Mike’s smoked salmon

I am lucky enough to have a husband that has a few really good recipes under his belt. Mike cooks a good steak, has a couple of delicious lamb dishes and does a mean roast chicken, but his pièce de résistance is smoked salmon. He learnt this from my dad but it’s safe to say Mike has now surpassed my dads efforts (sorry dad.)

This is such a simple method with really delicious results. The prep only takes a couple of minutes, and the smoking is roughly 40 minutes so it’s pretty quick. The salmon is really flaky and tender and melts in your mouth. We like to serve it as a main with a good salad and/or veggies, or as a party snack with blinis and a good cream cheese.

Buying a whole fillet can be quite cost effective. We always buy ours from Farro, their quality is always 100% and they pin bone too. A smoker is a good investment, we use this one.

Ingredients

1 fillet of salmon (approx 1kg), skin on and pin boned
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons table salt

You’ll also need 2-3c Manuka wood chips and methylated spirits.

Method

Place the salmon on a large serving plate.
Combine the sugar and salt in a small bowl then spoon it all over the salmon, making sure it’s in a nice even layer. Cover with Gladwrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.

 

Preparing the smoker 

Place the smoker on a safe area away from anything flammable. We put ours on the driveway. Our smoker gets really hot so we use 4 small rocks to prop up the rack and to keep the salmon away from the worst of the heat. Your smoker might not need this.
Fill the bottom of the smoker with wood chips, just covering the bottom, place the 4 rocks in the corners and set the rack on top.

Fill the two burner dishes with meths and then carefully set them alight.
Place the smoker on top, add the salmon fillet and then pop the lid on.

Once the meths have burnt off (about 20 mins), leave the salmon in the smoker for another 20 minutes to finish smoking. Remove from the smoker and serve immediately. Wait until the sawdust has completely cooled before disposing of it.

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