So, I have always wanted a smoker… but when you live in a small condo with an even smaller patio, a wife, and a dog, there is no room for a smoker, unfortunately. I love the taste of certain smoked foods, so I have to get a bit creative from time to time. And yes, I know… it’s not the same as a smoker—blah, blah. This is what I have to work with, you Traeger snobs.
The recipe can be served hot or cold. I will be serving this cold on crostini with some other ingredients (I will put the details in another post), but it is great hot on its own as well.
Supplies:
- Salmon (1 pound high-end with skin)
- Brown Sugar (2 teaspoons)
- Liquid Smoke (1/2ish teaspoon)
- Cayenne (couple of big dashes)
- Onion and Garlic powder (1/2 – 3/4 teaspoon each)
- Salt (1 tablespoon)
- EVOO (couple splashes)
- Kerry Gold Butter (1 teaspoon)
You are going to make a dry rub (well, mostly dry… there is liquid smoke in it) out of the ingredients above. Before you do this, check your fish for bones, etc., and season it with some salt all over. Leave it in the fridge while you are making your rub.
Mix all the other ingredients together and make sure the liquid smoke is evenly distributed throughout the rub. Now cover all the flesh of the salmon in the dry rub. Don’t worry about covering the skin—just go heavier on the flesh part. Also… Don’t use your mortar and pestle. That was pretty dumb on my part, it took me a while to get the liquid smoke smell out of it.
Prep your sous vide machine at 110 degrees for 45 minutes.
Vacuum-seal your fish and cook it in the sous vide. The fish is going to come out on the underdone side for sure, but we are going to fry the skin and sear the top quickly in a pan once it is removed from the water bath. This will bring up the internal temperature of the fish and result in more of a medium-rare finish.
Once the fish is done in the sous vide, get a non-stick pan hot. Once the pan is hot, add a few splashes of EVOO. Flick some water into the pan to see if it sizzles—if it does, add your salmon skin-side down. Place it in the pan carefully so the fish doesn’t come apart and you don’t splash yourself with oil.
Keep an eye on the skin. We want it to get nice and crispy without overcooking the fish—probably around 3–6 minutes depending on the fish, pan, heat, etc. Flip your fish very carefully once the skin looks good.
Turn down the heat of your pan to low.
After flipping my fish, I carefully removed the skin from the flesh. It is very easy to do at this point because of the sous vide. I placed the skin next to the fish in the pan to fry on the other side. Remove the skin from the pan once it is done; it will cook really quickly.
Add the butter to the pan. Once it has melted, constantly baste your fish with it for a few minutes.
Remove the pan and fish from heat and let it rest for a bit in all the butter and juices.
Make sure to baste again before serving.
Cold Option:
If you are going to be serving the fish cold, wait for the fish to cool so that you can handle it. Break apart the fish with the grain so it comes apart in big, flaky pieces, and cover them all in the juices from the pan, stirring carefully. Cover and put in the fridge to be served once cool.
