First post of the new year! JAK is excited to start another year on our adventure. In December we did a lot of reflecting over the past year. We honestly still cannot believe it's been a full year since we started JAK, and are excited for what 2012 has in store!
We started 2012 off with a bang, that's for sure! JAK did their first in-house smoker. Recipe is posted at the bottom of the blog (enjoy!).
This is the brine (recipe at bottom of post) used on the Chilean Sea Bass. If you have never brined a meat before, do it!
The beautiful Chilean Sea Bass. As with brining, if you've never had it do it!
The fish marinating in the brine.
The wood chips soaking.
The fish must be on a raised rack, over the wood chips.
The wood chips in foil getting heated up on the stove.
Too speed up the process, place them on the flame directly. As well. The key is to get them as hot as possible, so when the fish goes in the pot it's hot enough that they cook by smoking.
"J" placing the fish, delicately, on top of the wood chips.
Taking a sneak peak. Looking good!
Sea Bass done. Look how beautiful. You'll notice, in the recipe, that steps 6-8 weren't even done after this point. The fish was so flaky and had such a great flavor it wasn't needed (dredging in flour and cooking on the stove in butter)!
"A" was in charge of our sides. She started with rainbow chard. Beautiful.
Sliced it up.
Fried some bacon.
Cooked some shallots in the bacon fat.
Along with an onion.
Placed the chard in with the bacon fat, shallots and onion to cook down.
Getting nice and wilted!
To help cut the bitterness of the chard, she added salt and apple cider. Interesting, but worked fabulously.
Bacon goes in, and looking good.
"A" also made a nice sauce for the fish. Just something light.
Sauce done. Nice and thick and creamy.
Lastly, a simple yet delicious potato dish. Mini-gold potatoes cut, drizzled with olive oil and herbs and baked until fork tender and golden brown. Yummy.
The plate complete. The fish was amazing, ya'll. Had the best smokey flavor! A great white fish, flaky, and satisfying. I highly recommend brining and smoking!
This was our set-up.
Notice the TV in the back. We ate in the study, as the Thunder game was recording on the living room TV. We had to watch our friend Jennifer on the premier of The Bachelor though! The food was fabulous, but not as fabulous as she. She made us proud to be Oklahomans! Go Jennifer!
Meal complete.
On to dessert. A homemade peanut butter ice cream.
"A" got "J" this awesome ice cream maker for Christmas, so we put it to use!
Didn't take but maybe 15 minutes to churn the ice cream done.
Add a few peanut butter cups and....
Walla! A great home made ice cream!
As I said, JAK is excited for 2012. Enjoy this recipe and let us know how it turns out for you!
Until next time.....A la cuisine!
The Brine
- 11/2 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 cup pickling salt
- 1 tbls garlic powder
- 1 tbls onion powder
- 1 tsp celery seed
- 1 tsp sage
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 gal cold water
- 1 Chilean Seabass Steak
- Some Flour for dredging
- Hickory Wood Chips
Mix the ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Place the fillets in the brine for 3 hours, then remove and rinse each piece with cold water and pat dry. Next put the fish on racks to air dry in a cool place. When the flesh is slightly tacky they’re ready to go in the smoker.
Preparation
1 Soak wood chips in water at least 1 hour prior to cooking
2 If your grill does not have a smoker box, create one. (place wood chips in aluminum foil. Fold over to close, and poke holes in the top. Place it over the flame or coals. Wait until smoke starts emanating from the smoker box.
3 Keep seabass as far from the heat, while capturing as much of the smoke as possible. Use a tin pan or foil to funnel smoke over the fish.
4 You do not want to cook the fish, just infuse with smoke. A cold smoker works best.
5 Let smoke 15 – 20 minutes. Remove from the grill.
(we forewent steps 6-8, as the meat on the fish was so delicate it was falling apart flaky after the smoking. no doubt these steps would be awesome though.)
6 Heat a skillet with a tablespoon of butter.
7 Dredge in Seabass flour and add to the skillet.
8 Heat until the bottom is golden brown. Flip and cook other side.
