Dad’s Polish Hot Smoked Salmon
Cook Time 45 minutes + cure time
Servings 4-6
Ingredients
1 whole filet Ora king Salmon, Skin on, pin boned
(reduce to 2 - 4 individual portions for indoors small batch smoking)
Cure mix
2 cups white sugar
2 cups table salt
½ cup fennel seeds
½ dill stems
Smoking ingredients
6 tbsp loose leaf black tea
4 tbsp white sugar
4 tbsp rice, uncooked
Herb cream
½ bunch dill, chopped
½ bunch chives, sliced
1 tbsp jarred horseradish or 1 tsp grated fresh horseradish
150g creme fraiche
Salt and white pepper to taste
Optional: add 1 tbsp pureed cooked beetroot for a pop of pink colour
To serve
Lemon
Rye sourdough
Method
Toast fennel seeds in a dry pan and mix together with salt and sugar mix, add in roughly chopped dill stems. Mix well, then spread a 5 cm layer evenly over all sides of the salmon. Place in a plastic or glass bowl and allow to cure. Whole fillets will cure for 24 hours, and small fillets cure for about 6 - 12 hours. Once cured, wash salt and sugar mix off fish with cold running water. Pat dry and set aside ready for smoking.
To smoke fish outdoors in a smoker box, follow the manufacturer's instructions, a whole fillet will take around 20 minutes in full smoking.
To smoke fish indoors, set up a pot with a double lining of foil in the base. On top of the foil, place sugar rice and 4 tbsp loose leaf tea on the foil and place on medium to high heat. The sugar will melt and start to caramelise and the tea should start smoking. Reduce temperature to medium-low heat.
Place fish fillets skin side down on a bamboo steamer and onto a smoking pot with the bamboo lid on. Smoke for approximately 10 - 15 minutes. Check fish and when flakes start to fall apart slightly under finger pressure then it's ready. It should be very lightly cooked.
Turn off heat and allow fish to rest in bamboo steamer on the pot for 10 - 15 minutes. Be careful as the pot will be very hot at this point. Do not remove the foil until completely cool.
To make herb cream mix all ingredients in a bowl together.
Serve hot smoked salmon on a platter with a side of rye bread, herb cream and a wedge of lemon.