* HOST: When it comes to cooking seafood, nothing beats live fire.

But with pollution, overfishing, and unfair labor practices straining the seafood industry, how do you know what's safe to eat and sustainable?

Well today, we're grilling seafood you should eat because it's fished in a way that's humane and environmentally sound.

Grilled oysters with country ham.

I love the contrast of the crispy prosciutto and the creamy oyster, and those juices are like nectar.

Crusty, Sicilian-style swordfish.

It's succulent, it didn't stick, and best of all, it's sustainable.

And Mexican-grilled shrimp tacos.

If tacos were music, this would be truly symphonic.

Today, it's sustainable seafood.

From the Pearlstone Campus in Reisterstown, Maryland, I'm Steven Raichlen and this is Project Fire .

* ANNOUNCER: Steven Raichlen's Project Fire is made possible by...

This is The Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at biggreenegg.com.

Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill, crafted in America for over 80 years... Green Mountain Grills, wood fired pellet grills... Blue Rhino...

Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

And by the following... * [fire swooshes in] * CAMILLE: Hey Steven, it's Camille from Montreal.

Here's my question for you.

I love fish, but we don't cook it so often at home.

I would like to know what is the best way to grill fish and seafood?

[fire swooshes in] STEVEN: Excellent question, Camille.

Today's show is all about grilled, sustainable seafood; oysters, shrimp, and swordfish.

Vive le Quebec.

Our prehistoric ancestors ate mountains of them, literally.

The ancient Romans ferried them across the Alps in horse-drawn carts from Britain to Rome.

Throughout the ages, oysters have ranked among our most popular sustainable seafood's.

Today, we'll grill them with crispy prosciutto and Parmesan cheese.

* To cook the oysters, I'm using a Kamado-style grill.

I loaded it with natural-lump charcoal, and I'll place two paraffin fire starters in the center.

And then, sort of shingle the charcoal over the paraffin starters.

Kind of making a tripod.

Then, use a butane match to light the paraffin fire starter.

* To generate a wood-smoke flavor, I'll place a few maple wood chunks on the charcoal.

One, two, three.

What will happen?

The fire will burn down and out, giving us an even heat source.

Now, to the oysters.

Keep your oysters on ice while you make the topping.

The topping starts with melted butter.

Then take a few thin slices of prosciutto, Italy's dry, cured ham.

Pile them up, I'll fold them over, and cut the prosciutto into thin slivers.

The idea is to cut matchstick slivers of prosciutto.

* Once the butter is melted, add the prosciutto.

Then add finely chopped scallion white and freshly grated lemon zest.

Stir the ingredients together.

When the scallions brown and the prosciutto is crisp, the butter is ready.

To shuck an oyster, place it on a folded dish cloth to protect your hand.

Then, using an oyster knife, come in at the narrow edge under the hinge, gently pry and twist to loosen the top shell from the bottom, then run your knife blade under the top shell to cut the adductor muscle.

Finally, run your knife under the oyster to loosen it from the shell.

* One of the bywords of Project Fire and Steven Raichlen is shop locally and grill globally.

These are Shore Thing oysters from St. Mary's County in Southern Maryland.

* Oysters were one of our first sustainable seafoods.

The ancient Romans farmed them as early as 1st Century BCE.

* Now, spoon some of the prosciutto scallion mixture into each oyster.

* A lot of people eat oysters raw on the half shell, and they're certainly delicious that way.

But I think you find the complex flavors that come from grilling are even more delightful.

Next, place a pinch of scallion green on each oyster.

* And finally, grate fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese on top.

When you see the words Parmigiano-Reggiano stamped into the rind, you know, you're buying the real McCoy.

As for the grilling, it's really quick.

Back to the grill.

Place the grate over the charcoal.

Then, place the oysters on their grilling rack on the grate.

The grilling time is really quick, a minute or two.

You want the juices to bubble, but the oysters to stay just warm in the center.

* When the juices boil, the oysters are ready.

Mmm!

* I'll take an oyster.

* And a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

* Let's see how we did.

* Mmm, those oysters are so sweet.

I love the contrast of the crispy prosciutto and the creamy oyster, the sweetness of the Parmesan cheese and those juices are like nectar.

I'm going to have another one.

Mmm, these are grilled bread fingers.

You can kind of dip those in the juices.

Mmm, this is sustainable shellfish at its best.

[fire swooshes in] * [fire swooshes in] Tacos are less a recipe in Mexico than a whole meal and a way of life.

