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Follow These Tips for Grilling Seafood

Make sure your grill is clean and oiled. Fish sticks to the grill very easily, so proper lubrication is essential. If you don’t oil your grill, the fish will stick, and break apart when you try to remove it. Grab a wad of paper towels, or a rolled up kitchen towel in a pair of tongs. Dip the paper towels or kitchen towel into some vegetable oil, and rub the oil onto the grill. You can also spray the grill with cooking spray, just be sure the grill is off when you do this, or the spray could ignite, injuring you.

Use fresh fish if possible, since it is easier to work with than frozen fish. Each serving should be about 6-8 ounces for fillets or steaks, and 8-12 ounces for whole fish. You can place fish directly on the grill, but if you do this, you should use a firm fleshed fish, like grouper, tuna, swordfish, or salmon. You can also buy grill baskets made for grilling seafood. These will help small pieces of fish from falling through the grill, and will help in grilling delicate fillets.

Cook the fish over medium-hot to hot heat. If your grill doesn’t have a thermometer, then hold your hand about 5 inches above the heat. If you can hold your hand there for 2 seconds, the temperature is hot. If you can hold your hand 5 inches from the heat for 3-4 seconds, it is medium hot. If you’re cooking whole fish, you’ll need to have the temperature a bit lower, so the fish won’t burn. You should plan on cooking the fish for about 10 minutes for every inch of thickness. The fish is done cooking when it is opaque, and begins to flake. It is better to undercook the fish a bit than overcooking it. You can always cook it some more if it is undercooked, but you can’t uncook it if it is overcooked.

Marinades are a good way to add flavor and moisture to the fish before cooking. You only need to marinate fish for 30-60 minutes. If you marinate the fish for too long, the acids in the marinade will start to cook and break down the flesh. Lean fish should also be basted during cooking to keep the fish from drying out. Fattier fish, like tuna and salmon don’t need basting, but you can baste them to add more flavor.

Shrimp, Scallops, and chunks of firm fleshed fish work well on skewers. Alternate chunks of seafood with chunks of vegetables on a skewer for great seafood kebobs. If you’re using wooden skewers, be sure to soak them for 30 minutes before grilling to prevent them from burning on the grill.

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Gourmet Sauces & Marinades

Marinades are just a simple way to prepare certain foods that you want to have an extra kick to. Marinades to meats, serve two different purposes to tenderize and to give more flavor. Less fatty foods have a blander taste than most steaks and such. Marinades are just an easy way to tenderize and add a lot more flavor.

To make a marinade you need something of acidic base with herbs and vinegar to make the meats tasty. A marinade with a little bit of chili powder, garlic and oregano with give the food you are a making sort of a Mexican taste. Maybe for an Asian marinade some ginger and sesame seeds with a little soy sauce and hot sauce. A lot of sodas give great taste as well such as sprite goes good with chicken and coca cola is another.

The different foods you may be making are different from each other so you might need a couple of different sauces. Marinades with an acidic base give both flavor and tenderization. These marinades with acidic bases tenderize by unraveling the protein strands in the meats and fish in which you are marinating. When you are using an acidic base marinade never use aluminum or such because it will cause discoloration in the food and might cause it to have a bad taste so just use glass or other plates rather than aluminum.

The other type of marinade is dry marinade. These types are usually made of dry spices and can be rubbed right into the meats which you are trying to add flavor to. This will enhance the flavor but will not do to good as a tenderizer.

Yes, most marinades have a secret ingredient which the chefs refuse to reveal. And marinades without the secret ingredient simply taste bland. Now, when there are hundreds of marinade companies out there, why would you want to try making your own marinade?

Simply log on to any search engine and look for marinades. You will come across hundreds of websites selling these marinades. Wine Country Chef is a good website you should consider when buying marinades online. It is a place where a sense of time and place is skillfully blended with fresh and flavorful ingredients to capture the essence of the wine country. Gourmet marinade with fresh local ingredients and a flavor that captures the essence of the wine country to be enjoyed with chicken and beef.

Wine Country Chef’s mission is simple: to provide the best products and service to customers. Wine Country Chef takes great pride in what it do, the commitment to customer service and in the products it sells. The online store is designed to provide you with a safe and secure environment to browse the product catalog.

The longer you leave food and meats to marinade the more flavor and tender your food is going to be. If you have steaks it is good to either buy a 30 minute marinade or get a better marinade and let it sit and soak in the marinade all night until the next day.

Leftover marinades are useful for sauces but they need to be cooked to a heat that will kill any bacteria that grew over night. These sauces are good to add to fish steak and other foods. Just be sure to kill all the bacteria before you use the leftover marinades.

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