Cold Smoking and Canning Salmon (again)

Had the time to do a little bit of cold smoking last week. It was a good opportunity to restock my smoked canned salmon supply.  I seem to go through this stuff pretty fast.

I used some wild caught salmon, mixed a cure of three parts brown sugar to one part canning salt.

cut slits into the salmon...careful to not go through the skin...

The slits help both the cure and smoke penetrate into the meat..

Rubbed the fish with the cure... getting down into the slits and covering the skin side...

covered the salmon well.... then let it cure in the fridge overnight.

Rinsed the cured salmon with cool water and let it dry on the kitchen counter...

Time to hang in the smokehouse...

I used a mixture of alder wood and apple wood.....kept the temperature of the smoke at 40 degrees F. The outside air temp was pretty cold. As long as I cold smoke the fish above freezing and below 85 degrees F, it works out fine.

The canning process intensifies the smoke flavor so I cold smoked the salmon for close to 3 hours...

The cold smoked salmon...

It's hard to see in the pics but the smoked salmon is a deep color and almost looks like candied salmon..

I then cut the salmon from the skin and it's ready to can...

I add a sliver of onion and 1 tsp of oil in each half pint jar...

I wipe the rims of the jars with a cloth dipped in white vinegar to cut through any oil on the rim..
then topped with hot lids...

Keep the lids warm but not boiling..

The jars ready for the pressure canner...

I pressure can the salmon at 12lbs of pressure for 100 minutes. Times and pressures will be different for different altitudes. Best to check your own canner instructions,

I let the jars cool on the counter overnight...

Had to give it a taste test!

Mixed up a smoked salmon, cream cheese spread...

I liked this a LOT. :)

I also made some smoked salmon deviled eggs, with scallions, red onions, mayo and bacon added...

I'll be making these more often!

All that work for a deviled egg. :)  It was totally worth it!

The smoked salmon came out great. I smoked this batch a bit longer than the last one. I'll check another jar in a week or so and see if it made a difference.


Still think I need to move closer to the ocean, but right now I feel lucky to have a great seafood supplier here in the middle of nowhere.

Hope everyone recovered from the Super Bowl weekend. I don't watch football but made my usual snacks for the game. I'll probably post pics soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Paella on the Grill

I want to call it seafood paella but there's a good bit of chicken and sausage in it too. :)

I have been wanting to make this for some time, then after seeing a friend's cook a few weeks ago, I decided it was time.  Finally gathered my ingredients and put it together last week.

Some of the ingredients...
Scallions, garlic, flat leaf parsley, tomatoes, Bomba rice, paprika, saffron, olive oil, white wine, peppers, onion and lemons...

saffron...

some bay scallops, chorizo, longaniza, chicken thighs, mussels, a seafood blend, shrimp, crab legs...

I also picked up a few baby octopus...

cleaned and ready...

made a seafood stock with some of the crab knuckles, shrimp shells and a pinch of saffron...

I drizzled the chicken with olive oil, sprinkled with paprika and salt and let it sit while preparing the rest.

Started the build.

Sauteed onion  and garlic in the olive oil...

then added the chicken....

when the chicken was getting some good color I added the chorizo an longaniza...

next came the peppers....

tomatoes...

paprika and a couple pinches of saffron...

It was smelling pretty good at this point!

I added three cups of rice....

one cup of wine ....and let the rice and wine cook for awhile...

added the seafood blend...

then the strained seafood stock...

covered with foil and let er go for about 20 minutes...
I rotated the pan a few times for even cooking over the fire.

I did add a bit of salt and pepper to taste during the cook.

When the rice was almost ready, I started adding seafood. The scallops were first....

then the shrimp, mussels, octopus and crab legs...

Covered the pan with foil and rotated it every so often for even cooking..added sliced lemons around the edge.

Then ta-da... it was ready!

The rice had a nice little crisp part on the bottom, I loved it! The whole dish had a light smoke flavor from the wood fire.

Overall, I liked the dish and will make it again. The hardest part of making this was carrying everything outside to the grill. I need a big basket or something. :)
Once the dish got going it was just a matter of sequence. Kind of like cooking one of my campfire meals. Just knowing what goes on the heat first.

I've found out that paella is almost like chili or gumbo. Everyone has their favorite recipe and they are all different. I'm going to fine tune this to suite my tastebuds. :)

Hope everyone is making it through winter ok.
Thanks for looking!