Extreme Smoke | Steven Raichlen's Project Smoke

Grilled sea urchin egg on eggs, caveman lobsters and Alaskan king crab with absinthe butter, grilled veal chops with flaming rosemary, and salt and pepper beef ribs on a wood-fired rotisserie. Today it's extreme smoke from the Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort in Solvang, California. I'm Stephen Reikland and this is Project Smoke. We have a fascinating show for you today about foods you'd never dream of smoking or grilling and extraordinary methods for doing so. We also have a very special guest, Stephanie Mutz, a local marine biologist and fisherman. Stephanie, what have you brought us today? I brought you some Santa Barbara sea urchin. Stephanie dives for sea urchin for a living. I thought sea urchin, how cool would that be on the grill? I mean, usually you eat sea urchin raw. Stephanie's idea was you crack an egg into the sea urchin, you grill it, you get the briny sea urchin egg flavor, the earthy hen egg flavor. I was smitten. Sea urchin. Okay, now I've had uni and sushi restaurants, but this is the whole live animal. That's where your uni comes from. Okay, so show me, what's the first step? When you prepare sea urchin, treat it gently. Okay, for your hands as much as the sea urchin? Exactly, for your own safety and the urchins. And you want to turn it upside down, so it usually sits on the reef just like this, but you want to turn it upside down with the mouth facing up. Smile with the teeth, take your scissors, and actually there's a hole right here, you just puncture that hole. Cut a circle around the mouth, the teeth, essentially. You're going to have some seawater come out, and that's okay. A little messy, hence the bowl underneath. And I notice you're doing this with your bare hands. I've done it once or twice. Okay, how do you fish these? I dive for them. It's kind of like raking these off the bottom of the ocean. We have a rake and a bag, and we pick them one by one. Basically, you've got a hole, and then you have a bunch of guts. That's just algae that's floating around there, but you can eat that. But we're going to take it out? We're going to take it out because it looks prettier that way. My weapon of choice is, it gives you some tweezers to take the membranes out. You definitely want to make sure that you get all the spines out. That's the number one rule. Yes, that's really important. Your sea urchin is going to be a bit crunchy. Beautiful. I'm going to do this to prove that anybody can prepare a sea urchin, but I'm going to protect my hand. I understand that these are in the same family as starfish? Correct. Starfish, sand dollars, they're radio symmetry, so they've got five bits of everything. Five teeth, five stomachs, five muscles, and five unis. And what are the unis, actually? What is the part we're eating? The part that you're actually eating are the gonads. The gonads. All right. Of the sea urchin. Okay. Could we call those eggs, maybe, to make it sound a little better? Yeah, we could call them eggs. Hence our dish today, eggs on eggs. I think I have cut the top out. You're doing a great job. Okay, we're satisfactory on that. So now, what I'm going to do is just pour out all of this material. And these guys are vegetarians, right? They just eat algae? Correct. They eat everything, but predominantly their food preference is the giant kelp, as any kind of sea plant. Well, how have I done here? I think you're an expert, and it's a boy. It's a boy, and you can tell that from the white stuff? Yes. We're going to do three without any egg, so we can really appreciate the direct flavor of the uni. And then three, we're going to do with your egg and egg preparation, right? We'll crack an egg right in here. Beautiful. Want to do one for me? Sure. Pinch of salt helps bring out the... I recommend it. Okay. Actually, a pinch of salt makes it a bit sweeter. Those are the uni. I still have all 10 fingers, so this is a good sign. Let's go to the grill, and I'll show you how to set up the grill. Traditionally, sea urchin is eaten raw, right out of the shell. But since this is Project Smoke, we're going to try it smoked. I've set up the grill for direct grilling, bank the coals a little bit more toward the rear. That's where we're going to cook the egg on egg, because it takes a little longer. Sparser coals up front for the plain sea urchins. And a handful of soaked mesquite chips on the coals to generate wood smoke. We'll place this here. Place the sea urchin on the grill. Despite the fierce barred character of these, they're actually not too bad to pick up. You say they tickle, right? Tickle. We'll cover the grill, and then I want to just open the vents, so you get a nice smoke flow. Cooking time, I'm thinking, what, 10, 12 minutes, something like that? I thought. Stephen, I got a treat for you. Stephanie, this looks amazing. So