- This week on "Outdoor Eats", we're in St.

Pete Clearwater, Florida, we're catching and cooking and talking all things seafood.

Let's get cooking.

I knew they had a fresh market, but they were loaded.

Wow, this looks really, really good.

I think this is a success.

I am excited to get out there and get out on the water.

So we're camping on an island tonight?

- We are, it's gonna be a blast.

- Yes.

Well, we got our leg workout in too.

- [Misty] I know.

I can't believe we're eating this on the beach tonight.

This is incredible.

- We're gonna collaborate on a recipe together.

I don't know if you guys are experiencing this, but it smells like green, it smells like vegetables.

Cheers.

- Cheers, man.

- [Rob] Appreciate it man, thank you.

- We got something.

- Wow, look at that fish.

Well, it looks like we can eat today.

- [Chris] You made it look easy.

- (laughs) It is easy.

- It is.

- I really appreciate sharing a great meal together.

I'm Chef Corso, hiker, backpacker, and classically trained chef on a mission to elevate outdoor meals because food on the trail should be so much more than just calories.

Join me and my friends as we explore beautiful trails and cook up quick, easy, and delicious meals to share together.

This is "Outdoor Eats".

(bright music) Outdoor Eats is made possible by the following America isn't just one land, it's many.

The great outdoors, local scenes, and of course the people.

So many destinations to explore.

More information available at GoCollette.com Guided travel since 1918.

Vivid-Pix memory station and software allows users to scan personal history items like photos and documents, record voice narrative, and share what has been conserved.

More online at Vivid-pix.com.

♪ upbeat music In4adventure.com Inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure Host- And by these additional sponsors ♪ upbeat music (upbeat music) The St.

Pete Clearwater area is known as an outdoorsy hotbed, there's a lot of outdoor activities and approachable outdoor activities that are worth exploring.

It's so much more than just beaches.

What's first on my activity list here is e-biking.

Picked up my e-bike at Dunedin at Kafe Racer, and I'm gonna explore the Pinellas Trail.

The Pinellas Trail goes all the way north of Tarpon Springs and south over 50 miles to St.

Pete.

(upbeat music continues) I am at the Tarpon Springs Farmer's Market, this is in the northern part of St.

Pete.

And what I'm looking for today at the Farmer's Market is something to inspire me for a recipe today.

Hey there, how you doing?

- [Seller] Pretty good, thank you.

- Well, can I grab a couple of these fresh oranges here?

- Sure, yes, sir.

- I think we'll take two, and then what kind of bread do we have here?

- [Seller] We have the sourdough, we have the French baguette, and then we have tomato basil.

- Tomato basil, nice, that looks tasty and different.

Well, I think I'll take this tomato basil loaf, that looks really good, smells really good - Yeah, nice and fresh.

- Some Honeybells oranges, - Honeybell or Honeybells?

- Honeybell.

- Honeybell, nice.

Oh, well, I think I'll take those two.

- Okay.

- Awesome.

Thank you so much, have a great day.

- Have a wonderful day.

(bright music) Hey Mike.

- [Mike] Hey, welcome to Frenchy's.

- [Chef Corso] Thanks, thanks for having me in, the cases look gorgeous today.

I would love something with shrimp.

- [Mike] Okay.

- And I know stone crab is fresh down here and something that I don't get very often.

- Well, we'd love to get you some fresh stone crab and some shrimp, Key West pinks, I recommend, come right off the boat.

- Nice, okay.

Well, then maybe the Island Time bowl and then add a couple of stone crab claws.

- Couple stone crabs, okay.

- Great, thanks, man.

- All right, it'll be right up.

- Frenchy's was a great surprise.

I knew they had a fresh market, but they were loaded, the cases were full, also really great to meet Mike, the local manager there, and he cooked up a great crab boil and shrimp boil for us with some awesome local seafood.

Wow, this looks really, really good.

This is special, this is stone crab, you don't get this everywhere.

Get a little bit of lemon on there.

Yeah, that's where it's at.

Classic 'Nduja sausage.

Nice smokiness there.

Fresh Gulf pink shrimp, it's been a while since I had shrimp that fresh.

Well, I'm already thinking and noodling about how I could potentially take some of these flavors and some of these ingredients that will translate to our meal plan for the rest of the trip.

I biked across the causeway and found a really great spot here in Honeymoon Island to whip up a quick recipe.

There's over four miles of beaches over here and I think it's a great spot to cook up our recipe.

So we've got our tuna packets, a fresh mango, a beautiful Florida tangerine, smoked paprika, and some garlic powder and some plantain chips.

