2023 Ten Labor Days of Seafood and Dessert Smackdown

[ssandy_561]

And for dessert tonight. Vanilla ice cream wrapped in a watermelon fruit roll-up.



I know I might have went too fancy for the competition. Please don’t disqualify me.

[WayneT]

Beautifully out of the box dessert. What captainlee said.

[ecowper]

Hold on ….. that’s lovely but now we have to point out that ice cream in no way beats salmon steak on the grill ;-)

[ssandy_561]

ecowper ice cream + fruit roll-up > salmon steak on grill. 😆

[ecowper]

Picked up a pound of fresh, wild caught Alaskan cod that came out of the water on Friday. It’s gonna be getting its cook on tomorrow!

[WayneT]

Now you’ve set your own bar high.

[HotSun]

Look forward to it!

[WayneT]

After the third day of the Smackdown, we’ve been graced with some exceptional seafood and dessert cooks. But, I’m betting that some of you are sandbagging and watching the opposition. All’s fair in love, war and smackdowns so bring it on.

[ecowper]

I just posted the meal I cook that is probably my wife’s favorite :-)

[SheilaAnn]

My cook will be wed or thur……

[WayneT]

And exceptional, I’m sure.

[GolfGeezer]

Does a tri-tip count if it is swimming in sous vide and then swimming in a wine sauce? Just a technical question....

[RiverJeff]

Just a reminder All those fish and sea food have sex in that water also Soooo just what are ya eating?

[SheilaAnn]

Dude 🤣🤣

[Troutman]

Second offering is something that can be cooked quickly for say a mid-day meal. Grilled catfish with a blackened seasoning served with asparagus almondine and a remoulade sauce.







And for dessert today, let's try some rich and delicious Oreo Cream Pie....








Hope you enjoy!

[captainlee]

I quit !!!

[Michael_in_TX]

Why do I even walk this earth.....

[barelfly]

Love that this is grilled catfish with blackening seasoning. Small changes that just make things excellent!

[LA Pork Butt]

No pics to prove it, but the Low Country Boil yesterday was pretty good. I guess we were so hungry we ate it before we could get pics.

[Finster]

Made an apple crisp for yesterday's cookout. Simple and delicious..

[WayneT]

One can never go wrong with apples, sugar and cinnamon! Very nice dessert.

[ecowper]

Finster, you are sitting at exactly 1000 posts right now. Kinda cool dude.

[barelfly]

Ha! So that scoop on the plate was for everyone else while you ate the rest! I wouldn’t share an apple crisp with many people haha. This looks great!

[Panhead John]

You can never go wrong with bacon wrapped shrimp… or blackened catfish. Simple but tasty.

[Michael_in_TX]

I can taste that!!

[barelfly]

That shrimp all rolled up in some bacon goodness!

[Clawbear57]

The blackened catfish really makes me hungry.

[ecowper]

Tonight we had Cod En Papillote (Cod in parchment paper) with a Pearl Cous Cous salad.

The Cod was caught in the Gulf of Alaska on Friday, processed into filets, and then onto ice immediately, but not frozen. I bought it Sunday morning and cooked it tonight. I split the filet into 2x8 oz pieces. Fresh ground sea salt and black pepper goes on first. Now julienne a leek, a carrot, and a bell pepper. Layer the leek, carrot, and pepper on top of the fish. Give it a quick swirl of EVOO, add a rosemary and a dill sprig, and then a lemon slice. THEN …. Here’s a secret ingredient … 1 tsp of brine from Kalamata olives.

Now wrap it in parchment paper. Into the oven at 375F for no more than 25 minutes. Depending on how done you like your fish, the timing is 20 to 25 minutes. Go over that and you end up with rubber.

Side note: you can do this on the SnS or other grill. Set up your 2 zone for hot and fast. Put just a little wood on the fire, some of it will get through the parchment paper. I do this often, but tonight was rainy and cold and I didn’t feel like screwing with the SnS too.

Serve immediately.

The salad is cold pearl cous cous, chopped baby arugula, diced cucumber, and halved cherry tomatoes. Made a mustard/dill/lemon vinaigrette and tossed everything together into a salad.

[ecowper]

Michael_in_TX that brine gives it a nice kick

[barelfly]

Fresh cod…as in a few days fresh! Love it! Makes me jealous! Great cook!

[ecowper]

barelfly fresh cod is very difficult to find. When I did, I knew what I was doing for the smack down.

