Making Hot Smoked semi-candied Salmon at home: First attempt.

Having no recipe to guide me, working only from my own experience and fables of how they make that amazing smoked salmon in the northern part of Vancouver Island (Hardy Boys is one example you may have heard of), I decided to dive in and make smoked salmon.

My smoker, a mister to calm the fire, and home made maple syrup to brush on top

The first job was to cut up the salmon into long strips.

Then I made a mixture of salt, maple sugar, and black pepper.  I dredged each piece of salmon in the mix and cured it for about 20 hours.

Before

after curing

At this stage the salmon feels very firm.  All that moisture came from the fish.

I should have rinsed the salmon at this point, but I forgot.  Because of this, it turned out to be excessively salty.

I dried the salmon using paper towel, and left it on a rack, uncovered, in the fridge for about 2 hours to dry extra well.  From what I have read, this stage is super-important if you want the smoke flavour to stick.

This is a charcoal BBQ/smoker so I started it up about half an hour before I was ready to get smoking.  The fire is in a separate box attached to the side of the grill.  You build up a fire with charcoal and then you put the chips (in a tinfoil bag with holes in it) or blocks of wood on the fire to make some smoke.

The problem I encountered with this is that it got too hot too soon.  The fish actually cooked instead of slowly gathering smoke.  But not a complete loss.  Each time I use this smoker, I learn something new.

In the end, I only smoked it for about 2 hours.  Next time I think I'll smoke it for at least 4, maybe 8 hours.

But it looks good, and if you can get past the over-salty-ness of the whole thing, it actually has a lot of potential.

I wonder if I should add the label 'kitchen failure' to this post or not.  I mean, we ate the fish, and I learned a heck of a lot about smoking salmon.  But to be completely honest with you, it wasn't exactly the best smoked salmon in the world.  In fact, I would be ashamed to serve this to someone, even a friend.

But then again, I tried something new, without a recipe, and had fun making it.  I discovered new information about my smoker that I never realized before.  And about fish, and about curing in general.

Eventually, I'll get it right and post the final recipe here.

Rice, salted salmon in teriyaki sauce and cry baby cucumbers

A rather simple bento lunch, rice with ume and sesame seeds, salted salmon cooked in a teriyaki sauce, some cry baby cucumbers (these are quickly becoming my second favourite way to eat cucumbers after nuka - scroll down for the recipe) and because the beans in the fridge had gone bad when I wasn't looking, I stuck some frozen peas and corn (blanched) in the corner to stand in for veg.

I was surprised to discover that frozen peas and corn actually taste good on their own with no sauces or anything, even cold.  Although, when I opened the bento they had gone everywhere  and made a right mess of things.

Although I like cooking teriyaki sauce (soy-sub, sake, salt, honey, and a few drops of rice vinegar usually do the trick), I don't think it goes well with this salmon.  The salted salmon is already too strong in taste, all the sauce did was to highlight the fishy-ness of the fish (which is the part of the fish I like least).

The background is an onigiri rice ball with some of the salmon for filling.  The Captain, not a big fan of seaweed, said don't bother with the nori wrapper.  He won't be saying that again as now he knows it's not just for taste, it's to keep your hands from getting all sticky.



This bento shared at...

Bento Videos I Enjoy

As the title says, here are a few bento related videos that I enjoy.  Most of them are recipes, but this first one is actually an IKEA add.

It's short and sweet, and the look on her face when she finally fits that final tamagoyaki in the bento box is fantastic.  She's one of those people who can express an entire novel worth or emotion in a few seconds.  I first came across this video on the JustBento site, here.

Since we are talking about commercials, this bento related add always brings a tear to my eye.  Here's a version with English Subtitles, but personally I think the message comes across just fine even without them.

I think it would be a great deal of fun to try making each recipe in this video.  Anyone want to take on that challenge with me?

Speaking about mums, I kind of wish this next woman was my mum.  What an amazing cook.

Cooking With Dog (no, it's not what you think.  There's a dog, it's cute, and it sits diligently beside the woman as she cooks yummy food.  Really, it's cooking along side a dog, but that doesn't have the same ring to it, does it now?) has a whole series of videos for Japanese cooking.  They are easy to follow and if you go to the video's main page, the recipes are written out for you underneath the video.

I have made the potato salad from this video and it is a Huge Hit in our house.  Even The Ancient gobbles it up.  I haven't had a chance to take a photo of it yet because it gets eaten the moment I've finished making it.

I can't wait to try the chicken.

Another delicious video by her and her dog is this Onigiri video.

I don't know how she gets her yaki onigiri to stay together so well.  Mine always fall apart.


And a rather amusing and upbeat take on onigiri:

FeastofFiction make some highly entertaining cooking videos.  

Here's a non-bento related video for you, in honour of the new season of Doctor Who starting this week.

After watching this video, I feel strangely compelled to try this.  It doesn't look anywhere near as repulsive as it did when I first saw The Doctor eat it.

Bento Lunch: hot weather picnic and a quick fix for an eco lunch box

What better way to test out my new bento box than to go on a picnic. 

The Captain's lunch (in my old Eco Lunchbox) has rice with peas and corn, ume and grilled salted salmon in the bottom and cabbage kimpira, nuka pickles and spicy cucumber on the top.  

My box has the same with a bit of mini-anchovies preserved in soy-sub, sake and honey mix.  

On top of the rice is a light sprinkling of spicy sprinkles.

I choose these bento fillings as they keep well in hot weather.  I was very careful to make everything (but the pickles) piping hot as I packed it in the bento, then allowed it to cool to room temperature before placing the lids on top.  Allowing them to cool before sealing them up reduces the amount of moisture and helps the food keep fresh longer.  

Quick fix for an Eco Lunchbox that doesn't fit together snugly any more:

At the end, when I was rushing out the door, I noticed that the metal box didn't fit snugly any more.  Not having time to re-pack into a different box, or to fix the box properly, I had to do a quick-fix which is actually quite simple.  Here's what I did:

If the clips that fasten the bottom to the top are a bit loose, and you're in too much of a rush to do a proper fix, rest the bottom of the clip on the counter and gently press in on the wires where my thumb is.  You may need to do one wire at a time as it's quite stiff.  Bend the wire just a little bit at a time and test it frequently.  This should keep well enough for the day, but then again, this box was never leek proof anyway, especially the bottom section.  

The problem with the box is that the lower section is somehow squeezed out on one end and pushed in on the other.  Although over 8 months old, it's never been banged around or received any sort of damage I know of.  In fact, I almost never use the bottom half.  I'm going to have to reshape it somehow to make it a bit less drafty down there.  But until I can get around to doing that, I guess no more rice or things that dry out quickly in that section.     

Bento Lunch salmon with ginger beans

Today's bento is Salted Salmon with Ginger Beans

For the Green Bean recipe, I used a commercial soy-sub made from fermented rice, but it also tastes nice with the fish sauce soy-sub.

The cucumbers in the top are my version of an Indian Pickles and the flower is drawn on with umeboshi paste.  At the bottom of the flower are some tiny anchovies I preserved in soy-sub and honey.  The little fish are very high in calcium and other good things for your body.

An my original sketch:

It never goes exactly to plan, but at least this time, I think it turned out much better.