We Smoked King Crab Legs over Mesquite | BBQ: Smoke Out

It's fish night, seafood night, so we got a crawfish boil with crab, crawfish, shrimp. We're grilling some fish with brown butter and grilled lemon. We're gonna smoke some king crab legs and then just for a little starch we're doing some red beans and rice. Let's get cooking. And of course we got some hennas and we got good friends and family. And the one guy I don't like that much. Oh man, little baby lobsters. Being the OG cousin and being the older cousin, that's what you got little cousins for. Come on nephew, come handle my lightweight. Oh, what's going on man? What's going on guys? Y'all doing all right? Oh, we're doing great. Man, let's have some fun. We're gonna bathe, baptize these things right quick and bathe them real good. Get in there. All righty, no crawfish left alone. See how dirty that water is? Yeah. So how do these things work? It has different spouts going different ways. So it's going to just keep circulating that dirty water. We've already opened up the spout here that's going to drain out some of that dirty water. And some of, nope, no sir. Can't get free today. So we're going to need him. All right. So we'll. It's not like Thanksgiving where the president pardons one crawfish. Oh no. We let him go. We might add one to the lake today. Maybe one. Already, it was already dark, but now it's starting to get a little bit red. So you can see. All right. Well, Kamara, you work on this. We'll go work on checking on those red beans. We're back with our unpredictable Texas weather. It's cold and rainy, but we got the antidote for that right now. We got our red beans and rice, man. Red beans and rice is Louisiana generational wealth. Cause it's just a gift that keeps on giving. And we finna get out of the way. We get down with it. Now, Kev, we got smoked ham hocks on the table. Is that something they do down there? Or is that little Kevin blood search? No, they do it down there too. I love that it melts down into it. And it helps make your roux or your broth that you're going to need to make. So we're going to start this. We're going to sauté some vegetables right quick. Let's do it. A little garlic. Put some more little butter in here. Some celery, some bell peppers. As long as we got red beans and some cognac, we good. So this is going to go so well with our crawfish boil we're doing today. Some Serrano peppers. And then we got some andouille sausage. You see them ham hocks. Thank you, sir. See how meaty those are. Are my nails clean? I don't get my nails all dirty on camera. My daughter going to talk S-H-I-T. Oh, she can't spell yet? So I had a little chicken base. Throw them sausage in there too. I'm a little out of order. I supposed to throw the sausage in there first, but we was cutting. So that's the best thing about a real show. That's how we do. We still going to make it happen. Always. We mess up just like y'all mess up at home. Some of y'all food so bad, you got to pray after you eat. I don't ever say nothing. That's my last. Can I go out this way? I can let myself out. So we get these sauteed up. They looking like they're about ready. Get the water going. Fill it up. Just submerge the ham hocks. This is the base of your red beans. You know, your stock has to cook and it has to get flavored by the ham hocks and all the rest of those good things in there. So then by the time you cook your beans for those last couple hours, your ham hock is going to break down into your beans. That's what I want. I don't want no hard ass ham hock with my red beans. I want to be able to eat the ham hock with the beans. So let this go for about an hour or so. We'll come back, put the red beans in there, and then we'll be having some red beans on this rainy day, baby. Let's eat something. It's seafood day. So maybe I'll cook a little fish up for us. Let's do it, man. You got some fried cabbage, some eggs, some salmon croquette, some biscuits and gravy. What we got? I think we do a little bit of French style, a little brown butter with some rainbow trout and some grilled Meyer lemon. Oh, OK. Well, I'm going to eat some cereal. All right. We got the fires on. We're ready to cook. I'm making grilled rainbow trout, but I'm going to finish it off with some grilled lemon and some brown butter. So it's kind of like a simple backyard cooking, but inspired by like a famous dish they make in France called sole Mounier. It's all like in a pan and it costs a million dollars. When you're grilling seafood, especially delicate stuff like this, that a little layer of mayonnaise basically makes it nonstick on the grill. But it also, it's not going to taste like mayonnaise, but it lets the spices adhere to it. Helps it get color on the grill. Just kind of a good little trick in general. I'm going to show you a fun little trick. Somebody taught me once to