Wednesday 9 April 2008

I'm Smoking Again

No, I don't mean that I have gone back to "the weed", far from it; I am not about to undo 16 months of abstinence for anything. It's my day off so I have decided to treat myself to a visit to a nice restaurant for a Cheffy meal. There is quite a good one not far from where I sit called "My Front Room" and on the menu is a delicious dish of Smoked Salmon with Fennel and the twist is that I get to do the whole thing for myself including smoking a nice fresh Salmon fillet, with Tea!! Lapsang Suchong to be precise. But first the shopping (in the pouring rain so I think I'll lash out 50cents for the lift up to town)................

..............1546 and I'm back from my forage round the shops. I haven't managed to find any Lapsang Suchong despite walking for miles around town and discovering that my shoes leak. Never mind , experiments with tea and some spices etc from my collection are about to take place. OK, Black Tea, Cinnamon Stick and whole cloves smells good as a smoke so let's see what happens for real. I'm going to use my Wok, some Alifoil and my Bamboo Steamer & lid. A lidded Wok with a trivet could also work.

1915hrs -- I bought a few Prawns with which to make a starter AND a stock for use with a sauce for the Salmon. Trouble is that my train of thought has been interrupted by my Landlady deciding to come and collect the rent, I've inadvertently used the 5Euro note needed to complete the transaction so she has disappeared to get some change and not returned yet (an hour since). I've made and eaten my prawn starter and the prawn heads and peelings are cooking along with a splash of water and some sherry. But what do I do now? Wait for her or possibly ruin a nice Salmon steak? I'll wait until 8. In the meantime, Fennel. What a flavour! I've peeled and prepared mine to saute with some garlic and the trimmings (except that I've reserved the leaves as a Dill substitute in my forthcoming sauce) have gone into my stockpot, which it has transformed! I'm impressed. The stockpot by the way is this week's Chicken Carcass plus the roasted Onion and Carrot that the bird sat on whilst roasting and all the jelly/juices from the roasting tray augmented with a couple of Indian Oxos.

2000hrs -- and while I've been waiting I've strained and begun to reduce my little drop of seafood stock. Anyway, here go's, let's cook and eat.

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