Reckless Abandon: Smoked Salmon

For Christmas I asked for a stove-top smoker since I live in an apartment and the complex strictly prohibits outdoor smokers on our little patio (wimps). Sure enough Santa delivered my culinary desires (how does ~~she~~ he always know!?!) Don't be intimidated if you don't have a smoker....you can use a wok, large pot or pan! Instructions found here.

The stove-top smoker I own and use in this recipe is Cameron's Mini Stove-Top Smoker. It's fabulous and comes with a couple wood chip flavors. For this recipe I used Alder Wood Chips made specifically for a stove-top smoker. You can buy a variety pack from Cameron's here. Note: you can NOT use large wood chips that go in a regular smoker...it just won't work...they need to be more finely ground.

Ingredients:

8 oz. of Salmon

1 lemon

pepper

Gadgets Needed:

Stove-top smoker or other wok/pot/pan listed here

Alder Wood Chips (or other mild flavor)

Aluminum Foil (optional: helps with clean-up)

First step is to scoop 1-1.5 tsps of wood chips into the bottom of your smoker.

Next, cover the drip tray in aluminum foil to help with easy clean-up. You don't have to do this if you want to make things hard on yourself :)

Put the lid on your smoker and turn the burner to Medium heat. Once you see a bit of smoke escape from an edge of the smoker it is properly heated.

Carefully open the lid, put your wire rack on top of the drip tray and place the salmon skin-side down. Trick: coat the wire rack with Pam to prevent sticking although I forgot to do this and it didn't stick too much.

Pepper your salmon and squeeze about half a lemon on top.

Put the lid back on set the timer for about 20 minutes. Leave the stove-top burner set at medium heat.

Checking at about 15 minutes, open the lid and use a fork to see if the fish is flaky and done. You can shut the lid and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes depending on how done you like your fish.

Use a spatula to remove the salmon from the smoker. You can eat it warm over a bed of Israeli Couscous (recipe coming up in my next post), cold on a bagel in the morning, in a pasta, or bruschetta with capers and red onion (recipe also coming later this week!). It will keep great in the fridge all week!