Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
This is something that i do a fair bit, i love the taste of smoked salmon, mussels, mackerel all seafood, its so yummy.
The other day i went out on the Eden wharf to catch some fish that day i put a little bit of burly in the water to attract the fish, i started catching lots of slimy mackerel`s heaps of them it was like they were suicidal, anyway i ended up getting about half a bucket full, some of these i will use for bait on the beach for the bigger salmon and Tailor as they just love fresh mackerel, i wanted to smoke the bigger ones, cause i thought they might be really nice to eat as they are very oily and have lots of omega 3 fatty acids in them, the bigger ones are to hard to put on the hook unless you chop them up in small pieces.
The fishing report, well i never got any salmon or mackerel but i did get a few trevallies which i will put in the smoker.
There is a fair bit to do when smoking the fish but its well worth the effort.
I use a small Weber BBQ that i picked up for $10 at a garage sale, this Weber has vents in the lid and also in the base, this is great for controlling the air flow as you don`t want any flame in the smoker.
Here is the recipe for the brine solution,
* 4 cups water
* 1/4 cup salt
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 2 crushed garlic cloves
Mix all the brine ingredients and place your fish in a plastic or glass container
(non metal), cover and put in the refrigerator for 8 hours, this does about 20 average fillets of fish, if your doing salmon which are larger and thicker leave them in for about 12 hours.
When the fish is in brine solution the moister is slowly taken out and infused with salt so its important not to leave the fish in the brine to long as the fish will be rather salty.
Time to take the fish out of the brine and dry it out until it has a sticky film
over it, which is called pellicle, i do this by placing the fish on some newspaper skin side down other wise it gets stuck to the paper, you can use wire racks as well, 2 to 3 hours is needed for drying, you may need to place a fan near them, don’t worry about the fish to much as the salt will protect it.
Once your fish is dry and sticky its ready to be smoked, i will be HOT smoking the fish as this is faster than slow smoking which takes about 2 days, besides any smoked fish around this house gets eaten rather fast, even though slow smoking is preserved better than just plain cooked fish.
Getting the heat, coals, and smoke just right smoking the fish takes about 30 minuets , how i get the smoker to smoking stage, i light the fire with some dry hard wood get the thing going really hot with some nice coals not to much though, then i add some hard wood saw dust,
Then put the lid on with the vent holes half open
I then put the fish skin side down on the wire racks and put the lid back on
Check back again in 15 minuets make sure there’s not flame if there is shut the vent on the lid.
A big DANGER don`t use chip board in your smoker or treated wood…
Wood you can use,
Hard Wood ( Australian Eucalyptus’s )
Alder
fruit or nut wood
Hickory
Oak
The Result
Hope every one enjoys because i do 