22 February 2010

A fab little book on smoking, and Smoked Mussels

"The Kiwi Smoker" by Carl Scott

I found this at The Warehouse, a gift for Stew for Valentine's Day.
What a find... please look out for it if you catch fish or hunt or gather in any way. Published by David Bateman.
Carl makes his own brand of food smoker called the Bushfire Smoker and has developed recipes to suit it and the smaller portable smokers that most people have. Look for my tutorial on stove-top indoor smoking - you won't believe how simple it is....

Off we went to hear Diana Krall at Villa Maria and so I experimented with Smoked Mussels to enjoy with a white wine.
I love them smoked in tins, but we have these wonderful, plentiful, fat mussels at a ridiculously cheap price in the supermarkets.

Here they are packed up for the picnic - super easy and very very good. (And that's also my excuse for not having them well-presented).
Steam them open as you normally would, remove from the shells and take out the beards, place back in the half shells and onto the smoking rack. Top with your own mixture; I used sweet chilli, brown sugar and dark soy sauce.
Smoke without too much heat for as little as 10 minutes....
they were lucky to make it as far as the concert...

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