* There's a protein, shrimp in this case, which I'll season with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, freshly squeezed orange juice, I squeeze it between my fingers to catch the seeds, and fresh lime juice.

Wild shrimp are a sustainable shellfish.

Ideally, you'll use shrimp that came off the fishing boat early that morning.

Then, stir the shrimp to mix in the marinade.

You'll notice we're working over ice, always over ice with perishable ingredients.

The next element is a salsa.

In this case, chiltomate, made with ember-roasted tomatoes and onions, and electrified with fiery habanero chilies.

I've set up the grill for caveman grilling, that is raked out our natural-lump charcoal embers in an even layer.

And then, lay your tomatoes directly on the coals.

Ditto for the onion and the habanero chilies.

Lay them right on the embers.

Now, turn the tomatoes as they grill.

The idea here is you want to char the skins, which you will peel off.

The charred skins will drive a smoke flavor deep into the tomatoes and onion.

That will give your salsa a haunting smoke flavor.

Cooking time is pretty quick.

Just a couple minutes per side for the tomatoes.

You don't really want to cook the tomatoes.

You want to leave the center cool, moist, and fresh.

Just char the skin.

Charring time is quick.

A couple minutes will do it.

And you know what?

It helps to wear a grill glove.

This is a really hot fire.

Once the habaneros are charred, transfer them to a sheet pan.

* Ditto on the tomatoes.

* And finally, the fire-charred onion.

* While, the vegetables cool, make the garlic cilantro butter.

So start by melting your butter in a sauce pan.

* Once the butter is hot, add chopped fresh garlic and chopped fresh cilantro.

Cook these ingredients until the garlic begins to brown, two or three minutes.

The idea here, we have marinated shrimp.

As they grill, we'll baste them with the garlic cilantro butter.

They'll be a fiery salsa.

You can see we're building the complexity in this simple dish that's going to fit in the palm of your hand.

Once the basting mixture is sizzling and fragrant, it's ready.

Now, let's make the salsa.

Take one of your ember-roasted tomatoes.

Scrape off the charred skin.

The flavor's underneath of it.

Don't worry about getting every little last bit of black off.

A few specks of black add color and flavor.

Then, cut your tomato in half.

You see it's nice and fresh in the center.

I'll take out the stem end, cut it in half again, and then into one-inch chunks and place the tomato in the food processor.

Of course, the traditional way for making salsa in Mexico is in a molcajete, a stone mortar and pestle.

* Next, your onion.

Again, scrape off the burnt skin.

I love roasting vegetables in the skins this way.

The smoke gets driven deep into the vegetable.

You could call ember roasting the original smoker.

Cut up the onion, take off the stem end, cut each half in quarters, then add the onion to the food processor.

Finally, the habanero chilies.

Again, just scrape off the burnt skins.

And then, I'm going to cut the habaneros in half and scrape out the seeds.

Habaneros are far from the world's hottest chile, but they're still pretty darn hot, 200,000 Scovilles.

* Okay.

Now, add chopped fresh cilantro, sour orange juice or a mixture of orange juice and wine juice, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

Assemble the processor, pulse the ingredients, and here's your chiltomate, your charred tomato sauce.

Mmm!

Nice smoked tomato flavor and definite kick.

Now, to grill the shrimp.

When grilling small pieces of food like shrimp, I like to use a grilling grid.

I heated it over a hot fire, and I'll oil it with our oiling cloth dipped in vegetable oils and... Whoa, that is a hot grate.

Now, arrange your shrimp on the grilling grate.

* Cooking time is quick, of course.

One to two minutes per side.

* Grill the shrimp in a single layer.

And if you need to, work in two batches.

* Once you turn the shrimp, start basting with the garlic cilantro butter.

* Then, turn the shrimp again and baste on the other side.

* Once the shrimp are firm to the touch, they're ready.

* So, there are your shrimp.

Now, warm your tortillas.

And this is just a couple seconds per side.

* And here are your tortillas.

Now here's how it goes together.

Start with a tortilla, take a couple of shrimp, one, two, beautiful char on those shrimp, and then some purple cabbage, some white cabbage, some chiltomate salsa, and some sour cream.

That's one.

* And, of course, the garnishes for the taco are limited only by your imagination.

* A squeeze of fresh lime juice.

And to go with the shrimp, grilled avocado.

Mmm, this is amazing.

Super smoky flavor on the shrimp.

