Easy Cold-Smoked Mackerel Fillets

Got the cold smoker going? Why not pop on some quick-cured mackerel while you're at it!

I absolutely love smoked mackerel, although sometimes I find hot-smoked shop bought fillets a little chewy on top - if you cold smoke your own, you can avoid this part and have delicious, juicy smoked mackerel fillets ready to cook under the grill whenever you fancy! 

Just look how juicy it is inside when you flake some of the flesh away!

You can generally pick up fresh mackerel for very low prices, and once cured and smoked they will keep well in the fridge for several days if you vacuum pack them, or you can freeze them either raw or cooked. If you're using your cold smoker for something else (e.g. bacon... home made smoked bacon, mmm! See here for my home made bacon recipes) it makes perfect sense to utilise what space you have available in the smoker to smoke other things at the same time. Conveniently hard cheese (e.g. cheddar, gouda) and butter cold-smoke perfectly in 4-6 hours too (and you could also pop things like garlic, salt, paprika et. in there as well if you have any more space). 

You can of course just hot smoke or BBQ the mackerel once you've cured them, as it is quicker and then they're ready to eat; but I quite like the versatility of having them cold smoked, so I can cook them in whichever way I choose.

Easy Home Made Bacon - Plain, Old Fashioned, or Sweet Maple Cure.

Who doesn't love bacon? OK, apart from the obvious... but bacon just makes everything better, right?

Have you ever thought about having a go at making it yourself?

Then looked around and felt a bit overawed by the different recipes and methods?

Me too. So, after seeing someone I knew making some rather mouth-watering bacon and egg muffins from their own home made bacon, I was inspired to make the leap, do plenty of research (as is my wont) and have a go at making my own. It's actually surprisingly easy to make your own delicious bacon, and you don't need any special equipment to be able to make it - although there is the odd gadget that makes life easier, such as a meat slicer! So don't be afraid to give it a go - my step-by-step guide is further below!

My friend kindly shared the recipe they'd used with me, which was an American one using cup measurements. I'm happy using those in general, but when using things like salt, sugar and sodium nitrate, the mathematician in me feels much happier using weights (as crystals can vary in size, therefore one kind of salt is not of an equal weight to another by volume), and of course using something like sodium nitrate you need to weigh it out extremely accurately, as it can be toxic if too much is used, and if you don't use enough, you negate its powers of preventing pathogens occurring in your bacon. I strongly recommend using digital scales to ensure accuracy.

My bacon and tomato buttie... for bacony heaven, add some tomato wedges to the pan
at the end until a little camarelised, and put a smear of ketchup on the bread. Mmmm!!

It is your choice whether you choose to use a sodium nitrate product - using it ensures a higher level of food safety by preventing things like botulism, and maintains the pink colour of meat in the bacon which most of us are used to. If you don't use it, your bacon will have the normal grey colour of pork when cooked, which is purely an aesthetic detail, but you will not have quite the same bacteria killing properties in your cure. However, this blog is purely about making bacon, rather than further debating whether to use sodium nitrate or not and I can only vouch for the safety of preparing bacon using my method if you use the core ingredients as suggested in the appropriate measures.

Sous Vide Salmon in the Thermomix

Simply the most delicious way of cooking salmon I've encountered...

The thing about cooking things 'sous vide' (which translates to 'under vacuum' - although don't worry, you don't need a vacuum sealer for this dish) is that by keeping the temperature of the water you're cooking in constant, the internal temperature of the food is controlled, and you can cook it through at the perfect temperature all the way through without the outside being over-cooked, or the inside being raw or cold.

This salmon is cooked 'a la Heston Blumenthal' - the flesh is going to be of a soft and yielding nature; heated all the way through, but rare. This is the time and temperature for the perfect textured salmon, according to Heston Blumenthal's tastes and I love it, but it's not for everyone, so if it doesn't appeal then cook it at a higher temperature for longer (e.g. 55-60C for medium rare to medium - although if you want it well done, then it's not really worth cooking it this way, there are plenty of other methods - steaming in a parcel is a good one, to retain the best moisture in well done salmon while you cook rice or potatoes in the internal bowl, and vegetables in the Varoma tray).

I love to serve it with a warm new potato, green bean, caper and lemon salad with flat leaf parsley - once the sous vide cooking is done, you could add any herbs or spices you liked, before the quick pan sear (which is optional, but highly recommended). For my instructions for how to cook the perfect steak sous vide in the Thermomix (TM5 or TM31) have a look here - you won't go back! And to *safely* cook chicken breasts sous vide, look here.

American-Style Pulled Pork with Home-Made Barbecue Sauce

Moist, smoky, tender, slow-cooked pork, brined overnight, and rubbed with the perfect blend of spices before cooking; then shredded and mixed with the tasty cooking juices for maximum flavour...

This has a nice, subtle kick to the pork from the spice rub, and a delicious flavour and moistness from the brining. Slow cooking renders it tender, then shred and serve warm in a soft bun, with my Smoky Barbecue Sauce, and a generous scoop of my Southern-Style Slaw for the full flavour experience.

Across America, pulled pork is cooked and served in a number of ways, with and without rubs and brines, and with various different sauces - including vinegar and mustard-based sauces as well as tomato-based barbecue sauces depending on the region. I've gone with the latter, as I think it's more universally popular, and also a more versatile sauce if you're going to make it yourself (plus you can always buy a classic barbecue sauce if you don't want to make your own). I've brined the pork to increase moistness and flavour (you can skip this part if you'd rather), and used a rub for flavour as well ('Tripple D' style!) - especially for those who don't want to mix in a barbecue (or other sauce) to the pork, as this gives it bags of flavour. The smoking part of this at the end is not essential, it just gives it an added flavour dimension, akin to the pulled pork you'd find in diners the states, which would be cooked long and low in hot smokers - you could use 'liquid smoke' or smoked paprika instead. You can also cook pulled pork in a slow cooker. My suggestion is to start brining it the night before, take it out in the morning, and get it into the oven mid-morning to eat for dinner early evening. Even better the next day, after being shredded and mixed with its own juices, if you're going to be really organised - re-heats really well, and freezes and re-heats well too.