So I'm gonna get all of our ingredients into my prep bowl and mix it up and taste it and see how it is.

Make sure to get all that sand off of there, don't want sand in my tuna.

And part of cooking outside, as you know, it doesn't have to be perfect, just get it in there.

Oh, nice and juicy, all beautiful.

A couple other ingredients I have in here is a little bit of mayonnaise, mustard and a little bit of soy sauce.

I'm gonna go a little bit light, you can always add more.

And then I need to mix it up, and, you know, I'm just gonna use a rock today.

And if you've never experienced plantain chips or tostones, you are missing out.

Gonna give that a quick little taste.

Mm, I think this is a success.

Really quick, easy ingredients.

I can't wait for you to try this and experiment with how it could work for just being a standalone or to be part of a larger dish.

One thing to remember is to always, always pack it out.

Don't leave it here on the beach, don't leave it here on the bench.

Get a pack out bag and pack it out, really, really important.

(bright music) (bright music) (lighthearted music) - Misty, I think I got the ingredients here, I'm ready to get out on the water.

- Well, I am so excited, it's so great to meet you.

- Great to meet you too, Misty.

- And I love hosting you here in Pinellas County.

You can see the weather is picture perfect today and I can't wait to take you out to the island.

- I am excited to get out there and get out on the water.

- We're gonna paddle about two miles down the Anclote River west.

- Okay.

- And there's a beautiful island out there called Anclote Key with a lighthouse, and that's where we're gonna cook dinner and set up camp.

- So we're camping on an island tonight?

- We are, it's gonna be a blast.

- Yes, it sounds so great.

- I'm ready, let's go.

- Let's go.

- We're about to head to an island that you can really only get to by boat or ferry or kayak, of course.

- It's Anclote Key, right?

- [Misty] Yes.

- I travel around the country a whole lot and it's fun to be able to cook different kinds of recipes for different kinds of adventures, but then also put them in different backdrops.

- [Misty] Okay, Chef, we can take a break now.

- Oh good.

- [Misty] 'Cause guess what?

There's Anclote Key and your lighthouse.

- Oh, nice, I almost missed it.

- I know, it's really beautiful over there and I'm hoping that'll be a good place for us to set up camp.

- Well, I think we should head over there then, yeah?

- Let's go.

- Okay.

Wow.

- It is really pretty up here.

- Wow.

Well, we got our leg workout in too.

- [Misty] I know.

(laughs) (soft music) - [Chef Corso] Misty, we made it.

- [Misty] I know, I'm so glad.

- It's been a little bit of a long day, but thank you for bringing me to this special spot.

Do you know what we're making?

Have I told you yet?

- Well, I saw one bag that looks like Fruity Pebbles, but I'm guessing that's probably not what's in it.

- No, we will get to the not Fruity Pebbles in a second, but we are making a Creole pasta.

So ingredients, we have curly pasta.

- Okay, great.

- Classic, we've got some 'Nduja sausage, and we have some French's fried onions, fresh bell pepper, and the Fruity Pebbles that you were mentioning, these are actually dried shrimp.

- Okay, awesome, I don't think I've ever had that before.

- And then other ingredients we have is Old Bay and then we have some tomato paste too.

- Okay, great.

- So we'll add that in right at the end.

- Okay.

- So why don't you go ahead and slice those up?

- Okay, great, I like being the sous chef, I don't wanna be in charge, but I can definitely take direction.

If I was the head of this camping trip, we'd be having sandwiches, so I really like this.

- Sandwiches are good, but there's other options out there.

So when you're done chopping those, go ahead and throw those right in the pot.

So I'm also gonna give you a pepper.

- [Misty] Okay, great.

- So while you're doing that, I'm gonna get the rest of our ingredients in our pot.

Some pasta, some water, some French's fried onions.

Those dried shrimp.

So you mentioned never had dried shrimp before?

- That's correct.

- Would you like to try a dried shrimp?

- I would, okay.

- By itself.

- I'll see if it tastes like Fruity Pebbles.

Pretty good.

- Yeah, and these ones have a little bit of seasoning on 'em already, but I love having these in the pantry for those times where you do want some seafood flavor but don't wanna pack fresh seafood or can't pack fresh seafood.

- [Misty] Right.

- I just put all the ingredients in the pot and get it up to a boil and simmer.

So, again, all the ingredients except our tomato paste is in the pot right now, so we're just getting up to a boil, giving this a stir, so it doesn't stick to the bottom.

