wilburpan Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 (edited) This weekend I made a seafood dinner for us: shrimp, sockeye salmon, and asparagus. I’ve cooked these before, but this time I decided to push my technique a bit. The first thing I did was to really lighten up on the seasoning compared to what I usually do. For the salmon and shrimp, I used Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning (thanks Robert!), but I applied a very light coating. It looks like there’s a lot on the shrimp, but I only seasoned one side. For the asparagus, I drizzled some olive oil on it and a light amount of black pepper. They all went into Smaug at the same time. Final result. There were a few lessons I took away from this cook. First, dialing back on the seasonings/rub is a great way to test your technique. In this case, I couldn’t hide any over/under doneness of the seafood and asparagus with a heavy application of seasonings. In addition, normally I apply a light coat of olive oil to the salmon to aid in it not sticking to the grill grates, and as a way of helping the seasonings bind to the salmon. Again, not having the oil made me pay closer attention to the cook. Second, often times there’s a comment here about how charcoal is less convenient than propane for hot fast cooks. I’ve found over and over that using charcoal doesn’t have to slow you down for this sort of cook, if you’re smart about your workflow. For this cook, the very first thing I did was to light up Smaug. Then I started on the food prep, which included shelling the shrimp, washing the asparagus and trimming the ends, cutting the salmon fillet into individual portions, and seasoning. By the time I was done, the dome thermometer was at 600ºF, and the grill was ready to go. From eyeballing the grill and from previous experience, I know I was at 500ºF at the 10 minute mark. Could a gas grill have hit 500-600ºF faster? Maybe, but with this sort of workflow, it doesn’t matter. I would guess that the food prep is the rate limiting factor in the majority of cooks. Edited May 23, 2016 by wilburpan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckreef Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 Great looking seafood meal. I am now in the habit of just filling up the KK and lighting it shortly after I get home from work. Once at temperature I'll just let it ride until I'm ready to use it. I might waste a little charcoal but it's always ready when I'm ready. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeramicChef Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 @wilburpan - wow! I really love this cook. Great looking seafood. This is going to be hard to top. Kudos and congrats on a first rate cook! @wilburpan and @ckreef - I, like you gentlemen, have found it's to my advantage to light my lump later in the afternoon and leave Beauty! or TheBeast just idling along until I decide to get serious aout dinner. Once I figure out what I want, I'll open the vents and in o time at all, I'm putting food on the table. The KK is such an efficient cooker very little lump is used. Cooking on a KK is such a pleasure! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skreef Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 Great Salmon dinner Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinyfish Posted May 24, 2016 Report Share Posted May 24, 2016 What an enjoyable and healthy meal that was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
