To kick off the fish feature, I have decided to make Giuliano Hazan’s Bigoli in Salsa, from his fun pasta book “Thirty Minute Pasta“.   This dish features onions, anchovies, and parsley mixed with some bigoli pasta.   Since I can’t find bigoli, I will just go ahead and use regular spaghetti.  Pictures will ensue!

Step 1:  Brine the fish.

I looked around the web for a brine recipe that would recreate the flavor of Salmon Candy, and couldn’t find anything.  I put together the following for 1.5 pounds of salmon:

5 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 Qt. COLD water
2 oz Kosher salt
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
3-4 Tbsp Tamari

Once the salt and sugar were dissolved, I dropped in the fish and covered the whole container.

Step 2:  Let sit overnight.  For a saltier fish, brine for 24 hours, but LESS THAN 48!!

Step 3:  Air dry the fish on a rack in an area below 70F.  I put it in front of the air conditioner vent to ensure this was the case.  Dry for two hours so the pellicle forms.  Due to the brine, the fish will be OK at this temperature.

Step 4:  About an hour before the fish is done drying, start soaking the wood.  In this case I used Alder wood.

Step 5:  About 20 minutes before the fish is dry, start the smoker, load the box, and get the heat up to about 200F.

Step 6:  After 2 hours (don’t go past 2 hours), place the fish in the smoker and smoke the fish at the lowest temperature possible.  Ideally 160F, but I can’t get mine to go lower than 180F.  At the higher temperatures the fish “sweats”, which is what you DON’T want.  Be sure to sop up any “sweat” (aka, fat) with a paper towel every 10 minutes or so.  Once the fish reaches an internal temperature of 145F I turn off the smoker and moved them to a rack to cool, and then covered and refrigerated.

Now that the smoker is properly seasoned, it’s time to kick off some real smoking.  The first recipe?  How about babyback ribs for the 4th of July.

Step 1:  Prepare the Rub

In this instance I used the following (all measuring is APPROXIMATE):
4 Tbsp Sweet Paprika
2 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Dry Mustard
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 tsp Kosher salt
2 tsp ground black pepper

Mix all together and apply to the ribs.

Step 2:  Apply the rub.

Step 3:  Load the smoker box with wood chips (soaked for at least 20 minutes), fill the water tray, and start the burner.  Allow the smoker to warm up and begin smoking.

Step 4:  Place the meat on the racks, spacing evenly.

Step 5:  Keep heat as low as possible.  I cooked at about 200-225F for about 5 hours.

Step 6:  Once meat is at least 160F, remove from smoker and grill.

And the final product on the grill:

It is incredible.  Earthy, a bit of smoke, some caramel, and some salt.  We opened it with a few drops of water.  The high alcohol content (53.3) leaves a nice warm feeling in your mouth and the texture is like silk.  Overall, I am completely happy with this purchase and I think it was worth every penny.

The Itinerary:

Day 1:  Depart NYC (early evening) and head to the open ocean.
Day 2: At Sea
Day 3: At Sea
Day 4: Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos
Day 5: Half Moon Cay, Bahamas
Day 6: Nassau, Bahamas
Day 7: At Sea
Day 8: At Sea
Day 9: Arrive NYC, early morning.

Here are some photos:

Leaving NYC

The Verrazano Bridge

Our Balcony

Grand Turk

More Grand Turk

Nassau, Bahamas

Flower in Nassau

Old Tree

Old Building

Little Lizzard

Parliament

Another sweet Government Building

Old Cannon

Lighthouse

It was all fun and games until the lights on the deck started attracting the huge insects.   Within 30 minutes we were being surrounded by moths, huge 4-winged beasties, and large flying beetles.  At that point it was time to go inside and finish the movie.

New Belgium Brewing Company:  A classic Colorado brewery that has not sold it’s soul like the monstrosity that resides in Golden.  Some of my favorites over the years have included:

1554 Black Ale – One of my favorite beers from NB.  A great everyday drinker!
Abbey Ale
Abbey Ale Grand Cru – My favorite NB beer, which unfortunately is very hard to find and oftentimes not available at all.
Trippel
Sunshine Wheat
Frambozen – A meal in a bottle.  Rich, red, and like liquid velvet.

Odell Brewing Company:  Lesser known, but producing some fantastic beers.  Some of my favorites include:

Easy Street Wheat
90 Shilling Ale
Isolation Ale

I have been lucky enough to sample some delicious beers while being in NYC, but these two Colorado Brewers make me long for delicious beer at a great price.

The Marinade:

1/3 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 c. olive oil (I used some extra virgin from Crete)
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tbsp minced fresh parsley (I used Italian parsley)
2 tsp dried oregano
salt
pepper
1.5 lbs boneless pork chops, fat trimmed, cut into 1.5 inch squares

Place the meat in a large zip-lock bag, add salt, pepper, and parsley.  In another bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour into the bag.  Remove air and seal.  Let this concoction sit for at least 4 hours for the best flavor.

I then threaded them on to 4 large metal skewers and grilled them over high heat; about 4-5 minutes per side.  With this I served some diced tomatoes, homemade tzatziki, roughly chopped Boston lettuce, and thinly sliced onions.  Placed all inside of a wrap, it was like my own little Doner Kebab-esque stand!

And a fun up-close shot of the Turkish skewers and the meat:

The first lobster, a good-sized male, weighed in at about 2.2 lbs.  The second lobster, a female since she had the red roe sacks, was about 1.5lbs.  As an animal lover, I’ve always had some issue with the boiling process.  I have learned a technique that makes me feel a bit better though: Put the lobsters in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before dropping them in the pot.  After cooking for about 8 minutes I pulled them out, split them in half, cleaned out the innards, and put them on a plate.

The sauce/spread/marinade I used:

3 Tbsp Butter
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 Tbsp Parsley Flakes
2 Garlic Cloves, minced

I mixed all of those together and brushed them on the inside of the lobsters.  Over a medium/hot grill I placed the lobsters meat-side down, and cooked for about 5-6 more minutes, flipping a few times to distribute the heat.  While I was cooking those, I added some partially boiled sweet corn to the grill.

10 minutes later it was time to eat!  Delicious.  And of course, as the title suggested, I washed all of it down with a nice 750mL bottle of Delirium Tremens.

Ready to eat:

#1)  VIDEO:  Oliver vs. The Tree

#2)  VIDEO:  Oliver vs. The Contra Bassoon