Ann's Blog
Toronto, Canada:
August 24, 2011
A smokin’ birthday gift
My birthday was a couple weeks back, and Steve surprised me with gifts (yes, plural) that proved (yet again) his ability to divine what I would really really REALLY love before I figure it out for myself. One of them was a stovetop mini-smoker made by Camerons Products. Our cruising friend Yani on Magus, who is a superb cook, has one, and we’ve tasted the fabulous smoked fish she produces in it. But as I’ve said ad nauseum, Receta just doesn’t have enough storage space for specialized kitchen stuff that isn’t used all the time.
Steve, obviously, thought differently. He started his we-need-a-smoker campaign last spring when we caught several very large fish in quick succession. Unfortunately, Receta doesn’t have a very big freezer, so we have to consume what we catch in short order and share with friends. A smoker and a vacuum-sealer (Yani has one of these, too) would be the perfect solution, Steve said, allowing us to enjoy (and share) our catch over a somewhat longer time frame. (As fabulous as it is, sometimes you just don’t want fish for dinner six days in a row.) We do have plenty of fridge space to keep stuff cold, just not hard-frozen.
When I didn’t leap on his suggestion, he merely tucked it away. Until my birthday.
Since then, I’ve been experimenting with it in our condo kitchen, to get the technique down before we return to the boat. Steve thoughtfully included four different types of wood chips with the gift. (You put a tablespoon or two of the chips in the base of the smoker. A drip tray sits on top of the chips, and the food to be smoked goes on a rack over the drip tray. Close the lid and place it on a preheated stovetop element.) My first go was a salmon fillet (smoked over alder), followed closely by a chunk of swordfish (ditto). I served them as an appetizer to cruising friends – with cream cheese and capers on baguette slices – and they seemed to pass muster. (It wasn’t quite up there with the fish we buy from Windward Smoked Foods in Carriacou but, hey, it was my first effort.) Channeling Martinique, I next tried smoking some chicken (over cherry). Not bad at all – okay, it was pretty wonderful tossed with pasta and some absolutely perfect Ontario field tomatoes – though next time I’ll take if off the heat sooner.
I did have a total failure: corn on the cob, smoked over cherry. “I can’t imagine the taste of smoked corn,” Steve said when I told him I was doing this – quite a prescient comment, as it turned out. I was hoping it would be like corn roasted on the barbecue, but with a greater depth of flavour, and I was planning to use some of the kernels in a smoky, buttery cornbread. Instead, it hit the trash after a couple of sample bites. It was over-the-top, unpleasantly smoky, leaving the taste of ashes in my mouth. (That said, I will try again, with a different wood, fewer chips, and half the time in the smoker.)
No question: The smoker will be with us when we return to Receta – though I still haven’t figured out where I’ll store it.
But in for a penny, in for a pound. Steve’s birthday is two months away. Do you think he’d like a small vacuum sealer?
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I got a vacuum sealer last year for my birthday. LOVE it!!!!
Dear Ann: Great post. Won’t the resulting smoke foul the air inside the galley/boat? Ken and Lynn….Silverheels III in Grenada
Oh yes Ann, a vacuum sealer would be the perfect gift for him.
When will you be back in Grenada? We arrive December 10 to March 10 with our boys coming down for Christmas. Hope to see you and Steve again.
Vano
Hi, Lynn and Ken –
I’m relying on our galley fans, and the open companionway and ports to act as a chimney for the smoke. But, truth be told, I don’t think the smoker produces as much smoke as when I burn sugar in oil for stew chicken or geera lamb…. (And it hasn’t set off the condo smoke detectors so far this summer…..)