Category Archives: Fish

Fish, Salmon, WSM

Warm smoked side of Salmon

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I’ve done my fair share of salmon on the OTP, but this time I was trying something different. I wanted to do some warm smoked salmon, since I had a nice group of friends coming over tonight. It was one side of salmon with the skin still on, so I could play around with it nicely.

First I did was to salten it. There are 2 ways of brining, wet and dry, and I choose the wet one. I took 10 liters of water and added 1 kg of salt to it. (ratio is 100 grams per liter of water).

now, keep stirring until all the salt is dissolved and absorbed by the water. Doesn’t takt that long, just be patient. Took me about 5 minutes.

Added the whole salmon and let it in there for about 60-90 minutes.

After that, I removed the salmon from the brine and let it dry out in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

Now, for the smoking, I had to play around a little. I couldn’t get the temperature in my smoker under 85 degrees, so I had to go with that. (Celcius, not Fahrenheit).

Once in the temperature, I cut the salmon in 2 parts and placed them on the grill on smoking planks (although they absolutely didn’t burn, what was the idea). I used the planks to make sure I could remove the salmon from the grill rack, and not have it stuck to it at the end of the smoke.

I applied whiskey barrel wood, but I guess all wood would be good. Just choose your own personal preference.

I continued to measure the core temperature and maintaining the lowest temperature possible in the WSM and kept adding hands of whiskey wood to it, to keep the smoke levels going, especially in the beginning.

After about 1 – 1,5 hour, temperature hit a 45 degrees celcius mark and I decided it was time to have a go at it.

Now, just put it on the table, add some forks and a bowl of fresh warm bread and let them have a go at it. It was delicious!

asparagus, Direct, Fish, OTP, Potatoes, trout

Grilled trout with green asparagus and roasted potatos

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Been some time for me to make a new post here, but it’s that time again, fortunately. I had a nice workout on Stand Up Paddling yesterday, and wanted to enjoy the good weather a little more, so I fired up the old OTP again. Bought some fresh rainbow trouts and was feeling confident. Trout is usually one of my favorites, eventhough there are often a lot of fishbones that stuck to the meat and end up in my mouth, but …. it doesn’t affect taste, and that’s good!

Ingredients

  • 2 fresh rainbow trouts
  • 500 grams (1 pound) of precooked little potatoes
  • 500 grams of green asparagus
  • fresh dille
  • about 50-75 ml of extra vergine olive oil
  • 1 lemon
  • salt and pepper to taste.

First the preparation.

Take 2 teaspoons of chopped dille and add the 75 ml of olive oil. Add a nice bit of salt and a little pepper and mix well into a nice marinade.

So after mixing it well, just add about 2 tablespoons of this marinade to the asparagus and to the potatoes as well, and mix it through.

Now start with the trouts. They were bought cleaned, so I just washed them out a little with fresh water and dried the skin with a towel. Now I’ve cutted into the sides a few times with a large kitchen knife and added salt and pepper to both sides and the inside as well.

After salting and peppering it, I’ve added 2-3 slices of lemon and a few branches of dille in there, before putting it into my fish grate for the BBQ.

Now, I’ve prepared everything I need, I just need to fire up the Q and pre-heat the oven on about 50 degrees celcius. (you’ll know why later on)

I’ve used a grill pan over direct coals to grill the potatoes in about 20 minutes, while turning them over every 5-10 minutes, giving them a nice grill mark style cook, and did the same with the asparagus, except a lot shorter, of course.

The trout only needs about 5-6 minutes per side, but while doing that, I’ve kept the potatoes and asparagus warm in the pre-heated oven. (told you I’d explain later 😉 )

Served and ready to be enjoyed!

Fish, gurnard, WSM

Smoked gurnard from the WSM

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Starting from scratch, both with ingredients and with knowledge, I’ve bought about 15 gurnards at the local fish market, only to find out at home that they were not yet cleaned. Learning curve up ahead, but don’t worry, it’s just fish, so how hard can it be…. ;-).

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First I made a cut in the neck of the fish, behind the gills, to the belly, and I opened up the belly of the fish. When cutting up the neck and bones inside, the guts of the fish actually came out themselves, leaving me with a beautiful, clean fish.

Now I removed the spikey backfin and needles and cleaned it up.

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These fishes needed to be brined in fresh water with salt. I added 500 grams of salt in about 5 liters of water, and stirred until it was dissolved.

