Smoked Fish Dinner Food

SMOKED FISH PLATTER

Steps:

• Remove flesh from fish, leaving skin in one piece, reserving skin. Discard bones. Coarsely chop flesh (you should have about 4 cups). Transfer to a medium bowl. Add celery, onion, and mayonnaise. Mix gently to combine.
• Line a large platter with lettuce. Open reserved skin and place on platter, scale-side down. Mound salad onto one half of skin, using the skin as a template. Fold the remaining half of skin over salad, and gently press to form salad into the shape of the fish. Using scissors, cut top half of skin off, and discard. Using the edge of a spatula, gently score the salad to resemble the bones of the fish.
• Arrange the smoked fish around the whitefish salad. Garnish with salmon roe, caperberries, olives, lemon slices, and herbs. Serve with bread and cream cheese, on the side.

SMOKED FISH DINNER

Steps:

• In a large bowl, mix the cucumbers and salt and set aside at room temperature for 1 hour. In a colander in the sink, drain and rinse the cucumbers thoroughly under cold running water, then drain it well, pat dry, Transfer the cucumbers to a large bowl and mix with the sour cream, dill, 1 teaspoon vinegar, cayenne, and season with pepper, to taste. Meanwhile, toss the onion with the remaining 2 teaspoons of the vinegar in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Set aside to cool.
• Arrange the fish, cucumber salad, onions, watercress, and bowls of horseradish on a large serving platter. If desired, serve with the multi-grain bread.

SMOKED FISH

Steps:

• Mix all brine ingredients thoroughly.
• Cut fish in 1-2" pieces, leaving skin on.
• If fish is fresh, soak for 1-1/2 hours; if it has been frozen, soak for 45-60 minutes.
• Remove fish from marinade and place on smoker-racks skin-side down.
• Allow to glaze at room temperature for at least 4 hours, and preferably overnight.
• I usually set a fan to blow across the fish and help them get dry to the touch and look very glazed.
• Cold-smoke (at 120-140 degrees F) for 8-12 hours to obtain desired flavor.
• Then hot smoke (at 180-200 degrees F) for 1-2 hours or finish in a 300 degree F oven for 30-45 minutes to get desired texture.
• I do not like a mushy fish, so I cook it until it firms up, though it's hard to tell, though, until after it has cooled down.
• Cool to room temperature, freeze on cookie sheets, package, and store in freezer.
• Best with stronger flavored, oily fish such as salmon, tuna, or swordfish; in general, mild fish smoke poorly.
• Notes: I use a Brinkmann Smok’n Pit water-smoker.
• The water helps to keep the temperature low, and the steam in the smoke keeps meat more moist during long cooking.
• My smoker is intended for charcoal smoking, but for fish, I place soaked wood chips in a metal (not foil, foil will burn through, use real metal) sitting on top of a cheap hot plate (with a rheostat control, not just an on-off switch), which sits on a brick so the pan is up under the bottom of the smoker, where the charcoal pan normally sets.
• Adjust temperature by adjusting hot plate up or down (usually somewhere between low and medium), and throw another handful of wet wood chips into the pie plate every 30-40 minutes, when the smoke stops generating.
• Depending on my mood, and what kind of wood chips are available, I usually smoke fish with alder, cherry, oak, maple, orange or lemon wood (on the rare occasion I can find orange or lemon) Alder and cherry are usually the easiest to find, and they both work beautifully for fish.
• Do not use hickory or mesquite; they are just too strong and completely overwhelm fish!
• I usually double or triple this recipe; I have rigged my double-size smoker to take up to 4 racks to handle the larger amounts.
• Since this whole process takes a lot of time, the little extra effort is worth while, and the smoked fish freezes well, lasting a couple years with only a little deterioration in flavor or texture.
• SAFETY NOTE: Needless to say, DO THIS OUTDOORS!
• Cabon monoxide KILLS!