean, that's what we've always done.

Julie added scotch bonnet pepper,

one of the hottest peppers out there.

So I've been told.

It's 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 this threshold,

when you can't taste it, the higher, the scoville rating,

the hotter the pepper.

And also it looks nice.

Palak 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.

I'm not gonna lie, this is a little fun.

He then covered 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 'yaman'.

Palak uniquely did a hybrid of grill and bake

to her salt crusted fish and 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 myrosinase,

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 rabe is heated

permitting the chlorophyll to be more highly expressed.

A new pigment called chlorophyllide

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 plantain,

certainly reinforce the Jamaican flavors

in Julie's grilled fish.

That's it, you don't need much more.

Palak 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 Palak that beautiful,

vibrant pink color in her onions.

I just liked the color.

She shucked her corn and quickly grilled

it directly over a medium high heat.

Caramelization also occurred as she grilled her corn

imparting a buttery carmel savory sweetness.

Nailed it.

John's wonderfully simple branzino

is the star of his plate.

Julie served her fish whole and plated it with plantations

Palak'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.