As a true southerner who grew up between coastal SE Georgia and costal SE Florida nothing beats fresh fried seafood....NOTHING.....but a very close second is smoked seafood. Very few people have heard of, or even tried, smoking seafood, but I promise you it is an experience that can't be explained....you just have to try it!
For this meal, I selected my favorite varieties of seafood and also a sushi-grade cut of tuna and began the prep.
I know there is quite a bit of a debate about whether to cook your shrimp with the shells on or off, but I prefer to smoke them without the shell. So for the prep, I shelled and deveined two types of shrimp. The first was a selection of large "general" coastal shrimp and the other was larger tiger shrimp. I also checked over the salmon steaks for persistent bones that may still be present and did the same with the two sushi-grade tuna steaks. I used one of the tuna steaks for smoking and the other I set aside for a dish I will dive into later in the post. I then took all of the shellfish and fish steaks and placed them in a deep plastic container that I then added the juices from 10 oranges, 5 limes, 5 lemons, three heaping tablespoons of minced garlic, and a couple of teaspoons of Everglades seasoning and let it set while I prepped the smoker.
While I was prepping the seafood, I started my Campchef electric pellet smoker and set the temperature to 225 degrees and the smoke level to high. As I was waiting for the temp to reach the target, I would mix the seafood around in the liquid prep to make sure it was thoroughly saturated.
I then began to work on the basting fluid that I would brush on every 7 to 10 minutes while the seafood was smoking. To create this, I melted 6 sticks of butter, added 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon of black pepper, 1 tablespoon of Everglades seasoning, and 1 tablespoon of Old Bay (you can substitute the liquid version of Old Bay, but I like to go old school .....lol). I then placed all of the shrimp on wooden skewers. Next is placing the seafood!
It is important to make sure that everything is evenly spaced and that there is enough room for the smoke to flow through each section of seafood so that the smoke flavor permeates all the pieces. Once all of the items are placed and arranged, I liberally brush the basting mixture over everything.
I check on the condition of the seafood every 7 to 10 minutes and liberally brush it all down again and then I turn all of the seafood after about 20 minutes and continue to brush in the above intervals until the seafood is the desired color and consistency. It is extremely easy to overcook seafood, so make sure you are attentive and patient when smoking.
While the other seafood items are smoking, I took the second tuna steak and cut it in fairly even size cubes and then set it aside. I then took 2 tablespoons of orange juice, 2 tablespoons of lime juice, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 inch of grated fresh ginger, 1 tablespoon of sour cream, a dash or two of soy sauce, a dash of teriyaki sauce, a little bit of Kosher salt, and a little bit of white pepper and thoroughly mix it all together. Lightly toss the raw tuna cubes in the mixture until thoroughly coated and then place in the refrigerator until time to serve. I use this as the appetizer "salad" because as noted in previous posts I am a carnivore.
This is the perfect meal to enjoy seafood while adding a bit of diversity to the carnivore diet. The combination of the cool Japanese-inspired sashimi "salad" to the warm heat of the smoked seafood blends perfectly and this is the ultimate meal for a low-country King! If you try this out, let me know how you liked it in the comments. Or if you would change something to make it better, please let me know...I'm always looking for ways to take my smoking game to the next level! Thanks for taking the time to read my post and bon appetit!
All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter,
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
-Tolkien