This has been boiling for, I don't know what, five, 10 minutes?

- Yeah, it hasn't been that long, honestly.

- So our pasta, one pot pasta dish is all done.

And, actually, it's not, I forgot to add the tomato paste.

So adding a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and just give it a quick stir.

Actually, if you could help me, I'm gonna give you the spoon here.

- Absolutely, okay.

- And I'm gonna pull this over and then you can- - Just kind of do like that.

- Yep.

- [Misty] Okay.

- [Chef Corso] Oh that looks super good.

- So good.

I can't believe we're eating this on the beach tonight, this is incredible.

Cheers.

- Cheers.

Cheers to a great day on the water.

How's that taste?

- Really good.

- Yeah?

- Really good.

Well, I have a good idea.

- Yeah?

- It's gonna be a beautiful sunset tonight on Anclote, why don't we head out to the beach and finish our dinner there?

- I think that's a great idea, let's do it.

(waves trickling) Here in the Grand Central neighborhood of St.

Pete, it's a beautiful day and I'm gonna meet up with a local chef from Wild Child, Chef Rob, and we are gonna go on a urban adventure here today.

- [Rob] What's going on, Steve?

- Good to meet you, man.

- [Rob] Nice to meet you.

- Thanks for having me in.

Tell us about Wild Child, how long has it been here?

- Wild Child has been here for a little over three years in the Grand Central District of St.

Pete.

We have a lot of seasonal driven New American food, so we like to pull from Southeast Asia and a lot of Latin influence as well too, so there's really no rules, we're just kind of like, like to cook food that we like to eat, and same thing with the cocktails as well.

- Nice.

Well, I'm really, really excited about sharing this experience with you today.

It's always more fun to cook and explore with a buddy.

We're gonna collaborate on a recipe together.

You've got an idea about what we could make?

I've got some ideas in my head and we're gonna put 'em together at a local park and have a really nice meal.

- [Rob] Sounds excellent, I'm excited, can't wait.

- All right, let's do it.

Rob and I just walked down the street just a couple blocks away from Wild Child, and we are gonna hit up Brick Street Farms.

We are gonna meet the local farmer here, Briant, and she's gonna show us around.

This doesn't look like a normal farm.

- You are correct, so we are here on our urban hydroponic farm.

We farm more than 66 acres worth of crops every month just on this one third of an acre property.

Very easy access to every restaurant we serve, the local community, and that's why we want to be here in the heart of this city.

- Hopefully, we can pick up something for our lunch this afternoon.

- Heck yes.

We're just gonna suit it up, we'll go into the farms and we can harvest what you guys need for today.

- Sounds great.

- Let's do it.

(bright music) - So these are all shipping containers.

Each one of our farms is a 40-foot shipping container.

- Whoa.

- I know, it's almost like a casino, the oxygen, the air, the lights.

- Wow.

- [Briant] No money.

- I don't know if you guys are experiencing this, but the smell in here, (sniffs) it smells like green, it smells like vegetables.

- So this is what we call our mixed farm heads.

Offers a really great texture, color, flavor, different things for a chef, and then also for the home shopper as well, different nutritional values.

We can definitely get to harvesting.

I obviously think the red oak leaf is probably on your harvest list, just seeing your eyes light up on that one.

So I'm gonna grab some gloves for you guys, I've got some shears as well, we're gonna put the masks on just as we are touching the plants and a little bit closer, and we can harvest what you like.

Perfect, so next we are gonna go in Farm 17.

Come on in, it is one of our microgreen farms.

(lighthearted music) Pack up your harvest.

- It's beautiful.

Gorgeous color on that chard, pea tendrils in there and a mixed bag of lettuce, love it.

Thank you so much for showing us around the farm here today, like, I learned a lot.

- We're very proud of it.

So thank you so much for taking the time to come out here and learn about everything and I can't wait to see what you guys come up with.

- Yeah, me too.

Well, Rob, I think it's time we cook some lunch, what do you think?

- Let's do it.

- All right, well, we are in Vinoy Park, and we are gonna be making a Vietnamese pancake, Vietnamese omelet here today.

Thought it'd be a really great recipe to be able to showcase as a filling for the great greens we got from Brick Street Farms here today.

Quick ingredients, we've got a little bit of salt, a little bit of sesame oil, fresh eggs, a regular can of shrimp, rice flour or regular flour to thicken up our pancake, and then we have our beautiful lettuces and our microgreens that we can throw on the top.

I had a chef request for you, create a tasty sauce that could go on our lettuce wrap.

So what'd you come up with?

