Salmon Fish cakes …..

After hubby filleted the Salmon I thought I would try and get as much of the flesh off the rest of the fish before I put the bones in to make some fish stock.

I got a teaspoon and used that to scrape the bones (I saw a fishmonger talking about this technique on a programme and it must have stayed somewhere in the back of my mind to try it out…..in the end I got just under 500g of flesh (it was just  over a LB!!)

For the cakes…

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 medium onion – minced

• 2 tablespoons red bell pepper – minced

• salt and pepper to taste (I used Manuka Smoked Salt)

• 2 tablespoon capers – finely chopped (I used 1 on this occasion and I don’t think it was enough).

• 1 1/4 pounds fresh wild salmon, coarsely chopped.…I actually used about 700g which was just just under 500g of wild Salmon and 200g or cold smoked Salmon (shop bought I needed to use).

• 10oz (300g) of mashed potato

• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 pinch cayenne pepper

• A sprinkle of mixed herbs

• Juice of one lemon

• Beaten egg and Panko breadcrumbs to coat

Peel your potatoes and slice them into even slices (about 1cm). If using fresh salmon, rub the fillets all over with olive oil and a small pinch of the salt and pepper. Add the potatoes to a pan of boiling water and bring back to a boil. Put the fish into a colander, covered with aluminium foil, and place it over the pan of potatoes. Turn the heat down and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until the potatoes and fish are both cooked (this was a tip from Jamie Oliver). Remove the fish from the colander and put on one side. If using canned salmon, drain and put to one side. Drain the potatoes in the colander, then return them to the pan and let them steam dry.

Once the potatoes have cooled down mix in a large bowl with all the other ingredients.

Shape into patties (I made 11 with this amount) and pop them in the fridge for 1-2 hours to firm up (unless you’re like me and was running out of time and so I stuck them in the freezer for half an hour…they could have used a little longer but hey they just needed a little careful handling).

Then take them out of the fridge then dip in beaten egg and then into panko bread crumbs and then into a hot frying pan with oil and heat through for 3-4 minutes each side.

I put them into the oven to keep warm whilst I did them in batches.

They were delicious !!

Salmon Roe….Hot Smoked…

The second way I decided to do the roe was to cook it or more specifically hot smoke it.

Washed and then sprinkled with a little sea salt and left for cure for 20-30 minutes. Put in the hot smoker for 30 minutes with Apple wood chips.

Salmon Roe "Caviar"…

I decided I would use the roe this time as I’ve never done it before with any fish we’ve used to be honest…. There were two ways that came up…this was the first. Keeping the roe raw and just brining it and then having it like caviar.

Made up a brine of 2 tablespoons of salt and 375mls of water. Bring down to 38deg C and then cover the Roe and leave for 30 minutes.
Once it’s brined rinse with cold water (the eggs go cloudy don’t worry).
In a sieve and with cold water running very gently break the eggs away from the membranes and keep just the eggs. I put them into this little jar then made a small amount of brine with warm water and put the eggs back in and they get there clarity back…..drain and into the jar.
They are like little watery jewels of Salmon that burst when you eat them…I hadn’t had roe like this before and they were really nice.
Apparently they will keep for a couple of weeks.

Salmon….and so it begins…

The Salmon was filleted put in to cure this morning…….Hubby will take it out tonight to rinse it off them it will go back into the fridge to form the pellicule before we smoke it. Cure is 1 cup of uniodised salt and 1 cup or packed brown sugar.

Hubby will take it out tonight to rinse it off them it will go back into the fridge to form the pellicule before we smoke it. Cure is 1 cup of uniodised salt and 1 cup or packed brown sugar.

Salmon …..

Hubby caught this 7lb 4oz Salmon last night so there’s going to be maybe hot but definitely cold smoked Salmon on the menu this week.

Paella…..

 

I know the purest would say you shouldn’t mix Paella’s (seafood and meat..but I like seafood and meat and so does the rest of the family …so apologies purists

 

We all love Paella and so on that basis I bought a Paella pan …like you do….and because I’ve got a horrible ceramic hob at the moment used a small gas hob to cook on which gives a better heat for cooking Paella.

