- One of the best parts about living in Alabama is that we've got direct access to Gulf Coast seafood.

Today, we're going straight to the source to learn how some of our seafood is caught, then how to properly cook it up and enjoy it in a myriad of ways.

(classy music) (bubbles popping) (horns tooting) (whimsical music) (whimsical music continues) I'm on Shell Belt Road, down on the dock surrounded by shrimp boats where all the magic happens, loaded with all that seafood gold.

Not a whole lot of shrimp boats up in the mountains, so, I'm interested to see what it's all about in my first time shrimpin'.

(whimsical music continues) I'm here on the Emily Ariel in Bayou La Batre with Captain Woody and Captain Jacob.

I've been learning a little bit about shrimping and how to say Bayou La Batre.

(Woody laughs) It's hard to say in Appalachian.

- There you go.

- So how long have you been shrimping?

- Since I was about 13, 14 years old.

- So a couple years to know the ins and outs.

- Oh yeah.

- And what about you?

- About the same, since I was about 13, 14.

- How much shrimp do you catch when you go out for this 30 day period?

'Cause you go, I didn't even realize y'all go out for 30 days.

That's a long time.

- Last year after that snow, right here off the south of the fairway, I had 178 boxes that night.

- 178 in one night.

Tell me about the freezing process on the boat too.

So you get all the shrimp.

I mean, you can't just let it sit around.

- We dropped anchor at 8:00 that morning.

It took us to five to get 'em off the deck into sacks and it took us the next day to that next night to run 'em through the tank.

- It's quite a process.

- You darn tootin' it is.

- So tell me about how local seafood, how it impacts a local community.

- Everybody in the, around here has pretty much gotta tie to something.

You got a net man, you got people that build your doors, people that you got to go get cables, supplies from the supply store.

- So there's like 10 different steps for a shrimp to get someone's plate.

- Yeah.

- What are the steps?

- We catch 'em and then we sell 'em to a wholesale.

Pretty much everybody else, they sell to a wholesaler like a big dock.

Goes through a few different hands before it comes to a plate and they selling five, 10 shrimp for 20, $30 a plate.

- I think people who go and sit down and they're like, "Man, this is the most expensive shrimp."

- Yeah.

- They think y'all are making all the money.

- No.

- There's quite a process that goes into it.

What brings you back to the boat every time?

What's your favorite part about being a shrimper?

- I just love it.

Like I say, when you pull that try net and you got a heck of a try, you know, that's it.

- Yeah, there ain't no feeling like that.

- I feel like I'm doing the same thing at home except with dirt instead of water.

- Yeah.

- Well, it is, that's farming of the sea.

- It is.

Yeah, just a little bit different.

What's y'all's favorite way to eat shrimp?

- Fried.

I like 'em fried.

- I like 'em fried.

- That's mine too.

- Yeah.

- You can't go wrong with it.

- No.

- My wife does good shrimp and grits, that's good.

- Yeah, shrimp and grits.

- What's her secret?

We're making shrimp and grits on this episode, so what's her secret?

I'm gonna need to get her number, so I can get that recipe.

- I'll give you her number.

- I'm gonna be calling her.

What's the wrong way to cook a shrimp?

Like, for your home cook, what's the worst thing you can do?

- If you get pond raised.

- Yeah.

- You can't go wrong if you get wild caught, cook 'em... - There you go.

- However you wanna cook 'em.

- You can eat 'em raw.

It don't matter - Yeah.

- Eat it anyway.

All right, show me around.

Show me the ropes for real, 'cause I've never been on a shrimp boat.

- These are the whip lines.

This is what we was talking about earlier.

- [Trace] And so it's attached up there.

- [Jacob] This is just the bags.

We can let 'em down so y'all can look at it.

- See, he's got that chain holdin' 'em so they can get them off the cap bit.

- [Jacob] Yeah.

See, it's holding all the weight.

- [Trace] Gotcha.

Let me take a look at this.

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

- You gonna do it?

- [Trace] We'll at least try for camera.

- [Jacob] Yeah, yeah.

Show 'em how to- - You know, I did, I did have a protein bar, so.

- [Jacob] Show him how to do the winch.