where you just take a little bit of vegetable oil right here on your onion there and then use that to oil your grill. And it kind of cleans it a little bit, too, which is cool. Now we got our grill nice and oiled up. I'm also going to take this lemon. I'm going to grill these two. I cut these ends off. So when you're done, you can put it on the plate. It'll stand up and look nice just like that. And then again, using this oil just to get a little bit of that going on. These was kind of put off to the corner over here to start grilling. So what I do on this, Kev, is it's just a really thin little veil of mayo. I'm just going to brush it on like this. You get both sides? Yeah. So I'm going to put it on the grill and then I'll do the other side once it's on the grill. Kind of like you're doing hamburgers or something. And then I can hit this with some salt and pepper. Pepper me, Kev. I got one of the best chefs in the world and he's just... I'm a sous chef. All right. So now we're just going to take this. And then while that's going, we get our brush back. We get this other side. And when you've got a grill set up for stuff, it's always good to have a little cold section built up so that no matter what happens, you can sometimes get the flare up. You can move it over. We're just cooking fish, so it's not that crazy. Now you want to season that other side as well. Salt and pepper, baby. Simple. And now we're just kind of hanging out for a second. Keep an eye on these fish. They're going to cook pretty quick. Don't go to commercial break. Maybe two minutes a side on this. It's going to be so right. And it's going to get a little bit of extra cook on it once you pour that hot brown butter over the top too. No, explain how trout is such an underrated fish that don't get as props as it should. Oh my gosh. Trout is delicious. It's a freshwater fish. It's flaky. It's so good on the smoker too. And one little flip. Good job. No, you saved it. Look at that. That guy's ready to come right off. All right. So now we're going to make a really, really simple brown butter. So got some butter. So the butter is going to be brown. Yes, sir. So what happens? I don't believe it. So what happens is as this starts to melt, all these milk solids start to separate out and they start to brown in the pan and get this nutty kind of caramelly flavor to them. I've got this parsley right here and some capers. Kind of equal parts, parsley and capers. And just kind of stir this together. Do you like capers, Kev? ------- solid. And then we're going to lay these all across the top like this. And then we're going to make this brown butter. We're going to pour it right over the top. So you could brown the butter first and set it aside and then grill the fish. But to me, I'd rather be more careful because the fish is going to get warmed up by the brown butter. And if you let the brown butter sit in the pan, it could burn. And you want it to be hot when it goes over that fish. So as soon as that butter is brown and delicious, we want to just pour it right onto this fish. Warm it up. Add that nuttiness. See all that kind of foam you're getting? That's how you know you're getting the work done. And you're scraping the bottom because all those solids can drop down to the bottom. And when those drop to the bottom, they'll burn. And so you want to keep stirring that. Don't rush your brown butter. If you're in a hurry on it, you'll end up burning it. So I'm scraping up all that delicious brown juice at the bottom. So we're getting that browning. Yeah, smell that, Kev. Smells amazing. Smell like I'm ready to eat. That's right. So with that hot butter, you can almost just do a par cook on the trout too, right? Exactly. You're getting that little bit of crispiness on there. All right, Kev. Let's get down. So we got a fancy French breakfast out on the lake, Kev. That's all right, right? I can work with that. Breakfast of champions right here. Throw that on a biscuit too, if you want to. I mean, again, I mean. We got good, baby. And it's what was it? Five ingredients? But if it was just melted butter, it wouldn't be quite as good. Let me check my broth. I think it's ready. Let me call Noah in from the bean field. Noah! Yes, sir. Noah! I got some fresh ones for you. Oh, cool. Let me check these ham hocks first though. Bean fields. You see these ham hocks coming up? Oh, that's what you want. Wait, can I make sure the meat tastes good, Kev? Yeah, you sure can. Go ahead. Nothing like ham hock meat. Pour these up in here. That's three pounds of red kidney beans. Stir that. I'll bring that to a boil. You see how thick it is already? Oh, man. And that gravy ain't even sitting there yet. And then the beans start to release their starch. It's going to be delicious. A guy named Steve Sandoe, who's got a company called Rancho Gordo. They're the most famous kind