Apologies again but the mixing of the ingredients…. Chicken, Chorizo, Kalamari, fish (I used Hoki), King prawns with just a few peas and a small amount of peppers to give a little flavour and colour (again I know not authentic), saffron (which I’m lucky I was given…I know!!).  

It might not have been authentic but I have to say it was a unanimous decision that it was delicious.

Smoked Eel….

We went out on Friday night ..one of Josh’s friends had his birthday party….parents invited too YAY!!

Anyhoo we went eeling…it’s what he wanted to do and who’s complaining? Not me for sure …I’d never been eeling before so I thought it would be great fun.

So pizza’s eaten off we went ..actually not far from where we live.

We are surrounded by small rivers and streams so there’s a whole range of places to go and have an eel hunt ………and…………

 

I CAUGHT ONE!!!

It was a fantastic night and even if I hadn’t caught anything I would have really enjoyed myself…but it was made even better by the fact that I did catch one though…and as you can see not a bad size…all ready to go it was just over 2 lbs 

So this evening we got some apple wood chips and hot smoked it.

Now I like smoked eel but I loved this…maybe because it was straight out of the smoker and onto the table …either way I think I’m going to have to go eeling again pretty soon

For tea tonight…..Pāua Fritters.

A friend of ours pitched up the other evening with a couple of bags of Pāua….YUM!!!

For anyone who doesn’t know what they are….they are in the USA and Australia they are also known as Abalone and in the UK as Ormer shells.                                    

They’re probably better known for their beautiful shells than their less attractive insides…….

 

                                                            They are basically a large edible sea snail that feeds on sea weed…. sounds like something very unappetising….BUT….they are delicious!!!

So this evening we took a departure from the traditional Sunday dinner (which we really do love) and decided to have Pāua Fritters

 

Pāua Fritters Recipe

Prepare 1 chopped onion and 6  pāuas (without shells) by cutting into
manageable cubes and mincing (preferably through an old fashioned mincer) ….the result isn’t that appealing looking to be fair……as a friend said…you gotta mince it up until it looks like…well…it looks like pus (way to go how to sell something as appealing to eat!!!)..but actually he is right..you do have to mince it up till it looks like pus

In a mixing bowl put:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• teaspoon of salt
• 1 egg

Mix in the minced  Pāua and onion, as well as some finely chopped parsley, then add a cup of milk or more to make a fritter mix (not to stiff).
Fry in oil at a low temperature and serve.

The end result is however a completely different thing altogether they don’t necessarily look much…..they are delicious!!

 

Smokin’….

Yeah alright I know that’s a corny title but it’s all I’ve got!!

Today the Trout spent a little time in our cold smoker (as below)…aka a wine barrel that has a U.F.O. Cold smoker on the side (which is essentially a tube you put your wood chips in and that’s attached to a pump for a fish tank to pump a small amount of air through to keep the chips smouldering and release a small amount of smoke – designed and tested in good old NZ!!)….it’s the first stage of our home smoking journey……we used apple wood chips as we’ve found that using Manuka can give fish a bit of a medicinal

…and the results were pretty darn good if I so myself!! The apple wood chips gave a really lovely subtle smoke flavour ..slightly sweet (pleasantly so) ..nice to use for fish we think.

So tonight we had cold smoked Trout and salad for tea.

 

T has now been told he needs to get a wiggle on and catch some more Trout…like that’s going to be a chore

It’s going to get smoked!!!

T came on home on Friday night …had gone out for a fish and after only 40 minutes came back with this…..a 71/2lb sea run Trout.

We decided we would cold smoke it…so it was filleted and we put it in salt over night to cure …

This morning it was washed off and then left in clear water for an hour and now it’s back in the fridge until tomorrow when it will go in the cold smoker …

There is also a smaller Trout (top left) that T’s mate caught and has asked us to smoke…Unlike the bigger one it was caught in as a lake….much pinker colour.