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Leaving this for about 1-2 hours, they get a really good salty flavor, enough to make it ‘fingerlicking’ good! I’m really enjoying it so far.

When brining is about te be done, we start the WSM and fire it up with some coals and let it come up to about 100 Celcius.

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The ideal temperature for the WSM filled with water. No wood has been added yet. When the Q is warming up, we dry off the fishes after rinsing it with some fresh water. (use an old towel for this, please, but make it a clean one).

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Once the Q is about 70 degrees Celcius, we add the dried gurnard and let it dry in the nice ambient temperature of the WSM. When it reaches about 100 degrees, we add 2-3 chuncks of apple wood. Not soaked in water, but just on it. large chunks, that can smoke up to about 30-45 minutes. The fishes can be on there for about 1-1,5 hours.

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When it’s done, I served it with some oven fried potato chips with rosemary and garlic. Awesome! Fish and chips!

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Chicken, Fish, OTP, Paella, Vegetables

BBQ Paella with seafruits and chicken

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Yeah! Paella on the grill! Been some time, but it’s always a thankful and happy dish to prepare. Easy to do, but some work in the preparation.

I’ve chosen to do a straightforward paella, but nevertheless a good one!

Ingredients are the following.

  • chicken legs (about 6 of them)
  • sea fruits (as much as you like)
  • a chorizo sausage (spicy!!!)
  • 2 unions
  • 2 bell peppers
  • green peas (hand full)
  • about 6 gamba’s. (big prawns)
  • paella herbs (recipe by clicking the link)
  • 450 grams of paella rice
  • 2 liters of vegetable stock made with a whole pepper and about 4 loafs of garlic and a nice whisk of paella herbs)
  • 1 lemon

Dice up the union, bell peppers and the chorizo in rough cuts. (the preparation …. 😉 )

Start by firing up the grill for direct grilling. Not too hot, but nice and warm. Start by grilling the chicken legs, until they get a nice brown skin and move them to indirect. Let them lie there until they’re well done. Move them to a bowl and keep them aside.

Put on your paella pan (yes, you need one, you really do!) and let it heat up. Put in some olive oil (a nice stir) and heat it up. Once hot, put in your chorizo and union and fry until the unions are nice and soft. Add the bell peppers and keep stirring. Once they are nice and hot, add the sea fruits and keep stirring. If all looks nice and warm and ready, put in a cross of rice (to keep the bad paella spirits away) and stir the rice through as well. Bake it a little and once golden brown, just add the green peas and the stock as well.
(just until you see the stock coming over the total ingredients)

Once the stock is added, don’t stir anymore, in order to keep the rice good and cook a slightly thick layer on the bottom. In Spain they love it (I think….). Keep it there for about 20 minutes and open it up and put in the chicken legs and the gamba’s, if you want.

Close the lid again, and keep like that for about 10 minutes. Make sure the temp is not too high during the entire cook. The rice should be nice and moist and yellow, and it should smell delicious by now.

put in the lemon, sliced up, and serve in the pan on the table and enjoy!

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Fish, OTP, Salmon, WGA

Pasta Salad with Smoked Salmon

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Lovely and tasty pasta salad for those hot days that you don’t really want hot food. Very simple, but yummie.

Ingredients :

  • fusilli pasta
  • cucumber
  • little tomatoes
  • Basil leaves (fresh)
  • Lemon juice of half a lemon
  • homemade pesto (recipe following here)
  • smoked salmon on cedar wood.

 

Just cook the pasta as described on the package and cool it down using running cold water. Set aside for later use. For the cucumber, just cut it in half over the long side and use a spoon to remove the seeds. Now cut it up on long small bits (length of the fusilli pasta, roughly) and mix in the pasta. Also make the tomatoes as small as you like (I’ve cut it up 4 ways, but 2 might do if you have very small tomatoes. Also mix that in the pasta and now continue on making the pesto. When done, just add the pesto to the pasta and keep mixing it all well. Everything can be added to taste, no real measurements are taken here. I’ve added a handful of fresh basil leaves as well for smell and taste.

Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon and mix up well.

Now for the salmon, I’ve just added some salt and pepper to the salmon side and soaked a cedar plank in water. I’ve heated up the Q (WGA) and placed them together on the grill. The lid was not able to close completely due to the size of the plank, but that allowed for more heat, air, and thus smoke under the lid and the salmon was really really smoked and great of taste.

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With your hand, just break up the salmon and add the pieces to the pasta as well. Keep mixing and your done.

Let it cool a little and enjoy your meal!