smoked snapper

You know me, I'm having a smoking obsession... Stew and I hot-smoke a piece of salmon over the gas hobb for breakfast about twice a week - the cost? around $5. Serve with ricotta (no fat in that, and the texture is wonderful!) and capers - lots of capers - on  a toasted bagel.
Last week I spotted fresh whole snapper for $8.95 per kilo at the swoopermarket - I swooped! And there it is in all it's scaled, boned and opened glory. (Still vacuuming scales from the floor a week later - must remember to be less exuberant with that...)
I added brown sugar and soy sauce as normal - that did not last long! We had people here for dinner a day later. The home made hummus I'd served with drinks was a no-no - Raewyn has an allergy to herbs of any kind. Lucky for us the fish was a hit ..... served with garlic pita and slatherings of lemon

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...

Salmon for Breakfast for Kings & Queens & you

I had a yearning to learn how to smoke foods on my stove-top - yes, inside. So I did a bit of research and bit of googly-oh, and this is my recipe for the fastest, most delicious fresh smoked salmon ever. Forget paying $32 per kilo - buy steaks or fillets on special for anything between $19 and $25 per kilo. $8-worth is enough for about 6 servings. Make it Regal Salmon from the Marlborough and you'll be supporting a NZ business.
First choose your pan. I keep this rough old roasting dish just for smoking now.

Put your wood chips in a little pile inside. Manuka or Kanuka chips from the hardware shop cost about $5.50 and last for months. Experiment with adding woody stalks and herbs, like rosemary.
Over the top, place a cake rack to support the salmon.Place aluminium foil on the rack to contain the juices. Turn it up all around the edges. Do this with salmon even if you don't want the juices (but why wouldn't you?) or otherwise they'll just burn on the bottom of the pan.Add your piece of salmon and season it however you see fit. This is where the first fun bit comes in - you get to experiment! Try dark soy, brown sugar and a squeeze of lemon or lime. Or golden syrup and a little butter. The world's your oyster!

Now cover the whole dish very tightly with foil. If you have to overlap sheets to make them fit, fold them into a pleat at the join so the smoke cannot escape. You really don't want the smoke all through the house...

Turn the element to full for a couple of minutes so the wood chips ignite, then turn it down and leave for 10 minutes. Check it's cooked by lifting the foil - but be careful, the pan heats up very quickly. If there is smoke leaking around the edges, use a tea towel to squash the foil tightly all around the edges to make a better seal. The piece above is not quite cooked. It needs to be a consistent colour all the way across the surface.

After a few more minutes, it's cooked... yum!

Cover when cold and see if you can resist it until breakfast-time.. which is the second fun bit. Serve on bagels - especially the Parmesan kind - with ricotta (extra low fat stuff -and doesn't overpower the fish), lots of capers and a squeeze of lemon.

Or place the piece on a platter with crisp baguette slices - extra gorgeous on a summer evening with a beautiful Marlborough chardonnay. Or a sav... a beer? I quite like a gin.....with lime and mint.

NOW - go crazy! Try this with pears (delicious with a nice blue cheese...) and capsicums - make salsas with them. I saw a semi-dried smoked tomato dip - worth a try sometime soon! Vary the wood chips, vary the herbs, try using tea - green tea or Jasmine make it interesting.