02.21.09
Posted in Recipes at 1:48 pm by Seth Scrimsher
This isn’t the Super Secret Squirrel way (I would never reveal that for less then $14,578.34). But follow these 5 steps and you’ll be on your way to making smoked salmon that will have your friends mooching off you even more then they already do. ***This is a repost of an older post to jump start my 2009 blogging***
Product:
First and most import are quality and cleanliness. Use only fresh or fresh frozen salmon that is of a high quality. Don’t use that 20 lb water marked gator salmon that was just about ready to spawn-out and die before you caught it up the river. Smoking does not “cover” or “hide” poor quality fish. In fact it will call attention to problem areas, think tight hip hugger jeans. A good rule of thumb is to only smoke fish you would eat fresh.
Preparation:
Make sure your preparation area is clean and sanitary, beg/bribe your mother to come over if need be. Carefully clean and remove all the slime and blood from your fish. Fillet or “split” the fish leaving the skin on. Remove the pin bones down the middle of each fillet with small pair of pliers. Next cut the fillets into equally sized strips, this insures they all finish smoking at the same time. Try to keep both the fish and your preparation room as cool and clean as possible during this time to keep bacteria growth to a minimum.
Brine:
The second step is salting the fish known as brine or brining. Most people prefer to start with a simple brine consisting of salt and water. Start with a basic mixture of 2 ½ cups of salt to each gallon of water. This allows the flavor of the smoke to shine through on your finished strips. Feel free to experiment adding flavors to the brine at this time. For example add a cup of brown sugar or a ¼ cup of soy sauce to your salt water mixture.
It is important that you use only pickling and canning salt, dairy salt, or kosher salt in your brine. Using iodized salt will add impurities and additives that will cause unpleasant flavors in your smoked fish. It is also best to used distilled or bottled water without large amounts of chlorine. You don’t want your salmon tasting like the community pool, or maybe you do, I won’t judge.
Make enough brine to completely cover all of your fish. A three to one ratio is recommended. For example use 30lbs of brine for 10lbs of fish. A gallon of brine will weigh approximately 8lbs so you would need 4 gallons to adequately soak 10lbs of salmon.
If you cut your strips 1 inch thick then the brine time should be right around 2 hours. Here is another step you can alter to personal taste but we have found 2 hours to work best. Make sure your mixture is refrigerated the whole time you are brining. Rinse afterwards to remove excess salt before drying.
Drying:
An important step in smoking your fish is drying it to form a “pellicle” coating. This pellicle coating seals in moisture and helps the smoke stick to the fish. I’m not sure how or why, could be magic, but without it your fish will not smoke properly. To get your pellicle, place your fish in the smoker and let it air dry for 2-3 hours until you notice a tough shiny coat develop. Once the pellicle fairies are done and the coating is visible you are ready to smoke your fish.
Smoking:
Now that you are ready to smoke its time to pick which wood chips to use. You can choose from a variety of hard woods. Fruit woods like apple, plum, etc. will leave a sweeter smoke flavor. Alder, hickory and mesquite leave a sharp smoky taste. We use Alder wood chips on all of our smoked fish at Tonka.
Avoid soft woods like pines, firs, and hemp. These can produce a harsh tasting soot and/or cause you to play nintendo and eat cheetos the rest of the day.
After picking your wood flavor place your salmon in the smoker before you fire it up. The most important secret to delicious smoked salmon every time is to slowly bring the temperature up in stages over the course of several hours. This allows the smoke to permeate the fish and prevents curd from forming.
Once you have slowly brought the internal temperature up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit you should let it continue smoking for an additional 30 minutes. All in all your entire smoking time should last 3-4 hours. The longer you let it smoke the more it will dry out and resemble jerky. Experiment with cooking times to find your personal favorite. Really as long as you have cooked it at 160 degrees for at least 30 minutes your salmon is safe to eat.
It may seem complicated at first but it will become routine after a few tries. Be sure to keep notes and records (preferably not in crayon on a used napkin) as you learn what brine mixes, smoke times, and drying times work best for your individual tastes.
