Hot Smoked Salmon, the best thing I ever made. Ever. Truly. Ever

I love seafood, I could eat it every meal.  I love salmon but find it so often overdone to the point of being dusty in my mouth or chewy... euwww.  I am constantly on the hunt for salmon nirvana.

One of my favorite appetizers out in the world, when I get to go out to eat, is the smoked salmon at Pappadeux.  It's expensive so I don't get to go often. I never thought I'd be able to reproduce anything even close at home.  I did.  I might have done it better.

I own a smoker.  I know where to buy salmon.  How hard can it be? Let the experiment begin.

This is a quickie, I'll tell you now, the experiment was more successful than I could have imagined.  You're going to want to add salmon to your shopping list, now.

TRACY'S HOT SMOKED SALMON 

2 lbs salmon (it was on sale!) cut into 1 1/2 pieces
salt
pepper
sugar

smoker
apple wood chips (soaked)
water

Rub salmon with seasonings, leave to 'dry' on the counter.  Put the salmon on tin foil, it'll cook on it.  Don't make it too big, just enough to be a nice plate for the fish.  Leave it about 30 mins, the time it takes the Masterbuilt smoker to preheat to 250.

When it's hot, fill the wood chip delivery box thing with SOAKED applewood chips.
Pour some water in the bowl of the smoker to keep everything moist.  I didn't want to muddy the flavors.

Slide the fish into the smoker, on the foil, and turn the temperature down to 200.  The hotter start allows the smoker to be hot enough to actually smoke the chips.  Open the damper on the top half way and let the smoke draw up around the fish.

Lock and load, set the timer for 40 minutes.  Prepare for nirvana

Here's the beauty shots and commentary
Here's the 2 lbs sliced thickly. Just salt, pepper and a little tiny bit of sugar on it, I want it to taste like salmon.
 

OH MY GOD, the fat in the salmon slowly ooooooozed up and through the fish, you have NO IDEA what an amazing this this does to the texture of the fish.  I've never experienced anything quite like it.  The flavor is slightly smokey but only slightly, I wanted it to taste like fish that'd been kissed with smoke and that's exactly what I got
 

I took it out of the smoker and let it rest, to come back to room temperature.  I didn't want it hot.  

It was easy to de-skin (?is that a word?) each piece.  Turn it on it's side and the skin peels off in one piece and doesn't take an ounce of flesh with it, oh yeah, that's the way to do it!

Then I served it up on a plate, then added some aioli and some hollandaise, because, well you know, I had some in the fridge

  

Then I put some on a crusty roll, it's almost spreadable!

Then I flaked it on top of pasta with lemon and a thought of cream, crazy.

  

Best fish I have ever EVER made.  It's worth trying, it's worth doing, I hope you love it as much as I do.  I love it.  Crazy love. Wow.

/enjoy

Updates and plans...

Ok darlings; 

This isn't about meatballs, but there's a meatball post coming, I wanted to get your, "oh goodness!" juices flowing with this looker of a picture! 

My update is that: 

I'm writing to Nesco about my pressure cooker, trying to get involved with them to review and write more about it.  I have replaced the insert because I dropped it and it bent, but I have noticed my gasket is loose now and I have to decide whether to replace it or buy a new/same/different pressure cooker.  I have to admit that I love that thing and made some more food this week, the posts will be up this weekend.  I've been terribly busy with getting kiddo organized for his freshman year of homeschooling high school.  Exciting and terrifying. 

I've applied to be a tester with Campbell's.  I'll keep you posted on that. 

I'm working on recipes using some canned food, seriously, I accidentally tried some and well, they were delicious.  Watch for recipes. 

I am reworking some of my British classic recipes, bangers and mash, toad in the whole, pie with custard, cottage and shepherd's pie, Yorkshire pudding and suet dumplings.  Watch for those recipes and preparations as well. 

I've connected with my Norwegian sister and am going to try to get some ideas from her for some of her local fare, sometimes it's nice to shake it all up! 

In the mean time, start saving all your fat from whatever animal you happen to cook.  Save the fat and pour it into jam jars, labelled and shoved in the door of your freezer.  I have jars labelled, "chicken", "beef", "bacon" and "goose".  Yeah, I have goose fat.  Anyway, we will be using these fats in various incarnations over the next while and I want you to have it ready.  When you're at the grocery store, ask your butcher if they have any fat throw aways and if you can have it, some say yes and you can bring it home, render it in a saucepan over medium low heat for a long time and get absolutely DELICIOUS cooking fat for FREE. 

Ok, back to what I need to do, I'll keep you posted on the happenings.  

ALSO, my posts on Cuisinart, Nesco and Pappadeux are getting really high traffic, thanks!!!  

/Tracy