|
How to smoke fish
technique
recipes
instructive pictures
On this page you can find two
recipes for smoked fish: Hot-smoked salmon with dill-mustard sauce, and Chinese
hot-smoked cod with coriander-mustard sauce. (Yes, mustard goes well with smoked
foods!). If you have never smoked food before, please read this page on
the technique of smoking first.
Hot-smoked salmon with dill-mustard
sauce.
For 4 persons as a main dish, for 8 persons
when served as a first course.
For the dry-curing::
225 gram (1 cup) coarse sea salt
50 gram (1/3 cup) yellow or brown castor sugar
some sprigs of dill, lemon peel, and crushed white peppercorns
600 to 800 gram (1 1/2 to 2 pounds) fillet of salmon, with the skin (but descaled)
Preparation in advance: Before
preparing the salmon it has to be salted. Mix the sea salt with sugar, dill,
lemon peel and pepper. Rub the fish fillets with this mixture, place them in a
glass bowl covered with plastic foil, and leave them in the refrigerator for 40
minutes.
Then rinse the fish carefuly with cold running water, pat it dry, and leave to
dry for at least two hours.
Preparation: Prepare your smoker. Cover the bottom with a
sheet of aulminium foil, sprinkle one topped tablespoon sawdust on the sheet of
foil. On this you place the dripping tray with the oiled grid. The salmon fillet
is placed with skin down on the grid. Close the smoker and place it on a burner
or the stove with not too much heat. It takes 30 to 45 minutes until the salmon
is done, depending on how rare you want your fish, and how thick the fillets
are.
When you open the smoker, make sure to that either on the working range hood or
outside (smoke, remember?).
To serve: Hot-smoked salmon tastes best when served warm.
Serve a sauce with it, a vinaigrette or the following sauce.
Dill-mustard sauce
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. colourless vinegar
1 decilitre (1/2 cup) neutral oil (sunflower, arachide)
1 decilitre (1/2 cup) sour cream
1 handful of finely chopped dill leaves
white pepper, freshly ground
salt to taste
Preparation: Combine mustard, sugar, sour cream and
vinegar in a blender, turn it on until the mixture blended. Leave the blender
on, and add the oil in a thin trickle (like making mayonnaise). Put the sauce in
a bowl and add the dill. finish off with salt and pepper. Keep in the
refrigerator until using it.
Hot-smoked
cod with coriander-mustard sauce.
Brine (double the amounts
when you have more than 500 gram/1 pound fish):
1/2 Tbsp. Chinese rice wine or medium sweet sherry
1 Tbsp. soy sauce (Kikkoman, the Japanese)
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 spring onion, cut and crushed
1 slice fresh ginger, crushed and coarsely chopped
Fuel for smoking:
10 gram (1/4 cup) black tea leaves (dried, fermented tea, p.e. Oolong)
20 gram (2 Tbsp.) uncooked rice
20 gram (2 Tbsp.) brown sugar
1/2 tsp. crushed szechuan-pepper corns
1 stick of cinnamon, broken in pieces
1 piece of dried orange or mandarin peel
and:
1 tsp. sesame oil
Fish:
fillet of cod or salmon or whatever
Take 50 gram (2 ounces) per person in a large menu, 150 gram (6 ounces) as a main dish
Preparation in advance:
Mix everything for the brine and rub the fish with it. Leave it for one hour at
room temperature, or two in the refrigerator. Then take the fish oput of the
brine and place it on a small grid that fits in a steamer. Do not use a bamboo
steamer unless you use that for smoking purposes only, because the bamboo will
retain a smoky flavour forever. Bring water to the boil, steam the fish for
about six minutes. In this case the fish will not be dried before smoking,
because it is already steamed.
You can either proceed with smoking at once, or let the fish cool on the grid
and keep it in the refrigerator untill you need it.
Preparation:
First you prepare the pan. Cover the pan or wok crosswise with two layers of
aluminium foil (shiny side up). Cover the lid the same way. Take care that
the sheets are longer then the pan, let the excess foil hang over on the
outside (the same with the cover). Sprinkle the smoking fuel on the bottom,
spread evenly. Place the fish (still on on the grid on which it was steamed)
in the pan, without a leaking tray. Use some small cans which have been
opened at both sides to place the grid on. Place the pan/wok on a heat
source, wait until smoke starts to develop. Then lower the fire and close
the pan with the lid, and krinkle the foil of pan and lid together, leaving
a small opening to check the smoke development (there has to be some smoke,
but not an entire chimney's worth).
Seven minutes later take the pan off the fire. Leave it for another five
minutes. Then open it under the working range hood or outside. Open the lid away
from you. Remove the grid with the fish from the pan. Fold the alufoil
into itself, and throw away (in the container outside).
To serve:
This can be served either hot or at room temperature, with the following
sauce.
Coriander-mustard sauce
This sauce must be prepared in advance because it
needs time to settle.
Coriander (cilantro) is to the Chinese cuisine what parsley is for the French
cuisine: the "evergreen". Some people dislike the flavour of
coriander. I was one of them once, but now I love it.
Ingredients:
100 gram (1/4 cup) Dijon mustard
1 decilitre (1/4 cup) Chinese sesame oil or part sesame oil, part
oil with a neutral taste
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
salt to taste
1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves
Preparation in advance:
Use only the leaves of the coriander (the stems will make the sauce taste of
grass). Chop the leaves finely.
Preparation:
Add everything but the chopped coriander leaves and the oil to the blender.
Turn it on, add the oil in a thin trickle, turn the blender off. Now add the
coriander leaves.
Leave the sauce in the refrigerator for at least one whole night.
Stir the sauce well before serving. You can keep the sauce in the
refrigerator for a week at least.
To serve:
This sauce must be served at room temperature, so take care that you
retrieve it from the refrigerator in time.
Sesame
oil: Is being used in the Chinese cuisine, but also in the Arabic
cuisine. However, where the Mediterranean sesame oil is fairly neutral in
taste, the Chinese sesame oil has a strong sesame flavour. It goes without
saying that for Chinese recipes you will need Chinese sesame oil! Buy a
small bottle, because the flavour deteriorates once the bottle is opened. If
you think the taste of pure Chinese sesame oil is too overwhelming, use less
of it, and add neutral oil.
When you deepfry Chinese food, it is also a good idea to add a small
spoonful of sesame oil to the deep-frying medium.
This recipe for Chinese smoked fish leans
heavily on Barbara Tropp's The modern art of Chinese cuisine.
|