(pulley clanging) - So like that?

- Yeah, don't do too much.

- [Jacob] Here, let it off just a little bit.

- Okay.

- And then if you just slack it down, don't let it come off though.

Make sure they ain't under it.

- Uh-oh.

Is this all hinging on me right now?

- You can ease her down.

- Just ease it down.

- Just ease, like- - Just start, yep, slacking it down like- - Ho, ho.

No, no.

- Got her.

I almost got real into it there.

- Yeah.

- You can let it all the way down, just- - Just ease it down.

- [Jacob] You can pretty much just let her go.

Yeah, it's good.

It's down.

- All right.

- Take it all the way off.

Do you want to look at the hull?

- [Trace] Yeah, let's see inside there.

It's like a whole nother boat under there.

You know, it smells better than I would think, you know, than it actually- - Yeah, we clean it out.

- And this is all your cooling apparatuses up here, right?

- Yeah.

They all hook to a compressor.

It's up there in the engine room and it runs Freon through 'em.

- So tell me, when you come in with all your shrimp, how do you get the shrimp out of here and up there where it needs to go?

- We do the boxes them boxes right there.

We fill those up.

We set 'em on this right here.

This little platform, it lays out right here.

- Uh-huh.

- And we stack the shrimp on it and it's got ropes that come over to the side and you hook it.

But like normally, we also have sack shrimp too.

We do sack shrimp and you just lower our hook down and just hook this sacks and lifts it up.

- [Trace] Cool.

I gotta see this kitchen on the boat.

This is a good kitchen.

- Yeah.

It gets a job done.

- [Trace] If you're on the boat, what's one thing you have to have on the boat?

- I like steaks.

- Land food still translates out there.

- Oh yeah.

- [Trace] So what's on up through here?

Is this- - Yeah, this is wheel house- - Is this where everything happens?

- Up here.

- All right.

Show me this nerve center here.

- This right here is all our gauges for the main engine.

This right here turns for the anchor winch.

Got an autopilot right here.

- So even boats have autopilot.

- Oh yeah.

- This thing got a horn?

(boat horn tooting) Well, Captain Woody, thanks so much for the tour.

- Enjoyed it.

- Captain Jacob.

Not a whole lot of shrimp boats in North Alabama, so thanks for showing me the literal ropes on how this all works.

- Oh, yeah.

- You're welcome.

- Anytime.

- I'ma go get some shrimp.

- There you go.

- Take it easy.

(gentle music) - Well, that was quite the introduction to life on a shrimp boat.

After saying my goodbyes to Captain Woody and Captain Jacob, we headed over to Zirlotts Seafood to see what happens with the shrimp once it's taken off the boat.

(upbeat music) They showed me how they process it, pack it, and get it ready to sell directly to distributors and consumers.

They also specialize in a variety of other seafoods like fish, crab, and oysters, just to name a few.

(upbeat music continues) We picked up a few pounds of shrimp to take home and use for a special batch of shrimp and grits that we'll make later.

And we also picked up some fresh fish to take across the bay and cook with our friends at DeSoto's Seafood Kitchen in Gulf Shores.

(upbeat music continues) What's the best way to get across the bay?

By ferry, of course.

I've made it off the ferry and the boots are in the sand.

(vibrant horn music) I'm gonna play around on the beach a little bit, catch a couple crabs or two.

(birds squawking) And then we're gonna learn how to make the fish we got at the market two different ways that you can recreate at home.

I'm here at DeSoto's Seafood Kitchen with Chef Reed, who's graciously gonna cook this delicious flounder for us.

And so I'm thinking we should do a fried and blackened version.

I'm off the hook cooking today, so I'm learning from you.

So let's unbag this fish.

- Okay.

- See what we got.

- Well, thanks for bringing in your fish.

Yeah, for 25 years now, we've done a hook and cook, and that's where if you're able to take a fishing trip down here in Gulf Shores Orange Beach, you can bring us your fish and you can clean it at home or we can clean it here for you.

We can cook it grilled, fried.

My favorite way is blackened.

- Mine too.

Let's dive right into this flounder.

- [Reed] Let's dive in.

So we'll take it and we'll just score it.

