Seafood is one of those things that you either love or strongly dislike it. I am one who loves seafood (good seafood) and also enjoys to make some delicious dishes with said seafood. There is so much you can do with seafood and so may kinds you can be creative with.
Fresh Tripletail
While I do enjoy being creative with fish (and seafood in general), I am still exploring and finding new ways to cook it. I’ve done oven baked, fried, and grilled. All different, all very good in their own way.
The fish of choice this time around was fresh tripletail. This kind of fish is found in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. It can grow up to almost three feet in length and weigh up to 40 pounds. The fish that we used was maybe 18 inches in length (pictured). We got the fish from a nearby pier (while vacationing at the beach), where they gutted, de-scaled, and cut the fish for us.
Preparing to grill
The plan was to grill the tripletail fish with a mix of butter and garlic drizzled on top. We put the fish on aluminum foil, after buttering the foil to prevent sticking, and then salted and peppered the fish.
After we got the fish on the grill (still on the aluminum foil) we poured the butter and garlic mixture onto the fish. It did not take too long to cook. The time it took may have been about 15 to 20 minutes to fully cook the fish. The fish became very tender and flaky to the touch. We served the fish with brown rice and cooked kale. Lemons were also served to be squeezed onto the fish as people desired.
*finished product shown in featured pictured
Freshly beheaded shrimp covered with butter and garlic
Later on, we grilled some fresh shrimp we had purchased at the same pier where we got the fish. The shrimp came complete with heads and exoskeletons which we chose to remove before cooking. That was an interesting adventure to say the least, but it was done so that they could be eaten (and so they would not be looking at us while we ate them).
We decided to wrap some in bacon, which had been recommended to us by the fisherman who sold them to us. Each shrimp was also covered in a butter and garlic mixture and then put onto a baking sheet. We covered the grill with aluminum foil to prevent the shrimp from falling through and then the shrimp was placed onto the foil and the lid was closed.
Cooked shrimp
Shrimp does not take very long to cook and it may have taken up to ten minutes (if that) to grill both sides. The ones with bacon on them took a bit longer and we ended up putting them straight onto the grill so that the bacon would crisp up some.
After they were all completely cooked, they were served with a selection of wraps, brown rice, and bread. There was also cooked spinach and a fresh salad served with the meal. The ones with bacon were crispy and the flavor of the bacon added to the already delicious flavors of the shrimp, butter, and garlic. The shrimp without bacon was also very good and I enjoyed eating it in a wrap with some lettuce and brown rice.
There are probably hundreds of ways to cook fish and shrimp. Seafood has a lot of creative things you can do with them and add to them to make dishes for all occasions. This is just one way that I have done recently and enjoyed the outcome tremendously. Hope you have had, or will have at some point, a creative experiences with seafood, either in making it yourself or eating some that others have prepared for you.
Kitchen Creativity 