Smoking fish is a great way to spend a lazy summer afternoon while fooling people into thinking you are working hard. Grab a bottle of wine or a case of beer and spend the day hiding from responsibility. Be warned though, the smell and the smoke will bring people running faster then paparazzi chasing B list pantie-less celebrities. Of course you could just have us do all the work and ship you some of the best damn smoked salmon ever.
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03.26.08
Posted in Recipes at 12:51 pm by Will Ware
I’ve been looking a lot lately at Rocky Point Resorts Cookbook and will move on to the next Alaskan seafood cook book real soon. However, here’s another one…
1 onion, chopped
1/2 c. celery, sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 c. chicken broth
3 large potatoes, diced
3 carrots, sliced
1 1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. dill seeds
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 can corn
1 lb. peeled, cooked shrimp, which is on sale at www.TonkaSeafoods.com with free shipping!
1 can evaporated milk
Saute onion, celery, and garlic in oil. Add broth, potatoes, carrots, and seasonings and simmer till tender. Add zucchini, corn and shrimp and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in canned milk. Serve.
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03.20.08
Posted in Recipes at 3:35 pm by Will Ware
Here is another recipe from Rocky Point Resort’s Cookbook.
Susan’s Ceviche:
1 lb. halibut
2 c. lime juice
1/4 c. cilantro
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 c. sliced green olives
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 large tomato, chopped
1 Tbsp. El Pato tomato sauce
3/4 c. Clamato Juice
Cut halibut into 1/2 inch cubes. Soak in lime juice until acid of juice “cooks” fish. Drain fish. Rinse slightly with cold water. Drain again. Stir in rest of ingredients. El Pato is the brand name of a tomato sauce in the Mexican section of the grocery store. It is very spicy, not your typical tomato sauce!
Mike, I don’t know if this recipe will help you or not, but I do know it’s better than your competitions.
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03.19.08
Posted in Recipes at 11:29 am by Will Ware
Here’s a recipe featured in the Rocky Point Resort Cook Book. Rocky Point is renown for their cookbook recipes.
Tonka Seafoods Smoked Salmon Fettuccine.
1 lb. uncooked linguine pasta
1 lb. fresh asparagus, snow peas or broccoli
1 clove garlic
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large red bell pepper
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 c. whipping cream
1 (6.5 oz.) can Tonka Smoked Salmon
1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan
2 Tbsp. parsley
The dish goes together quickly so have all ingredients cleaned and sliced.
Cut asparagus in 1 1.2 inch pieces or if you choose broccoli, cut in bite-sized pieces. Snow peas can be left whole. Cut red pepper in strips. Mince garlic. Remove skin from salmon and break into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Start cooking pasta. Steam broccoli, snow peas, or asparagus just till crisp tender. Saute garlic in olive oil 1 minute. Add pepper and mushrooms; cook 3 more minutes. Add cream; bring to boil, then remove from heat and toss with hot cooked pasta. Gently toss in salmon , parmesan, parsley, and steamed vegetable.
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05.13.07
Posted in Recipes at 2:49 pm by Seth Scrimsher
Salmon Soup
This recipe is really easy to prepare and tastes like a rainbow dancing on your tongue Well, if you use Tonka’s smoked salmon.
7.5 oz canned salmon skinless boneless or smoked
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 T olive oil
2 red potatoes diced
2 cups milk regular or lowfat
salt and pepper
butter (optional)
Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. saute the onion and garlic in the oil until softened. Add the salmon and potatoes. Cover with the milk and simmer until the potatoes are soft, around 20 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley and toss a scoop of butter in if desired. Brag to your friends about what a good cook you are.
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05.09.07
Posted in Recipes at 4:02 pm by Seth Scrimsher
Not the Super Secret Squirrel way (I would never reveal that for less then $14,578.34). But follow these 5 steps and you’ll be on your way to making smoked salmon that will have your friends mooching off you even more then they already do.