I would just go about halfway through the filet.

- Okay.

That's beautiful.

- So now that we've scored the fish, you'll see it all the way through.

- It's almost back to life again.

Ready to swim off.

- [Reed] It's always good to put a little salt in there.

- Oh, yeah.

- No one wants bland fish.

- And pack really down into where you score it.

- Oh yeah.

- So it's also flavor bombed too in there.

- [Reed] We'll rub it in there and then we'll move on to our fryer.

- And we've got some filets in there too.

And these are beautiful filets and I think this is a great size for a filet too.

- Oh yes.

Dust your fish with the seasoning.

- I'm gonna sprinkle this one with just a little bit of this.

- Oh yeah, you can do that side, I'll do this side.

- [Trace] And you're really coating it too, so you want- - Oh, don't be afraid.

- You want as much as you can get on there.

- Uh-huh.

- All right, meet us over at the fryer and let's see the magic happen.

I'm ready to see these swim in some grease before they get in my belly.

- Okay, let's go.

I need a fryer.

(vibrant horn music) (vibrant horn music continues) - All right, we're over here in the frying station and you've got a couple things set up for us.

- [Reed] Buttermilk works really nice with fish because it can kind of help take away some of that fishy flavor that people don't want.

- [Trace] That's a pretty sight right there.

- Oh, yeah.

- Just seeing that fish go directly in.

- [Reed] 'Cause you know, remember, we scored the meats.

- Right.

- So it's good to make sure that the buttermilk is getting inside of those scores.

- And it really is.

It's almost pooling down in those.

- Oh, yeah.

And then we'll move over to our fish fry.

And so we'll lay this in our fry.

You just cover the top, cover the top.

- We're almost- - And press it down.

- And you're not a double dunker here with fish either, so you're not gonna go back into the buttermilk - So with something like chicken, we double dunk.

- Gotcha.

- [Reed] But I really like my fish with just a very light breading.

- [Trace] I do too.

Oh, that's beautiful right there.

- [Reed] And again, remember we scored- - Right.

- [Reed] The inside of the fish.

So I just go in and take some of that fry and pack it in the little tiny scores.

- It's the little tiny details that take it to the next level, right?

- Exactly.

- Ready to go in the oil?

- [Reed] Yep.

Gently into the oil.

- [Trace] You don't want to just plop it in.

- And then away from you.

- Right.

- [Reed] So the grease we're movin' around doesn't splash back.

You don't want to get burns.

- [Trace] Look at that, how beautiful it is frying in there too.

- Oh, yeah.

- And you know, I think a lot of times home cooks overcook fish.

So how long would you keep that in the grease?

- So if you're deep frying, I'd probably do about eight minutes.

- [Trace] Eight minutes.

So super quick.

- Yeah, super quick.

- So now we just wait.

- [Reed] Now we wait.

- That's the hardest part.

- Uh-huh.

(clock ticking) - Oh, look at that.

- Oh yeah, it's looking good.

Okay, so it's been about six or seven minutes, so we're gonna go ahead and take this out of the grease.

- Look at that.

- Oh, it's beautiful!

- All right, our fried fish is up and now we're moving on to blackened.

And this is one I really wanna learn a little bit about.

- [Reed] You'll just put some like, drawn butter right here and you'll take your fish.

- And is there a certain side that you should start on?

So if your fish has skin, would you want to put that down first or?

- [Reed] You'd want to lay it skin side down and then cook the fish the longest time on that side.

- Okay, good.

- So I probably wouldn't do more than one or two minutes per side.

- [Trace] Okay.

So like lay it and turn it.

- Yep, and that's why it's good for this to be really hot as well.

Now we're just gonna put a little bit more of our drawn butter on the top of the fish.

That helps this side.

- Do you want me to do the other tail?

- Yeah, you want to try?

- I feel like I'm making you do all the work now.

- [Reed] You want most of the cooking done on the side with the skin on it.

And then we have half of our fish here that doesn't have the skin so we can go ahead and flip that.

- That looks so good.

Perfect.

- [Reed] And then we'll just do a little bit more butter.

- [Trace] And that'll probably just add a little bit more crust to it too, so even better.