I'm going to dive right in here. Wow, this is fantastic. That kind of briny flavor of the uni and then the creaminess of the egg. This is pure genius. You know, I want to try one without the egg. Obviously, much firmer now. Wow, I really like that. When I eat sea urchin morum, I like to eat something with a texture. So try some bread. Yeah, great idea. Nice crunch, great. I like uni. I sort of love uni, but I absolutely adore cooked uni. I think that the cooking process helps mellow the flavor, get rid of a little bit of that funkiness. This is excellent. Don't call my urchin funky. For many years, veal had a bad reputation on account of the way the calves were penned up and raised. Well, good news, folks. There's a new generation of rancher that is raising calves outdoors, in fields, with their buddies. You can eat that veal with a good conscience. Arrange the veal chops on a rimmed baking sheet. Generously season each side with salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary. Grate the lemon zest over the veal chops on both sides. Drizzle 1 1⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil over the chops on both sides. Let the chops marinate while you light the grill. Place the other 1⁄4 cup of olive oil in a bowl. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon and mix with a fork. Set up your grill for direct grilling and heat to high. Brush and oil the grill grate. Arrange the chops on the grill grate. Grill until the chops are sizzling and browned on the bottom. After three minutes of grilling, brush the veal chops with the olive oil lemon juice mixture, using a tied rosemary sprig as a basting brush. Turn the chops after three to four minutes and grill the other side the same way. Baste often. Continue grilling the veal until both sides are sizzling and browned and the internal temperature is around 150 degrees. Lay a branch of fresh rosemary on each chop. At the table, in front of your awestruck guests, light a blowtorch. Direct the flame toward the rosemary branches atop the veal. Burn until the leaves singe, releasing fragrant rosemary smoke. Simply amazing. Our extreme grilling continues with two shellfish from the west coast. King crab from Alaska and fresh spiny lobster from right here in Santa Barbara. And they both get basted with a butter sauce made with a spirit that was outlawed for 100 years. First, that butter baste. Start by melting a stick and a half of butter. Next, add finely chopped garlic. Chop fresh herbs, and I have chives, tarragon, flat leaf parsley, and thyme. Then a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. And cook this mixture until the garlic begins to brown. Next, add absinthe. Now absinthe, you may remember, was the spirit so prized by the French impressionists. One of the ingredients was wormwood, and wormwood was believed to have made you crazy. Absinthe was outlawed for a century. However, recently it was discovered that wormwood did not make you crazy. Absinthe is back on the market now, and I love its anisey flavor. It goes great with grilled shellfish. Next, for the king crab. What I did is simply cut this top shell, and I cut out a little trapdoor so that I can brush the absinthe butter into the crab. These are local spiny lobsters. I had my fishmonger cut them in half. The bright orange you see here is the roe. To grill the shellfish, I have loaded a charcoal burning grill with a hot bed of embers. For the lobsters, I'm going to grill them caveman style. That is directly on the embers. What I love about this method is it's so elemental. The shells will char, you'll get this amazing smoky flavor. The visuals are off the chart dramatic. Now, for the king crab. And I'll cook the king crab right on the grill grate. Remember, king crab comes to you cooked already, so you really just want to warm it. And orient the wider part of the crab, the body, toward the center of the grill, which is hotter. As the shellfish grills, baste it with absinthe butter. Once the lobster meat is pearl white and firm to the touch, transfer it to a metal sheet pan. So here's your lobster. And now take off the crab. Then baste the crab and the lobster one more time with the absinthe butter. That anisey aroma is otherworldly. Let's see how we did. Lobster, king crab, and a squeeze of grilled lemon. Wow, what's really interesting about this is the charred shell gives the lobster such a smoky flavor. Crab, so moist, so tender, so briny with that sweet anise flavor. Up next, the biggest beef ribs you've ever seen. Spit roasted over a wood fire. Our final segment features the biggest beef rib around. Cooked on an equally oversized grill, make that wood-burning rotisserie. Count on big flavors from the beef and the wood smoke. This is a really interesting preparation. Usually, beef ribs are smoked low and slow in the smoker. For this preparation, we will spit