Nice and crusty.

Great crunch from the cabbage.

There's a smoky heat from the salsa that's cooled off by the sour cream.

If tacos were music, this would be truly symphonic.

I know this seems like a lot of work, but it's really a series of simple steps.

And besides, the eaters actually do the hard work putting it together.

[fire swooshes in] They're going to go down.

They're going to get a quarter turn.

DIRECTOR: You just need to make sure it's coated well.

STEVEN: Okay.

* DIRECTOR: Ready, Steven?

STEVEN: Ready.

DIRECTOR: And action.

[fire swooshes in] STEVEN: It's a challenge that has frustrated fish lovers ever since the first griller put seafood to fire.

How do you grill fish while keeping it moist and without having it stick to the grill grate?

Italians have devised an ingenious method.

Here's how we do it on Project Fire .

* First, the fish.

I'm using pesce spada, swordfish.

I'll start by seasoning it with sea salt.

Freshly ground black pepper.

Freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Squeeze it through my fingers to catch the seeds.

And extra-virgin olive oil.

* Turn the fish over, * then season the other side the same way.

* And you can lay two rosemary branches on the fish for extra flavor.

Marinate the fish for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, let me show you the sauce.

It's called "salsa verde," green sauce.

Salsa verde starts with chopped fresh garlic, then chopped anchovies, which I like to make optional, I love anchovies, but not everyone does, then freshly grated lemon zest for brightness, and finally, hot pepper flakes for heat.

Pound these ingredients together to release the flavor in the garlic.

* Next, work in freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Then, add chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley.

Finally, whisk in extra-virgin olive oil and coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

And there's your salsa verde.

Let's taste.

Mmm!

So simple.

So clean.

So fresh.

Now the cool part.

Take your fish, drizzle it with a little bit more oil, and dip each slice in bread crumbs.

You want to coat each fish steak really well with bread crumbs.

And your bread crumbs are going to be what keeps the fish moist and from sticking to the grate.

Now, to the grill.

I've set the grill up for direct grilling.

Heated it to medium high.

It's about 400 degrees.

As always, we'll brush the grill grate clean, then oil the grate with a cotton oiling cloth dipped in vegetable oil and rubbed across the bars of the grate.

It's important to really oil the grill grate well to keep the fish from sticking.

* Once the swordfish has browned on the bottom, use a fish spatula and turn the fish.

This is one of those dishes that defies all expectation.

You would think the bread crumbs would fall off.

They don't.

You would think the bread crumbs would burn.

They don't.

Instead, they keep the fish from sticking and they keep it incredibly moist.

[fire swooshes in] And now, the moment of truth.

They're certainly not sticking to the grill grate.

* And there, folks, is your Italian-grilled swordfish.

It certainly didn't stick.

Now, we can put a grilled lemon and finally a little fresh flat-leaf parsley to echo the parsley in the salsa verde.

* Now, it's my turn.

A piece of fish and a grilled lemon, and a little salsa verde.

* A squeeze of the grilled lemon.

* And let's see how we did.

Mmm, this is really good.

The first thing you notice, the swordfish is crusty, almost like Veal Milanese.

The fish itself is mild, moist, sweet.

I love the lemony brightness of the salsa verde, and the grilled lemon is really cool.

So there you have it, folks.

Swordfish grilled the Italian way.

It's succulent.

It didn't stick.

And best of all, it's sustainable.

For recipes and more live-fire cooking, visit stevenraichlen.com.

You can also follow Steven Raichlen on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Steven's book, "How to Grill Vegetables," and the classic, "Project Smoke," can be ordered online at stevenraichlen.com, or call this phone number for ordering and customer service.

ANNOUNCER: Steven Raichlen's Project Fire was made possible by...

This is The Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at biggreenegg.com.

Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill, crafted in America for over 80 years... Green Mountain Grills, wood fired pellet grills... Blue Rhino...

Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

And by the following... STEVEN: Ferried them across the Alps in horse-drawn...

If tacos were music, this would be polysymphanic-symphonic.

To generate wood... To generate wood smoke... To...

CREW MEMBER: Lovingly.

STEVEN: Did I not do that lovingly?

And the final result will fit in the palm of your hand.

CREW MEMBER: One more time.

STEVEN: I did it better before.

Don't you have it the first time?

CREW MEMBER: Yeah.

...entire shot.

STEVEN: It was brilliant the first time.

One-take Raichlen.

* *