So what are we looking for here with the skin on?

- [Reed] So like I said, you want a nice golden brown, crispy around the edges.

- We ready to plate up?

- Yes.

- [Trace] Oh my gosh, my mouths watering looking at this.

- Uh-huh.

- Makin' it beautiful.

Alrighty.

We're almost done.

- Now to the plating process.

- And the plating's my favorite part, 'cause it's almost eatin' time.

- [Reed] And I'll just do a little bit more salt.

And then keep it really simple with fish.

I like to do just like a couple slices of lemon, you know, maybe, however many guests you have at your house.

We'll just finish with a little bit of chopped parsley.

- I love parsley.

- Beautiful.

Then we'll come to our plate of yellow rice.

We'll take our blackened flounder and on one side we'll do the skinless.

- [Trace] And is this little sauce here that's left, would you pour that over or are you- - [Reed] I'd probably pour it into the rice.

- Pour it into the rice.

- Oh yeah.

- And this is something you could use a dirty rice, probably arborio rice, quinoa, anything, right?

- Any kind of grain.

Yeah, we'll go ahead.

- Gettin' saucy.

- Uh-huh.

Again, we'll just go in with a few lemon slices.

- And you know, fish to be so complicated to home cooks is also just keep it simple at the end of the day.

- Oh, yeah.

All you need is maybe just a bit of drawn butter and a bit of lemon juice.

- Or just come on down to DeSoto's and let 'em cook it for you, right?

(Reed laughs) Well, thanks for showing me around your kingdom in here.

- Thanks so much.

- Straight from the gulf to the kitchen, to the table.

Let's go to the dining room.

- Let's go.

(fun horn music) - We sat down with the family that runs DeSoto's to try that freshly cooked fish and learn a little more about the culture down here.

There's a loyal following of locals and returning out of towners and we're going to hear about what keeps folks coming back.

I'm here at DeSoto's Seafood Kitchen and I'm sitting here with Rosemary and Mary Mack, family business here.

Thanks for having us.

- Thank you so much for joining us today.

- So how long has DeSoto's been a staple of the gulf?

- It was honestly here when I was a child.

I ate here with my parents growing up, not knowing I would marry a restaurateur one day and we would own our own restaurant.

- So tell me a little bit about the importance of local seafood and having that good quality seafood in your restaurant and how it sets it apart from others.

- Well, I think part of it is growing up here.

I was raised here.

I was raised on our local seafood when there were not very many restaurants in town as like there are now.

And so, that's always been something that's been very special to us.

And my husband grew up in the restaurant business with his grandfather at a locally family owned restaurant and so that's what set the core values of it meaning a lot to us.

- And I really do feel that.

So when I first got here, I just felt like I walked in, walked into my house, felt right at home.

- That's what we're looking for.

- So I gotta ask you, what's your favorite thing on the menu here and what's one thing you have to have at DeSoto's when you come?

- [Rosemary] I love our coconut shrimp.

I feel like we've perfected our recipe and we're very well known for it.

We've won a lot of awards.

- And you also have hook and cook too.

Tell us a little bit about the hook and cook.

- So I serve the hook and cook, especially around this time of year, spring break and summer.

It's if you go out on a charter fish or just even, I mean, I go out with my dad all the time in the summertime and stuff like that and you bring it in and your deck hands do a lot of the hard work for you, cleaning and descaling and all the stuff like that and then you bring it into us, you tell me which way you want it and I'll get it made for you the best way you can have it.

- We'll serve a family style if there's a whole family and y'all, you know, we'll cook it all for you.

If you want some blackened, some grilled, some fried or any of the other specialty ways we have and we'll serve the fish family style and everyone gets to choose their own side dishes.

- And I love family style too.

And you gotta have all the options.

Speaking of options, y'all wanna take a bite?

- Of course.

- Yeah.

- [Trace] We've been in there in the kitchen whippin' it up.

- I can't wait.

Blackened is my favorite.

- Mine too.

And that's also the least experience I have too with cooking fish is blackened.

- Well, hopefully Reed did a good job of showing you guys back there today.

- Mm.

Go big or go home, right?

(Rosemary laughs) I love the scoring too, because it's beautiful and all the flavor's right there.