- So I brought along a passion fruit nuoc cham.

- Nuoc cham.

- Yep.

- Nice, wow, looks really nice in the sun here.

What goes in this sauce?

- So it's super simple, fish sauce, lime juice, I did a little of sambal chili paste, sugar to balance it out, and then to add that extra little pop, we added the passion fruit.

- Nice, I love it.

So what if you start cracking our eggs in our bowl over there?

- Absolutely.

- And I am gonna start getting our pan nice and hot, and so I'm just gonna throw some sesame oil in here.

(pan sizzling) So I'm trying to get this nice and hot so we can get a nice crispiness on our shrimp and hopefully a nice crispiness on our pancake.

Think we're good?

- Yeah, you ready?

- Hit it.

- Good shot.

- Nice.

And for this specific pan, I'm gonna make sure I'm getting some even heat around the whole thing, making sure we're not completely scorching it.

Hopefully, getting one nice layer, but, you know, if it doesn't work out, just make scrambled eggs.

- Yeah.

- It's gonna be fine.

- The flavor's gonna be there, a beautiful lettuce to hold it all together.

- Yep.

- And amazing passion fruit nuoc cham.

- [Chef Corso] Yeah, I cooked up in real time here in like a minute.

- Very cool.

- Or something like that.

So if you want to grab a lettuce cup there for me.

- Yeah.

- [Chef Corso] Oh that's gorgeous, and maybe throw a couple microgreens on top?

- Absolutely.

- And then, we'll just kinda land them here.

That looks pretty darn good.

I'm really excited to taste these microgreens on top and those pea shoots.

A little drizzle of your sauce on there.

- [Rob] Sweet.

- Well, man, lunch in just a few minutes.

- Cheers.

- Cheers, man.

- Appreciate it, man, thank you.

- Mm, mm-hm.

- So good.

- The spicy radish and the mustard, that freshness from the pea tendrils, those are awesome.

- Well, Rob, thanks so much for joining me today.

It was great to see your restaurant, it was great to go on the tour with you and thanks so much for cooking with me today.

- Thank you so much, that was my pleasure, it was awesome, I had a great time.

- Yeah, me too.

(bright music) Hey Captain Chris.

- Hey, how are you?

Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you too.

- Well, what are we gonna fish for today?

- We're gonna fish sheepshead.

- I have never ever heard of that fish.

Again, I'm super curious to see it, and, yeah, let's get out there.

Captain Chris, how far are we going out there today?

- We're going about a mile and we're gonna be fishing around Weedon Island, it's middle Tampa Bay, just north of downtown St.

Pete.

So we're fishing medium tackle, 15 pound braid, 20 pound floor of carbon and a little hook.

Fiddler crabs for bait, the males have a big pincher so you'll see some of them have a large claw.

So basically you just turn this crab over.

- [Chef Corso] Okay.

- [Chris] You put the hook here.

- Okay.

- You hold him like that and then you push it through with your thumb so you don't shatter him 'cause he's kind of brittle.

Finished product, he just... - There you go.

- That's what it looks like.

- We're ready to go.

Awesome.

(laughs) Right in the water.

- You're gonna watch for your line on the water and you'll see it start to move off.

If one eats it, you'll see your line just go straight and then you just set the hook, start winding.

- [Chef Corso] Set the hook and start winding, all right.

- Yep.

Hit him, hit him, hit him, hit him, hit him, wind, wind, wind, set the hook, set the hook.

- [Chef Corso] Oh, yep, yep.

- That's a little one.

- We got something.

- [Chris] That's a little one.

- [Chef Corso] Wow, look at that fish.

- See, I was talking about these fins that'll spike you.

- Yeah, those are spiny.

Well, we got something.

- Yep, we're gonna get a bigger one now.

- Yeah, for sure.

- We're gonna let him go.

- We're having some success, we're definitely catching some fish.

But they need to be at least 12 inches we don't wanna keep the small ones.

Wind is making it a little bit of a challenge, but we're working through it, we're having a good time.

(upbeat rocky music) - Hold on, he's coming.

- [Chef Corso] Oh, I'm getting, oh, look at him.

- [Chris] One, two, three.

- [Chef Corso] That is nice.

Nice, that looks great.

- [Chris] Yeah, that was a big one there.

- [Chef Corso] Wow.

Well, it looks like we can eat today.

- Yeah, we can eat.

I'm gonna let you get one, you gotta catch a big one now.

Set the hook, wind, gotta wind, gotta wind.

One, two, three, we're just gonna lift him up here.

- [Chef Corso] Yeah, there we go.