[Michael_in_TX]

I decided to do homemade lox on homemade bagels. This recipe is based on one of Sam the Cooking Guys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-m2E1M08c8

It's a multi-day process as you have to cure the salmon. First, start with the freshest salmon you can get. I obtained a center-cut 1 lb filet. The cure is very simple, 1/4 cup of kosher salt, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, as much dill as you like, and as much lemon zest as you'd like, plus a little bit of black pepper.

Mix the cure well and divide in half and apply half to the bottom (I removed the salmon skin) and half to the top, getting a little bit on the sides, too. Wrap the salmon tightly in plastic wrap and put on a sheet tray. (It will leak a lot of liquid.) Put another sheet tray on top of it, weigh it down with something (I used the bricks I use on my PBC) and let it get happy in the refrigerator for 48 hours.



You can make the cream cheese the same day as you do the bagels (and eat the salmon). I did mine yesterday as it was supposed to rain today (which it didn't, of course).

Take a 8 oz block of cream cheese, place in a cast iron pan, and make a cross-hatch pattern in it. Sprinkle with everything bagel seasoning. Smoke at 225 F for two hours. I used my Chimp pellet grill on PID mode (keeps a constant temp with no swings).



Love the color smoke imparts on cream cheese and how the cross-hatch pattern separates is just cool!



The bagel recipe Sam uses is very straightforward and quite suitable for a beginner. There are others, of course, out there and I intend to experiment with those, but for this cook I went with his (and because I've done it a few times).

After the dough has mixed and proofed, and been cut up, I make my little bagels. Aren't they cute? (These are also the most uniform in size bagels I have ever made, so really happy about that.)



After another small rest, they get put into boiling water for 90 seconds a side. This par-cooks the outside getting you that bagel signature crispy outside and fluffy inside.



Once out, sprinkle them with your topping of choice. I used more everything bagel seasoning. You can really see how they puff up in the boiling water. They barely fit on the sheet tray now!



Twenty minutes at 425 F and they are done. (And really hot! Ouch!)



Now back to the salmon. After two days, remove the weights and top sheet tray. You can see how much liquid it expelled.



Unwrap the salmon and generously wash it off in cold water. If you don't it will be unbearably salty.

Slice thinly on the diagonal. Isn't it gorgeous?



Next, make that bagel! Apply a generous smear of smoked cream cheese to each half of a bagel. Next, pile on that salmon! Go big! Make it something Starbucks would sell for $50.





Now eat that thing!



I need to make this more often. The bagels are far, far, far better than anything my local HEB makes, and they have a very good bakery. (The download, of course, is that these will go bad faster, so I'll keep two and freeze the rest.)

The salmon....what can I say....it's cured salmon and is absolutely delicious!

[barelfly]

I love everything about this! That salmon looks just perfect!

[fzxdoc]

This is amazing. Every single thing home made or home smoked. Kudos!

K.

[DTro]

Awesome!

[58limited]

So many great meals in this thread. I thought that I would be all over this cooking challenge but I've been busy and didn't plan ahead - and I was given some fresh caught mangrove snapper last week. Any grilling has been an afterthought and no seafood was involved unfortunately.

[ecowper]

Mmmmmm, fresh snapper is dang good. What are you going to do with it?

[58limited]

ecowper Not sure yet but probably something Cajun or Thai - maybe both

[theroc]

Grilled octopus salad with a slice of flyingpiglet's tomato gallette .

[captainlee]

Very nice. I love octopus salad. Going to an old time family owned Italian restaurant next week in which they feature this dish. Now I really can't wait to get there.

[WayneT]

Often copied, never duplicated! Spectacular..

[barelfly]

That grilled octopus…oh my!

[barelfly]

Well…here goes my first entry for the fun! Not the most exciting but the flavor profile and textures together make for an excellent meal!

Salmon grain bowls with broccoli, spinach, goat cheese and chile lime pistachios!

[ecowper]

Every river has sockeye with a different color and taste due to the minerals and such in the river. It’s pretty cool. The real trick, though, as you note is to cook it right. Overcooked and it’s sawdust and all the oils and fats are gone. Undercooked and it’s just not appetizing. Get it to the Medium Plus space around 140F and it’s killer, one of my absolute favorite proteins. Yours is looking good.

[Red Man]

I love fresh Alaskan sockeye! I know properly frozen fish is supposed to be better than older “fresh” salmon, but the fresh sockeye I get in my grocery store all summer beats any frozen salmon I’ve ever had by a long shot. The fresh salmon is definitely high on my list of favorite things about living in the Pacific Northwest.

[Michael_in_TX]

Goat cheese and salmon, yum!