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So, it's been more than a year since my last post. What gives? In short, I've discovered that I'm a pretty lazy blogger. Sometimes it's easier to post a picture to your circle of friends without much explanation and get the enthusiastic response that friends can always be counted for. But what I miss is the reflection that I used to come by when I would compose my posts. There's a little bit more of a story -- beginning, middle and end. I also liked (and, to be honest, sometimes dreaded) the hunt for a good post. I've had a few of those 'oh, that would be a great post' moments, but overcoming inertia is hard. Busting out the camera is hard. Setting time to actually write it before it feels stale in your head is hard. Well, suck it up, lady! Let's do this!
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We discovered a great mom & pop trout farm. It's called Troutmere (the page has no website, so the Yelp review link must do). The pond is really well stocked and their only rule is that you must purchase every fish you catch (as opposed to throwing it back).
We went there over the weekend with the kids (now 6 and 3) and no one had any problems catching fish. The kids giggled like crazy and had a blast -- but I think I had even more fun!
Part of me struggled with the imminent bounty we were about to collect, because I knew that I could stand there catching loads of fish all day -- but we're not the biggest consumers of fish, so we really had to moderate ourselves. We had 12 trout in the bucket -- probably the average length about 9-10 inches each. As we were walking up to pay, I had a flash of inspiration. Smoked fish! (Somewhere my endless marathon watching of survivalist type shows like Alaska the Last Frontier, sunk in, and I had visions of smokehouses and endless trays of fishy goodness.) I went in for just one more.
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| Fish in brine (not toxic sludge) |
J. looked me like I was crazy. We don't know how to smoke fish. We don't have a smoker. We don't have wood chips. But, like most of my ideas, he typically is a good sport about it and lets me run with it.
We saw a few guides online re: how to modify the weber kettle grill into a smoker. I picked up some hickory wood chips at Safeway. I already had all the ingredients at home for the brine. (1/2 cup salt, 3/4 brown sugar, 1 tbsp granulated garlic, 1/2 tbsp powdered ginger, 1 cup soy sauce, 4 cups water). We soaked the wood chips and brined 7 fish over night. (We grilled the first 6 last night with friends.)
Today, J. smoked the fish on the grill. I won't pretend to know all the intricacies of the timing and the temperature and what not, all I know is that what came out of the BBQ was heavenly. The instant I tasted that rich, smokey, savory test-flake I knew that fishing would now be a life-long hobby.
Even though it would have been easy to devour all of those fish in one go, I thought it would be fun to turn them into a smoke trout spread. From our garden: dill and green onion. (We never have much luck with dill, but this year looks like a promising start! Hope they last for when pickle season comes). So, to 3 flaked fish add the tablespoon of dill & 1/3 cup of green onion, 2 tablespoon of mayo, 1/4 cup of cream cheese, a tablespoon or 2 of capers with some of their brine.
This easily rivaled the best smoke trout dips I've had at restaurants. We're already making plans to go fishing again. And J.? He's in the kitchen right now brining chicken drumsticks for smoking tomorrow. I think he's hooked, too!
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| a little of our arugula and spread on a wholewheat bagel |
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