Hi! I hope everyone had a great July 4th weekend. It was raining all weekend so no fireworks 😦 but I still had a great time.

My friends in Pittsburgh did a livestream of cooking and fireworks. This online thing might not be too bad after all….. (just kidding, I can’t wait to see them in person).

This week’s dish is very special. First, it’s a throwback to the old days, improvising kitchen equipment and playing in the chem lab. Second, smoked salmon is one of my favourite foods. I’ve been waiting to try for years now, and finally put the foot down. It was a doozy that took 3 tries, a roll of masking tape, a melted tube and a burnt wok. In the end, I finally got it right

Let’s get cooking!

Part 1: Curing

This is the easy part.

Get a skin on fillet of salmon (or trout) and rub 5-6 tsp of seafood seasoning into the filet until it forms a crust. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 36-48 hours. If possible, place a weight on the fish. The fish should be quite stiff.

At this point, the fish is good to eat!

Notes:

1. Use sashimi grade fish
2. Try different flavours of curing: try BBQ seasoning, dill and capers or even beetroot and onions

Part 2: Smoking

Here’s where the chem lab comes in.

My first try was wok smoking. Basically, heat rice and spices in a wok until smoking, place the fish on a rack above it and smoke away.

Unfortunately, hot “smoking” turned my first attempt into fish jerky (I used rainbow trout)

… hence version 2…

I didn’t have proper tubing so I used the plastic straw from a water bottle. Bad idea- turns out plastic melts. My tube melted shut and didn’t get much smoking done…..

Finally, version 3

I ordered silicone tubing off Amazon (melting point 500C) and repeated the setup above. Also switched the plastic bag with a glass bowl. Look at it smoking!

I just let it smoke for 15 hours, let it dry, carved it and ate away!

This was a really fun experiment. Let me know if you give it a try!

I hope everyone has a great week, Until next time, Bye!

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