Smoked and Cured (Bacon)

Cold smoking rig

and... some results:

Sonoran Hotdog

Wrap a hotdog in bacon. Cook it.
Put some beans (pinto or refried) and mustard in the bottom of a hotdog bun.
Hot dog in bun.
Put shit on the top (tomatoes, avocados, onions, mayo with lemon juice in it, jalapenos, etc.
Eat.

How to cold smoke salmon (including building a cold smoker - sorta)

This is something I just sent to a local newspaper reporter who interviewed us today about the cold smoker:

Hi Melissa,
I'm assuming I'll be seeing you here in a few minutes but I thought I would send you some smoker building instructions that approximate what I did as well as the recipe for the salmon itself.

Here is the smoker (sorta): http://cruftbox.com/blog/archives/001574.html

And the salmon:
1. Find a good wild and fatty salmon variety. Sockeye is one of the easiest to find that has one of the highest fat contents.
2. Make sure it was previously frozen or freeze and unfreeze it if it wasn't. The word on the street is that this helps in the curing/smoking process - it explodes membranes or some such thing.
3. Make the curing rub (recipe to follow)
4. Put a decent covering of the rub on the bottom of a large pan with high walls (there will be copious amounts of liquid coming from the salmon during curing). Put the salmon skin side down on top of the cure. Drizzle rum or my favorite, expensive bourbon that you probably shouldn’t use for cooking.
5. Smear a bunch of the cure on top of the salmon – I wouldn’t worry about using too much.
5. Cover the salmon with plastic wrap
6. Put a smaller cookie sheet or something else flat on top of the salmon and place bricks or a bunch of cans on top of it. Basically you need to help push the water out of the salmon.
7. Let cure for 24-36 hours in the fridge
8. Rinse salmon very well under cold water and dry
9. Place the salmon on cooling racks or something else that will allow air the flow all around the salmon. Place the salmon back in the fridge (or under fans if you want to speed it up a bit) uncovered and let sit for a few hours (I let it go overnight).
10. Smoke the salmon anywhere from 6 to 24 hours using fruit woods (apple, cherry, etc.) and/or hickory. I would avoid mesquite (for everything really). Don’t let the temperature rise over 90 deg. Fahrenheit. Around 50-60 degrees is really best. You can also hot smoke salmon which actually cooks it. This would be cooked at 120-160 degrees depending on who you ask.
11. Slice thinly (or however you want really). We always eat it on bagels with cream cheese. I can get you a recipe for great bagels – but unfortunately their creator has left town forever so we couldn’t get any home baked ones for today. However, Einstein’s just came to town and they have decent bagels and are nice.
12. The salmon can be wrapped in butchers paper and refrigerated for up to 3 weeks.


Dry Cure Recipe (Adapted from the book Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn)

½ Cup Kosher Salt
¼ Cup Dark Brown Sugar
¼ Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon pink salt (curing salt)
1 Teaspoon Pepper (white, black, whatever…)
1 Teaspoon Allspice
1 Teaspoon dill
1 Teaspoon of something else interesting – I never use the same recipe twice, it’s all about what’s in my spice cabinet. Mace, Ground Bayleaves, Cloves, Smoked Paprika, whatever… give them all a try! Leave out spices above, switch them around, doesn’t matter. Just make sure you leave the salt and sugars alone.

Past Creations

Homemade Lobster Ravioli & Avocado Salad
(I have no idea what we ended up for recipe wise)



& of course the usual fried turkey

Last weeks roux

A basic roux... butter, flour, and slooooow cooking in cast iron. Made for a really great gumbo - recipe to come...

Tortilla Soup

INGREDIENTS
* 1 onion sweet, chopped
* 1 bell pepper of some sort
* 2-3 Jalapenos
* 5 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* A bunch of shakes of chili powder and or southwest seasoning
* A bunch shakes of italian seasoning
* 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
* 4 cups chicken broth (see below)
* 2-3 ears of corn OFF the cob
* 1 cup white hominy
* 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
* 1 big can black beans drained
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
* 3 cups of cooked chicken (from recipe below)
* crushed tortilla chips
* sliced avocado
* low fat mexican cheese
* chopped green onions

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Stir in corn, peppers, hominy, chiles, beans, cilantro, and chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls, and top with crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices, cheese, and chopped green onion.


Chicken Broth Directions

INGREDIENTS
1 Whole Chicken Chopped (or a bunch of chicken parts with some significant meat)
3 Celery Stalks with leaves chopped
1 Onion
2 Carrot Sticks chopped
1 tsp ground peppercorns
1 bayleaf
6 chicken bouillon cubes
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp thyme
t tsp salt

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot combine chicken, water, large onion, celery with leaves, fresh parsley, peppercorns, bouillon, bay leaf, celery seed, thyme and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer 4 hours.
(Use this for chicken noodle soup as well)

Adapted from:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Tortilla-Soup-I/Detail.aspx
&
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Soup-III/Detail.aspx