Shark and shrimp

I know I've mentioned my favorite store, Grand Mart, before.  One of the things I like about them is their seafood department.  They have a large selection of fresh seafood and a huge selection of frozen seafood.  They even have fish with which I am unfamiliar time to time.  If you can find a good seafood source near you then your culinary life is good.

I'd made the trip to Grand Mart myself to pick up a couple of things and just had to cruise through the seafood department.  Seafood wasn't on my list but, hey, me being me I have to check the seafood and meat departments at each visit.  Luckily for me, they had shard steaks on sale so I managed to grab the last two.  See what happens when I shop alone?

Shark and Shrimp ready for the grill

Usually when I grill shark I season it with just salt and pepper to let the flavor of the shark be foremost.  This time, I was wanting to experiment a bit so I decided to marinate the shark in Gochujang prior to grilling.  I then decided to marinate some shrimp in Doenjang and grill them as well.  To recap, Gochujang is Korean fermented red pepper paste used in many recipes and in making kimchi.  Doenjang is fermented soybean paste, basically the Korean version of miso.  Both have wonderful flavors to compliment most anything you want to cook.  Both the shark and the shrimp marinated for an hour and a half before they headed to the grill.

Shark and Shrimp on the grill

The shark and shrimp went on the grill at the same time.  Since I was using the gas grill I turned the side with the shrimp down so both would be done at the same time.  The shark was cooked to an internal temperature of 145 making it a nice medium.  The shrimp were cooked to color as usual.  As you can see in the picture, the Gochujang got cooked onto the shark as the water evaporated leaving a nice color to the shark steaks.  As a note, the spicy heat of the Gochujang is mellowed during the grilling so don't worry about it being overly spicy.  If you want more heat, make a finishing sauce using some Gochujang.

Shark and Shrimp are done

To accompany the shark and shrimp, we had Parmesan roasted potatoes and sliced carrots sautéed in butter.  I think they'd been equally as good served with some rice and kimchi or rice and water kimchi.

A tasty slightly spicy supper

If you have a Korean or even a generic Asian market near enough, get some Gochujang or Doenjang to add to your pantry.  They both work well with pork as well as seafood and can add a depth of flavor to soups and stews.  They can also be combined with other ingredients to make some interesting sauces.  Give one or both of these a go in your cooking and you'll be hooked.

Uncle T