of bean growers in America. And he's got these amazing heirloom beans. It grows up in Napa, California. He said he's been spending years trying to perfect his red beans and rice recipe. And he's been working on it forever. And then he cooked the one from our cookbook. And he said his best one he ever had. He's done. He's done now. So get ready. Let's do it. Have you ever had my crab legs before? We put them in a cookbook together, Kev. There's no crab, though. I was at King Crab. King Crab Legs. Page 236. You ever read the book? I never read it. Okay, pretty good. It won a James Beard Award. Did it for real? Yeah. God, I need to get out more. Mesquite smoked King Crab Leg. Easy, easy, easy, quick recipe. Long as my pit's going good, this is one you can do at home real quick. Quick appetizer, like when you're just chilling, cooking on a long smoke. And these are already cooked crab legs. You don't have to tell them that. Okay. These are raw crab legs. These are raw, cooked, already cooked crab legs. Just hit them with a little seasoning. Bring them over here to me, Noah. Put them on a smoker. And it's a quick smoke because it's mesquite. Oh, damn, somebody cheating. Because it's mesquite. And like I said, you don't want too much smoke on these crab legs because they're so sweet. You don't want to dry them out and overcook them either. Because these are an easy smoke because you're buying a luxury item. So you don't want to waste it. No, not at $75 a pound. Had to give up my first morning for these. All right. So while that's going, I'll start getting that brown butter going. But I'm going to try to do a garlic brown butter for it, right? Yeah, it's the same recipe, but we're just going to have you do what you do. We're going to hit it with a little Cajun seasoning. All right. This butter is starting to melt over here. I'm going to save a little bit just in case it gets too brown. This will cool it down. Have a couple I can throw in to melt at the end. I'm going to get some seasoning in there and put some old bacon in there. Look at that. A little cayenne pepper. A little garlic powder. Throw some fresh in there too, right? Yes, sir. A little paprika because I like that redness on it. Now, if you're making a seasoned brown butter, which I've never done before. So I'm making it up as I go along. Got to be really careful because you can't go off color. You got to go off smell to make sure you're not burning this thing. Smells good though, Kev. But I want to see it brown a little bit more than this, right? Get some of those milk solids to get all nutty and delicious. It's a tester. So like I said, it's a very quick process, y'all. No time. We got these, just got a hint of smoke on them. And now we're going to hit them on the grill. Let them go on that for a little bit. Hold this for you, Kev. Yeah, you got to keep kicking my ass. I don't know why this smoke whipping my ass today, but it is. There you go. A little mopping sauce. Yes, sir. Incredible, incredible. Nice quick appetizer, whole meal, however you want to do it. It could be the entree, whatever you want to do. I'm going to eat some of this, man. Excuse me. Yes, sir. Make you want to slap somebody's mama. Not with this, it's too expensive. That butter, that mesquite. In those couple minutes, those few minutes, that smoke really does come through. It's wild. Did you get that? We got it all over the crab. Oh, man. You outdid yourself as always. This is incredible. Yeah, it's unreal, Kev. All right, Kev, so how are these red beans looking? Let's see, baby. I think they're done, man. Let's get them going, man. You know, get this stuff. Wait a minute. Damn, Kev, this the kind of ---- you got going on in your house? Yeah, you got some rainbow catfish. That's how we do. Walk on through, man. He just walked through the middle of a shoot with catfish. So we having catfish and eggs in the morning? We can. Okay. We can have a lot of catfish and eggs in the morning if you guys want. Don't take long. So they're done, but there's one more step I got to do. What I do is mash these. Now, if we had time, we would kick out the sausage in there. But you see, only the beans is getting mashed. I mean, we'll get some of that sausage fat emulsified in there, too, probably. Yes, sir. Nothing bad happening. I need a little bit more. Hold on, we got to get that out of here. Get that out of there. So your beans have to be tender. It's not a thing sometimes they do on TV. They pull the ham hock out and pull the meat. We ain't doing all that. We're doing just like you're doing at home. You know you ain't doing that at home. That's going to start eating up all that water. It's time to eat, man. Rice down first? Yes, sir. Good job. I had a good teacher, Kev. That was my mom. That's right. That's why all your food is bland. You got to have a little gravy on there. Of