Product:
First and most import are quality and cleanliness. Use only fresh or fresh frozen salmon that is of a high quality. Don’t use that 20 lb water marked gator salmon that was just about ready to spawn-out and die before you caught it up the river. Smoking does not “cover” or “hide” poor quality fish. In fact it will call attention to problem areas, think tight hip hugger jeans. A good rule of thumb is to only smoke fish you would eat fresh.
Preparation:
Make sure your preparation area is clean and sanitary, beg/bribe your mother to come over if need be. Carefully clean and remove all the slime and blood from your fish. Fillet or “split” the fish leaving the skin on. Remove the pin bones down the middle of each fillet with small pair of pliers. Next cut the fillets into equally sized strips, this insures they all finish smoking at the same time. Try to keep both the fish and your preparation room as cool and clean as possible during this time to keep bacteria growth to a minimum.
Brine:
The second step is salting the fish known as brine or brining. Most people prefer to start with a simple brine consisting of salt and water. Start with a basic mixture of 2 ½ cups of salt to each gallon of water. This allows the flavor of the smoke to shine through on your finished strips. Feel free to experiment adding flavors to the brine at this time. For example add a cup of brown sugar or a ¼ cup of soy sauce to your salt water mixture.
It is important that you use only pickling and canning salt, dairy salt, or kosher salt in your brine. Using iodized salt will add impurities and additives that will cause unpleasant flavors in your smoked fish. It is also best to used distilled or bottled water without large amounts of chlorine. You don’t want your salmon tasting like the community pool, or maybe you do, I won’t judge.
Make enough brine to completely cover all of your fish. A three to one ratio is recommended. For example use 30lbs of brine for 10lbs of fish. A gallon of brine will weigh approximately 8lbs so you would need 4 gallons to adequately soak 10lbs of salmon.
If you cut your strips 1 inch thick then the brine time should be right around 2 hours. Here is another step you can alter to personal taste but we have found 2 hours to work best. Make sure your mixture is refrigerated the whole time you are brining. Rinse afterwards to remove excess salt before drying.
Drying:
An important step in smoking your fish is drying it to form a “pellicle” coating. This pellicle coating seals in moisture and helps the smoke stick to the fish. I’m not sure how or why, could be magic, but without it your fish will not smoke properly. To get your pellicle, place your fish in the smoker and let it air dry for 2-3 hours until you notice a tough shiny coat develop. Once the pellicle fairies are done and the coating is visible you are ready to smoke your fish.
Smoking:
Now that you are ready to smoke its time to pick which wood chips to use. You can choose from a variety of hard woods. Fruit woods like apple, plum, etc. will leave a sweeter smoke flavor. Alder, hickory and mesquite leave a sharp smoky taste. We use Alder wood chips on all of our smoked fish at Tonka.
Avoid soft woods like pines, firs, and hemp. These can produce a harsh tasting soot and/or cause you to play nintendo and eat cheetos the rest of the day.
After picking your wood flavor place your salmon in the smoker before you fire it up. The most important secret to delicious smoked salmon every time is to slowly bring the temperature up in stages over the course of several hours. This allows the smoke to permeate the fish and prevents curd from forming.
Once you have slowly brought the internal temperature up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit you should let it continue smoking for an additional 30 minutes. All in all your entire smoking time should last 3-4 hours. The longer you let it smoke the more it will dry out and resemble jerky. Experiment with cooking times to find your personal favorite. Really as long as you have cooked it at 160 degrees for at least 30 minutes your salmon is safe to eat.
It may seem complicated at first but it will become routine after a few tries. Be sure to keep notes and records (preferably not in crayon on a used napkin) as you learn what brine mixes, smoke times, and drying times work best for your individual tastes.
Smoking fish is a great way to spend a lazy summer afternoon while fooling people into thinking you are working hard. Grab a bottle of wine or a case of beer and spend the day hiding from responsibility. Be warned though, the smell and the smoke will bring people running faster then paparazzi chasing B list pantie-less celebrities. Of course you could just have us do all the work and ship you some of the best damn smoked salmon ever.
Submitted with bated breath and sweaty palms to problogger’s “Top 5 Contest”.
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