We have Smoked Steel-Head trout . . . . The white smoke from my smoker box signals it is so . . . . smoke from apple and mesquite wood around these parts have a more pedestrian significance than the smoke of burning ballots in Rome . . . . Yes we have a new Pope as well. An Argentinean fellow, Pope Francis his chosen name was the Cardinal from Buenosaires. A Jesuit, Jorge Mario Bergoglio I hear tell is a man of humble manners. As a Cardinal he refused the accoutrements accorded his rank such as cooks and chauffeured limousines, preferring to live in his own rented apartment and ride the bus back and forth to work. Lets see if Mr Bergoglio can scare some good Jesuit sense in to Mrs Kirshner and her goons in the rest of South-America, much the same way John Paul II faced off Mr Jaruzelski in Poland together with Reagan and Lech Walesa taking down the soviet empire.
. . . as I was saying . . . . I salted up an other batch of Steel Head trout last night
Te envidio... sanamente, of course. Buen provecho!
ReplyDeleteyour way to do white smoke will not change the world but it is my favorite one . Next time i try to bring the beer.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Leipzig in deep snow right now.
Torsten
That fish looks amazing. Is that a home made smoker? How does it work? I've always fancied trying it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kev, and it tastes quite amazing. Very rewarding to make. Technically it is smoked lox as I do a dry rub as opposed to a brine to cure the salmon/trout before smoking. The rub consisting of 1/2&1/2 salt and brown sugar,pepper, dill and garlic. Coat all sides of each piece, lay them face to face w/ each other wrapped in plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Weighted down w/ a couple of heavy cat iron pans for about 12 hours in a tray in the fridge. Next morning wash them off, pat dry and set them to dry on a rack with a fan blowing on the for about 3 hours. The smoker is an old kitchen cabinet, with dowels to hold the racks. The rest is pretty much self explanatory as you see in the pictures. A hot plate with a little cast iron pan and some apple wood chips and or sawdust (no bark as this makes it bitter)Got to add chips every 45 minutes or so with the burner set on mid range. I usually hit them with the torch to get them smoldering quicker. The key is to keep the temp in the box cold and get gentle but good smoke flow. If the temp goes up beyond 80 deg F it stars cooking the fish and though quite edible it gets all flaky like cooked fish and no longer nice and buttery fresh like Lox. Cold smoked it will keep in the fridge for months. You should try it, it is a lot of fun and very rewarding. If you page back to the beginning of the blog there are a couple more postings on earlier batches.
DeleteCheers Micheal, This is on my to-do list now (but I bet I won't find time for years!). I'll have a look at your eariler posts when I get chance. I like the idea of smoking some ham if I ever get round to keeping pigs!
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