Nice.

That's another beautiful one.

- That was awesome, man, awesome hook, set that down.

- Oh, look at that guy, nice.

Step one to catch and cook, catch it.

Step two, is we gotta filet it.

You're the local pro, why don't you show me the way?

- All righty.

So you're gonna start the behind the head here.

- Okay.

- Make a cut and bring that down this way and we'll come to the top of his back.

- Back down the spine, okay.

- [Chris] And bring it all the way down the spine.

- [Chef Corso] Just being really mindful of those spikes.

- Really mindful of the spikes, correct.

Then you lift the filet back and you're just gonna run right down his bones in there.

Come in here and you'll hit this rib cage I was talking about.

- Yep.

- You can hear it there, and you'll bring it right over the top of that.

Angling down at the bottom of that.

- Oh yeah, it's a very pronounced ribcage on this one.

- Yes, very.

And we can take that off like that, so now we're gonna take the skin off, pull it off the skin now.

The skin's gone.

- Clean work, nice job.

- [Chris] Now he has like some little pin bones in his bloodline here, you can feel those.

- [Chef Corso] Yep, feel those.

- So we'll do a V on either side of that and it gets rid of a bit of that blood that's in the bloodline too, and there are the bones.

And now the fish is ready to eat, no bones.

- That's fantastic.

- [Chris] It looks beautiful too.

- [It looks great.

Well, we've got our filets now and I think we need to set up for our meal.

- Awesome.

- Let's do it.

(bright music) So what we're making is a really, really quick pan-seared fish dish.

So we've got our cast iron skillet, our olive bar ingredients, and do you like sides with your fish?

- Yeah.

- So what I have for us today is a little bit of couscous.

So first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna get a cast iron skillet on our burner and boil up some water for our couscous so it can be hydrating while we are cooking our fish.

Throw a little bit of Italian seasoning and just a pinch of salt in there.

- [Chris] Nice.

- I think we're at about our temperature, gonna add our water to our couscous mixture over here.

I'm gonna give that a quick little stir and put the lid on it and we'll come back, it'll be ready by the time our fish is done.

So I've got my skillet back on our burner, getting nice and hot.

Throw a little bit of- - [Chris] Olive oil?

- Olive oil.

Get that nice coating on our pan.

It is time for our sheepshead filets.

You grab those for us?

- I can grab 'em.

- Nice, thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Hit it with a little bit of salt.

So I'm just gonna give it a nice flip, nothing fancy here.

And then I'm gonna add mixture of my artichoke hearts, a couple olives, sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, really good colors in here.

And we're just looking for those ingredients to kind of heat up and kind of break down into a little bit of the sauce, and then we'll be ready to go.

I think also this needs a little bit more moisture so could hit it with a little bit of local beer, could also do some wine, if you like, or just some water, just a little bit in there.

And right at the end, we'll hit it with a little bit of lemon.

So just a few more minutes and we will be ready for our meal.

- Awesome.

- Check in on our couscous, gonna turn off our burner.

All right, so if you wanna hold your bowl right here.

- Yep.

- [Chef Corso] Oh wow, that is looking really good.

- [Chris] Yeah, that looks really good.

- All right, well, let's dig in, cheers.

- Cheers.

- That fish is really good.

- That fish is awesome.

- How is the sauce on top for you?

- It came out awesome.

- Is that something you could do on your boat?

- Oh yeah, I could do that on there.

You made it look easy, you did.

- It is easy.

- It is.

First time I've ate right here, I've lived right here 44 years, never ate right here.

But I'm gonna bring my wife and definitely try this again.

- I'm really glad that I can bring you to a new spot in your backyard and I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge about the fish and the area and sharing a great meal together.

- You shared how to cook up on a beach with me, so.

- That's what it's all about.

- I did the fishing part and you showed me how to cook it up on a beach, so it's amazing.

- That's what it's all about.

I had some great new adventures on this trip and what I appreciate the most is that I had four wonderful guides with deep roots in the St.

Pete area who generously shared their backyard with me.

I love that we could share a great meal and celebrate it all.

Outdoor Eats is made possible by the following America isn't just one land, it's many.

The great outdoors, local scenes, and of course the people.

So many destinations to explore.

More information available at GoCollette.com Guided travel since 1918.

Vivid-Pix memory station and software allows users to scan personal history items like photos and documents, record voice narrative, and share what has been conserved.

More online at Vivid-pix.com.

♪ upbeat music In4adventure.com Inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure Host- And by these additional sponsors ♪ upbeat music