- It helps it cook a little more evenly as well too.

- Delicious.

- Mm.

- Perfectly crispy, flaky, everything you want.

Thanks so much for having us today.

I also need to return something to you.

I think it's about time I give this back.

- Are you hanging your chef jacket up already?

- Save it for me.

Have it waitin' on me.

- All right.

- I'll be back.

- We'll be ready for you guys to be back anytime.

Thank y'all so much for coming.

- Thanks so much for having us.

(whimsical music) (tires screeching) That was so delicious, and now I'm inspired to do something with that fresh shrimp we picked up at Zirlott's.

We're back on the farm and I've got the quintessential Alabama shrimp and grits recipe to show you.

Let's head into the kitchen and get to peeling.

I'm back from the gulf with my fresh shrimp ready to make shrimp and grits.

To start, you're gonna need a pound of fresh shrimp with the heads and shells on.

So to remove the head of your shrimp, and I learned this from our shrimper friends in Bayou La Batre, simply just take your thumb and just boop, pop the head right off.

I'm then gonna take it and I'm just gonna peel the legs off first.

And as I peel them off, I'm kind of loosening the shell up around the shrimp and what you can do from there is just basically peel it off almost like a wrapper, down to the tail.

And I like an ample tail on mine just because they're shrimp.

They should be swimming around in that sauce.

Next comes the vein, and it doesn't get much easier than just a simple paring knife, and I'm gonna run it right through the back of the shrimp.

Now, I'm barely touching the skin of the shrimp because what I want to do is I don't want my knife to cut into that little tract there and once you see it, you can almost just remove it whole by picking it up with your knife and then just dropping it in your bowl and then there you have it, a poopless shrimp.

(bell dinging) We really want to hold on to that shell and the head because it's gonna be the perfect stock for our grits.

This is a great thing to take advantage of when you have seafood on hand because it really freezes well.

Well, I'm gonna go wash these shrimp and I'll meet you at the stove.

(upbeat jazzy music) Let's start with the foundation of our shrimp and grits, the actual grits.

I have brought four cups of seafood stock to a boil and you want it to be at that full boil where when you stir it, it doesn't stir down, so a rolling boil.

Take your grits, and we're doing four servings today.

So this is a cup of grits to four cups of stock.

So I'm gonna give our grits here a good stir and I'm also gonna put about a teaspoon of salt directly in there just to give us even more flavor.

I'm gonna bring this up to a boil just a little bit.

I'm gonna put my lid on, reduce the heat and I'm just gonna let these grits hang out for a good 30 to 35 minutes.

And now we just wait.

(clock ticking) Our grits have been bubbling away and the texture looks absolutely just what we want.

I'm gonna add in a couple tablespoons of butter and just give that a gentle whisk and then I'm also gonna add in some heavy cream.

I'm gonna get all of that cream and butter spread throughout our grits here and then I'm gonna in 3/4 a cup of white cheddar cheese.

So this is the exact grit we want under our shrimp.

(fun music) Let's get started on our shrimp.

I have two tablespoons of butter melting in our skillet.

And be sure and use a skillet for this for even cooking for our shrimp.

So this is completely optional, but I would suggest you do this.

Use a tablespoon of bacon drippings and melt it directly into that butter.

That's gonna give us that really good pork flavor that we want with our shrimp.

I'm gonna add in just a little bit of sausage that's been finely diced.

So the key when you are cooking shrimp and grits is you want all of your components in small, tiny pieces.

Now that our sausage is all browned up, I'm gonna use a slotted spoon and just transfer this to a bowl.

We wanna leave all of that good liquid in the bottom of our skillet.

And if you have a little bit hangout in there, just go ahead and leave 'em.

Now that our sausage flavor has imparted itself into the skillet, let's add a little rendition of the Holy Trinity.

We're gonna cook this over medium high heat, just until everything cooks down and is soft, around eight minutes.

So now that the kitchen's smelling really good, let's add some tomato paste.

So this is a tablespoon of tomato paste.

Just gonna go directly into our onions, peppers and celery.

Give that a little stir around, and then I'm gonna some chopped garlic, like three cloves, but you can always adjust the taste if you're a garlic person.