course. This is my happy place right here. Yes, sir. Drop the mic and the spoon. The sound's not quite as satisfying if you want to be on a plastic spoon. But dang, Kev, these are the best red beans and rice in the world. I dare you to find better ones. And if they better, I eat them. All right, Kev. Let's get ready for that crawfish boil. Let's do it, baby. Okay, so we're doing an old-fashioned crawfish boil with a few little tricks, man. So let's start dumping, man. Let me see that chicken base, Noah. There we go. We got chicken bouillon powder. Open me up some of them butters. How many butters you want in there, Kev? Oh, let me at least have four of them to start. So we got the butter in there. You know, of course you got to have butter in a crawfish boil. Salted and unsalted because it gives it that creaminess that you want. Give me that liquid bayou. There you go. Dump that in there. Whole thing? Oh, give me about half of it for right now. Y'all smell that? Let's get these lemons in here. Want these garlic cloves in there and the onions? Want all those garlic cloves in there. And all that onion. The rest of these lemons. All this garlic, too. Heck yeah. It's a big old party. I mean, look at that. Garlic in here. Throw a couple of these in here. One more. I got my big paddle brush somewhere. Start with this guy. Yeah, that's good. We'll get your ore later. So the first thing I want to get in there first is my potatoes. Watch, it's going to splash. So you see, we dropped all those cool ingredients in there. So it brought it down a little bit. But it's going to come back to a boil real quick. But the smells already, Kev, are incredible. Oh, yeah. So we got to bring this to a boil for about 10 minutes so the red potatoes will get done. And then we'll come back. The sauces and the corn ain't going to take no time. We'll get that done in about five minutes. Bring that to a boil and then bring the crawfish. Dump that out. We'll be ready to eat, baby. You forgot something, Kev. What? At this point, you're supposed to have a few drinks. Have a couple of drinks. All right. Well, Kev's about 19 Hennesseys deep. So I brought in Kev's stunt double to help me get this corn in here. What's going on, man? He's dumping me in, man. You ready? So, Kamar, you can finally tell me the truth. What do you think about Kev? Man, that guy? Cool, though. He's amazing. Cool guy. Damn, I was trying to get some dirt on Kev. I'm sorry. I tried, but it wouldn't come out. I guess I like him, too. He's all right. Well, look at that Noah guy he's doing that show with. Listen, man. Now, that guy. All right. Well, the corn's in. We're waiting for the potatoes to finish up cooking. And then we're going to throw in our sausage and get our seafood rolling. Yes, sir. Best piece on taste test. All right. So Andouille's going in now. What do you think? About five minutes on this? Five minutes and we'll be ready to roll, man. We're almost up to the seafood part. All these seasonings taste great, but there's no pork fat in here yet. Right. And now we're going to get that pork fat going. Yes, sir. Everything's starting to come up to the top. The potatoes is almost perfect now, so. Heck, yeah. Well, Kev, we got the sausage in there. We got the corn. We got the potatoes. I think potatoes are tender now. And we got all that flavor in there. Look at that. It smells so good. Yeah. We ready to dump this and put the story of the show in there. That's right. His nephew close by. Yeah, he over there, man. What's your name again? Johnny. Nice to meet you, Johnny. Good luck tomorrow in the election in Corsicana. Yes, sir. You ain't got to be pushing me, man. Let's make this happen, man. Let's make it happen. Grab with the other hand and. If we get on the ground, we're still going to eat the two minute rule is in full effect. Oh, yeah. Yes, sir. The crawfish over there is on death row. Man, we just had a conversation with these guys. Did you? Well, that's it for them. Uh oh. So, Kev, how long are we cooking these crawfish for? They don't need more than 10 minutes. Let's get that crab and that shrimp too. If you want, you actually can throw the crab in here and put some pollo on top of here. Some bayou, some more butter in there. We're close. Now it's time to unveil what we're doing. Let's do it. I know it looks crazy at the beginning, but check this ---- out. It's going to look crazier now. And we got a hell of a crawfish boil tonight. Everybody, let's eat. Let's eat. Yes, sir. Come on, D. Oh, that's good. That corn good, man. Corn's great. Good job, baby. Kev, you want to do a little explainer on how to eat crawfish? Just do it. So, crawfish, you peel the tail, suck the juice, and then get the tail out of there. Should we get some merch made, Kev? A t-shirt that says you got to slurp that body? Yes, sir. Let's do it. You got to do crawfish the right way.