roast them in the style of Brazil on a wood-burning rotisserie. I keep the seasoning simple. This is really about the marriage of the beef and the wood smoke. First, the ribs. These are beef plate ribs. Three bones, each rack tipping the scales at five to six pounds. The first thing you want to do is raise the rack and make a starter hole for the rotisserie spit. Then the other side. Just glide your knife along the top of the rib bones. Do the same on the other side. Just feel for those bones and then you come in on top. And on top. Next, season the ribs on both sides with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then turn the beef ribs over. Season the other side the same way. Now, thread the beef ribs onto the rotisserie spit using those starter holes you made earlier. Find the starter hole. Go through the top of the rib. And if you have to, get a little leverage. Come out the other side. There we go. And we'll find that second starter hole. And again, we can get a little leverage. There we go. And push. Now, separate the ribs so the edges will cook as well. Next, attach the rotisserie prongs to the spit. Slide them on, pinioning the ribs between the prongs. Tighten the screw. And you can use a fork to securely attach the prong. Do the same thing on the other. Next, cut yourself about 20 inches of butcher string. And I'll cut two lengths. One, two. Tie the butcher string. Loop it around that screw and tie it tightly. Then loop it over the ribs, under the rotisserie, and back on the other side. And tie it off at this end. The idea here is you want to secure the rib, keep it from opening up, keep it from sliding around on the spit. Then you want to do the same thing on this side. And your ribs are firmly attached to the rotisserie spit, ready for spit roasting. Now, let me show you the grill. This is a South American-style wood-burning grill and rotisserie. It has a firebox for the wood and a grill grate and rotisserie unit that raise and lower with the spin of a flywheel. Earlier today, I lit local red oak logs using the gas igniters. Now that the logs are lit, I'll turn off the burners and put on a grill glove and arrange the logs so I have two burning logs in the back of the firebox and two burning logs in the front. You never want to spit roast directly over a fire. So now I'll put the ribs in, place the pointed end of the rotisserie spit in one hole, the other end, fix it in the socket. And once the spit is installed, switch on the rotisserie motor. While the beef ribs cook, I want to show you a traditional Chilean meat sauce. Pavarotti belongs to a broad family of Latin American meat sauces that includes Mexican salsa and Argentinian chimichurri. It starts with finely chopped garlic and a spicy chili similar to a habanero. Add a generous pinch of sea salt and mash these ingredients together with a pestle to make an aromatic paste. Now add red wine vinegar and whisk until the salt crystals dissolve. Once the salt crystals are dissolved, add diced fresh ripe tomato, diced green bell pepper, finely chopped sweet onion, and chopped fresh cilantro. Combine these ingredients and last whisk in extra virgin olive oil to make a thick luscious salsa-like sauce. And let's take a taste. Nice heat. Back to the ribs. Fast forward three hours and check out those ribs. They look spectacular. The way you tell they're done is by looking at the meat shrinkage on the bones. The meat here is pulled back about an inch to an inch and a half on each side. You can feel the beef is loose. Those babies are ready. Come around this way. Okay. So here are these monster beef ribs. What you want to do is loosen the lock screw, then cut the strings. So now I'll put on a glove, grab the spit and a carving fork, pull off this prong and then pull the spit. Now to carve these monster beef ribs, stand them up and just slide the knife between the bones. Look at that. Beautiful. And you can see we've got a smoke ring. That's thanks to the wood, even though we weren't using a smoker. Look how juicy it is. I'll cut a bite. Big. It's beefy. It's rich. It's meaty, smoky, but very different than a barbecued rib. It still has some chew to it, like a steak. Let's try another bite with a little bit of the pavadi. Some here. The vinegar and hot peppers really bring out the flavor of the beef. If you love beef, if you love ribs, this is the ultimate carnivorian experience. Grilled sea urchin egg on eggs, grilled veal chops with flaming rosemary, and caveman lobsters and Alaskan king crab with absinthe butter. I hope you've enjoyed our show on extreme smoke. Thanks for watching. See you next time. Our final segment, figures, features, features, can ease this guy down. Our final segment features the biggest beef rib around. And does anyone notice I'm using this pestle upside down in the wrong way? So the king crab, next add absinthe, absinthe.