Calories approximately 100  per 50g serving (enough for one bun/roll/cob - see notes for calculation, and photo at the bottom), makes approximately 25 servings of this size, freezes/chills and re-heats very well.

Sous Vide Salmon (also Quick-brined and Cold-smoked, with a few 'hacks' so everyone can have a go! Includes Thermomix instructions))

Simply the most delicious salmon I can remember eating... you don't need the fancy equipment to enjoy this (or something very similar) either, as I have included alternative methods.

I came home last night with a dozen fresh salmon fillets, and just couldn't decide which way to cook them - I had been really fancying a nice fillet of salmon for days, and I couldn't decide between pan-frying, poaching, barbecuing, grilling, steaming, cooking sous-vide (in a vacuum-sealed bag in a water bath at a specific temperature) then searing...

...and I'd had the barbecue out the previous day to cold-smoke a shoulder of pork (more on that elsewhere!). So in the end, I did a few of the above and it turned out one of the tastiest, moistest salmon steaks I'd ever had (despite needing a very slight rescue with a splash of extra oil, because it stuck slightly to the pan when I seared it! My fault for being lazy and using the small pan!)... lightly smoked, with a tasty seared outside and delicately flavoured flesh which cut like a hot knife through butter. I served it with a warm new potato, green bean, caper and lemon salad with flat leaf parsley, and it was just perfect... you can pick and mix your methods from below, e.g. skip brining and smoking, and just cook your salmon sous vide, for perfectly cooked salmon and sear afterwards.

Tea-infused Wok-smoked Chicken Breasts

Smoking in a wok (or large pan) is surprisingly easy!

Inspired by the Sichuan method of smoking duck, and having used the tea/sugar/raw rice method of smoking with delicious results with my Tea-smoked Teriyaki Trout in an outdoor, lidded barbeque, I thought I'd have a go indoors, with poultry. Except...

I thought I'd have a go at infusing the tea into the chicken using brine first, to give it extra flavour and moistness and add a different kind of 'tea' dimension. As Earl Grey is one of my favourite teas, I used this and added some fresh orange and zest to the brine, to accentuate the bergamot flavour.

Which was good - really good! If you've never had a go at smoking your own food before, and don't want to invest in additional equipment of any kind, I'd highly recommend giving this a go (just remember to have your extractor fan on, and maybe open a window or two if your fan isn't that strong!). You don't have to brine the meat first, you can just smoke it plain if you'd prefer.

Tea-Smoked Teriyaki Trout (or Salmon)

Smoking, Brining and Photo-Editing

No, I'm not talking 20 Marlboro...

I'm itching to get my smoker fired up (it's an eco smoker, which is essentially a cardboard box with metal shelves in it, and a fantastic little smoker in the bottom that burns for up to 10 hours and cold-smokes your food). I love that thing - it paid for itself on the first use, by smoking a side of salmon that I got half price (£10), with a variety of cheeses, sea salt and garlic bulbs using up the spare space.And then there was the home-made pastrami, marinated in spiced brine, cold smoked, then cooked sous vide... but more on all that another time. As a distraction from trying to make some kind of cool title photo involving forks and food, I was thinking about smoking in the house, in a wok (or possibly even large pan), something easy to do at home, where you don't really need special equipment. I've tea-smoked fresh-caught mackerel and teriyaki-marinaded trout on a barbeque before (recipe below), with a mix of tea, sugar and raw rice on some foil on top of the glowing coals, lid down once the smoke is going, then within a short time, luscious, smoky fish...

I was thinking of tea-smoking some duck breasts I bought last week, but didn't get around to it. And I was still thinking about smoking something indoors (rather than outside) yesterday. And the day before. And today. So, I'm going to do it...

Smoked Trout and Celeriac Remoulade with a Twist

Hot off the press!

While I'm busy trying to add the huge backlog of recipes I have, here's one I've just written up... whilst wandering around trying to decide what to have for dinner while the rest of my clan had decided on home-made burgers, I spotted some cold-smoked trout fillets, so decided to have them grilled with some celeriac remoulade. I added a little ground fennel seed to the celeriac, to complement the aniseed notes, and served it simply with some green leaves, for a quick and tasty treat.

You could just use some ready-to-eat hot-smoked trout, as you don't often find it cold-smoked, or use some lightly smoked salmon fillets if you see them. Or even some sliced smoked salmon (obviously, I doubt you'd want to grill that!). If you're feeling adventurous, you can buy fresh trout or salmon and give it a quick smoke yourself (see notes). If you're not counting calories, drizzle the leaves with some good extra virgin olive oil, and add mayonnaise to the celeriac to your taste - home-made is best, of course, but use your favourite if your wrist is feeling too tired to make your own...

Smoked Trout with a Lemony Celeriac Remoulade

Simple but delicious, choose which mayonnaise you use to determine how many calories are in your meal, if you're counting.

Serves 4, easily halved. Calories per serving: 217 if using extra light mayonnaise; if you use light mayonnaise it will be 259 calories per portion; and 339 calories per portion if using full fat mayonnaise – all within range, go for your personal preference!