From Salmon to Skewers: How to Nail Every Type of Food on the Grill
At Kvarøy Arctic, we believe that if you can eat it, you can grill it.
When you get creative, the possibilities to what you can cook on the grill are truly limitless – you can even prepare an entire meal! Imagine toasting nuts as a starter for a salad, or warming some artisanal bread and heating a seasoned dipping oil to serve with it. Then grill some veggies as a side dish (and cook enough so that you’ll have leftovers for a salad tomorrow). And the last embers of the fire is the perfect place to create a spectacular end to a wonderful meal – bake brownies, toast pound cake brushed with butter, or serve grilled fruit over ice cream.
But what about the main dish, you ask?
Don’t worry, we dive into everything you could dream of grilling – from salmon to burgers to skewers!
Marry Seafood & The Barbeque
Photo Credit: Nevada Berg
When it comes to bringing a taste of the sea to the grill, our favorites include salmon (of course), striped bass, snapper, sardines, and yellowtail amberjack since they all have skin that will crisp up while the meat stays moist and tender.
Begin by lightly seasoning the fish or placing it in a marinade. However, watch the levels of salt and sugar. Fish should be marinated for no more than two hours and grilled cold. As they have such a rich flavor, a simple squeeze of lemon, dollop of wasabi, or a sprinkling of salt and pepper are all that you really need.
Salmon, while not quite as meaty as swordfish and tuna, is fantastic on the grill. Grilling salmon really brings out the sweet taste, and salmon takes well to a number of flavor companions including peanut sauce, lemon pepper, paprika rub, or chile and lime. To be safe, you might prefer to wrap salmon fillets in foil or grill the fillets over cedar planks.
Arctic char is another fish in the same family that cooks and tastes much like salmon. Cook this fish over direct heat, and be sure to oil it (and not the grate!) before placing skin-side down. It can easily overcook, so be careful. Just a minute or two on each side, depending on the thickness, is all you need.
Serve the Most Tender Steak Dinner
The first thing you will want to do before you cook a steak is to take it out of the refrigerator and allow it to sit out at room temperature for thirty minutes. Preheat your grill, and then trim any excess fat from the steaks, while leaving about ¼ inch of fat all the way around. Cut a few “X” marks into the fat, as it will shrink as it cooks and will curl your steak.
Next, season the steak with freshly ground black pepper and a liberal amount of Kosher sale. Why Kosher? Because its coarse crystals evenly coat the meat. Finally, brush some oil or butter onto steaks right before grilling them. Doing so prevents the steaks from sticking to the grill and provides a bit of moisture. Clarified butter works best because it has a higher smoke point than whole butter, but if you don't have time, whole butter is totally fine. Alternately, use a combination of melted butter and oil. Just brush it lightly—the steak shouldn't be dripping with oil when it hits the grill, or it could start a grease fire.
Next, the key to a perfect steak is cooking it at a high temperature for a short amount of time. Get your grill as hot as it will go. If you are using charcoal, you need a heavy layer of burning, white-hot charcoal. If using a gas grill, you need to let the grill heat up as hot as it will go. Put the steaks on as soon as your barbecue grill reaches its peak temperature. For a steak that is rare, medium-rare, or medium, leave the temperature as high as it can go. If you want your steak cooked past medium (medium-well or well), let the grill heat up to its highest temperature, then turn the heat down a little. If you don't, the surface of the steak can burn and dry out before the center hits these higher temperatures.
With your steak done, it's time to get it off the grill and onto a plate. The plate should be room temperature or warm, not cold. Let your steak rest for five minutes before serving, allowing the meat to relax and the heat and juices to redistribute. Resting meat is one of the most important steps when grilling!
Perfect the Grilled Burger
A hamburger, need we say more? To begin, first choose a good type of ground beef for the grill. The best is an 80/20 mix for grilled burgers – this means a mix of 80% lean beef and 20% fat (as beef that is too lean will dry out from the heat that surrounds it). The 80/20 ground beef you would buy in the supermarket is usually ground chuck, which is great for burgers. (Something leaner like 90/10 is usually ground sirloin, which tends to dry out when cooked over the high heat of the grill.)
Another important tip is to keep the meat very cold. The heat from your hands combined with room-temp ground beef can melt and smear the fat. This prevents the fat from binding with the lean meat, causing too much of it to render during the cooking process, resulting in a dry, dense burger. The solution is to keep the meat cold and shape the patties as quickly as possible. Leave the ground beef in the refrigerator until you're ready to season it and form the patties. Then mix the ground beef just until it comes together and not a second more. Form it into patties and put them back in the fridge until you are ready to grill. Season the patties carefully and do not over-mix them, so you keep some of the air inside so that they’ll be tender when you cook them.
Finally, burgers can puff up in the middle as they cook, making the tops rounded and awkward for piling on the toppings. To avoid this, press an indentation into the top of each raw patty with your thumb or the back of a spoon. When the center pushes up, the top of each burger will be level. Once they are on the grill, flip, but don’t press. The burgers will be more juicy this way! Most burgers are ready in about five minutes, if they are 4 inches in diameter and one inch thick.
Share Swoonworthy Skewers
Who doesn’t love sliding delicious foods off a skewer? When it comes to successful skewers on the grill, a few tips can go a long way.
First, when choosing what should go on the skewers, make sure that each item cooks in the same amount of time. For example, zucchini will cook in the same amount of time as salmon. Also, it’s important to cut the veggies and protein the same sizes.
When it comes to selecting your skewers, pick ones based on the density of the protein you’re cooking. It's also fun to get creative with your skewers, using items like stems of rosemary. If your skewers are made of bamboo or wood, be sure to soak them in water for at least two hours, which will help keep them from burning quickly.
Whether you are making vegetable kabobs or ones with meat, don't skimp when you're threading them on the skewers. Kabob ingredients, such as salmon pieces, will stay juicier longer if they are touching one another (but not crammed) on the skewers.
When it’s grill time, brush everything lightly with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Place cross-wise on the grill grate and cook over medium high-heat, turning once.
Build Bold Flavor with a Rub, Marinade, or Sauce
Finally, we couldn’t talk about grilling, without touching on seasonings – a key ingredient to delicious cooking!
For marinades, you can marinate beef, pork, or lamb for up to 48 hours (based upon the amount of acid in the marinade), poultry for up to 24 hours, and fish and seafood for up to 4 hours. If you marinate longer in an acidic marinade, like teriyaki, then you end up toughening the protein before you cook it, which will result in a chewy texture.
And we know it's tempting to slather on a barbecue sauce you love, but patience is key. Be careful not to sauce too early, especially if you are using a sweet or salty sauce, use these sparingly prior to cooking as the sugars will burn and threaten food (sugar burns easily and salt draws the liquid out of meats). Sauce your proteins during the final 30 minutes of cooking and you’ll be good to go!