I'm gonna cook this just until the tomato paste turns dark in the pan and all of this is evenly coated.

So now's the part you don't want to do prematurely and that is, we are going to sprinkle a tablespoon of all purpose flour directly over our vegetable mixture here.

That's gonna give us that little bit of silky smooth thickness to our sauce.

I'm just gonna evenly coat all of our vegetables here, and I'm gonna add in 3/4 a cup of shrimp stock and then 1/4 a cup of crushed tomatoes.

I'm gonna bring that up to just a simmer.

Now that this is back up to a simmer, we're gonna add just a dash of hot sauce, like a teaspoon.

If you like stuff hotter, feel free.

A little bit of lemon juice for some brightness, and last but not least, just like any southern cook, a little bit of worchestershire sauce.

And now for the stars of our show, our shrimp.

I've taken a little bit of salt, a little bit of pepper, and you just wanna lightly season those and then we're gonna go directly into the sauce.

I'm gonna give them a good toss in our sauce here.

And this is the time that you don't wanna leave your stove because you don't want to overcook those shrimp.

It'll be like eating an eraser, just with some grits thrown in.

I've kind of scattered them around in my pan to where they're kind of in an even layer.

Now that our shrimp are perfectly cooked and swimming around in that gulf gravy, I'm gonna top it with just a little bit of fresh parsley.

Save a little bit for garnish too because you definitely want some.

And then green onion or chives.

Give that a little bit of a stir and I'll meet you back at the island to plate up our shrimp and grits.

(bubbles popping) Our shrimp and grits are finally ready and my belly couldn't be happier.

It's been growling over the stove this whole time.

So let's plate our grits up.

I like to pour just a little bit of the sausage into my grits.

I'm gonna give that a good stir.

Get an ample serving of those grits.

Now let's add our shrimp and then I'm just gonna top it with just a few more herbs and just a little bit of bacon.

And who am I kidding?

Let's put a little bit of sausage on there too.

So now that we're all plated up, I have a spoon in hand.

Let's have a little bite of the Gulf Coast and brilliant.

Mm, it's just like being right back in the sand.

I cannot wait for y'all to try this.

It's so good.

Well, I'd call that a successful beach trip.

We made some new friends and have some tasty recipes for our next catch.

The tan lines will fade, but the memories will last forever.

Thanks for joining us today.

We'll see you next time on "Garden Party."

(upbeat music) I'm Trace Barnett and welcome to "Garden Party."

Today, I'm in the seafood capital of Alabam, Alabama.

Do y'all need that again?

- Let's do one more.

- But don't look at them, at all.

- So we just gonna keep talking?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Keep looking at you.

- Just like we were doing earlier.

We're gonna talk about like pans and stuff.

Once your hands start getting sweaty, it's like impossible to get these bad boys on.

We'll get there eventually.

- It could just be us on camera for three minutes trying to wiggle our gloves on.

- Grits.

Grit.

You eat grit.

Grits.

I'm here on the Emily Ariel in Bayou La Batre with Captain Woody and Captain Jacob, the true experts down here.

- Oh.

- Did I say bayou right?

- Yeah you got it.

- They were laughing at me earlier about it.

- Yeah.

- They're a little nervous now.

- Bayou La Batre.

- Yeah, Bayou La Batre.

- It's real hard to say in Appalachian.

- Yeah.

- I need to.

- That's probably your problem.

- So the big question is, is what do you do while you're waiting on your fish?

- You drink some Pinot Grigio.

- So tell us about... (Trace stuttering) Sand in my boots, wind in my hair, cooking that shrimp like I don't even care.

There's a little dookie.

I don't think we can say poop less, can we?

- Did I get the head off enough?

No.

- No, pop the whole thing off.

Just think about it being somebody else.

I'm not gonna tell y'all who I'm envisioning.

What is that?

What is it, zest bae?

Salt bae.

Meet you over at the fry daddy.

Wait, is that a brand?

- Mm-hm.

- Nevermind, hold on.

Retract that.

- Yeah.

- And peels attached.

Is that a good angle for that guy?

See ya beaches.

This thing got a horn?

(boat horn tooting)