Ocean Made Chef: October

Hot Smoked Salmon Loin

Bob Hart, Australia Barbecue Academy

Serves 4

A sturdy loin lifted from a side of fresh salmon – I prefer the excellent Regal salmon from New Zealand – is a truly glorious slab of premium fish, and is at its absolute finest after an educated and meaningful bout of hot smoking.

Method

Make an even, dry cure by pounding together juniper berries, star anise, peppercorns and salt in a large mortar and pestle
Stir in the sugar, and put to one side.
Neatly trim the loin out of a whole side of salmon by squaring off both ends and slicing off most of the belly. These off-cuts, incidentally, will make a brilliant Asian salmon burger or three (Heat & Smoke II) later
Spread about a third of the rub on a clean platter and position the fish on top, skin side down. Now, spread the rest of the rub evenly over the flesh of the salmon. Sprinkle with about 4 tsp of your favourite gin and place the platter, uncovered, in the bottom of your fridge. It can cure overnight if you like, but it will be ready in 4-5 hours. And when it has cured – it will have stiffened and darkened slightly – carefully rinse off the rub and pat it dry with kitchen towels
Fire up your WSM and lock it into the smoke-zone (100-120C). Add a couple of modest chunks of hickory or pecan to the fire – no more than that – and position the salmon, skin side down, on the top grill. It will be ready in around 30-35 minutes, by which time it will have firmed up, and white protein may be starting to appear on top of the fish. Carefully lift it off the grill, skin in place, with a large spatula and return it to its platter for long enough to collect its thoughts – loosely tented in foil, of course.
It will be ready to serve in 10-15 minutes but, refrigerated, will be equally delicious for days
Serve generous chunks, lifted from the skin, on thin slices of light sourdough rye which you have spread with wasabi mayo (Wasabi stirred into a good mayo such as Best Foods or Kewpie). Press down slightly on the fish to spread it, and finish with a squeeze of lemon.

About Chef

Bob Hart, a prominent food writer, restaurant reviewer and journalist for many years, is now one of Australia’s leading cookbook authors and barbecue experts. He uses Ocean Made seafood in all his recipes.

On his relationship with Ocean Made, Bob says, “it started with New Zealand salmon, years ago and now I buy all my seafood from them.”

He says that Ocean Made is his “go-to” seafood place but he’s also guided by them. “I often ask James (our retail shop manager), ‘What’s new? what have you got? All their seafood is just such consistently good and of great quality.’”

Bob says that New Zealand salmon works better on a barbecue than Tasmanian salmon because of the fish’s natural oil content. “The oil content is what makes this recipe work so well,” he adds, “With this recipe, you need a smoker and there’s so much stuff that’s great smoked so it’s worth thinking about buying one.”

Bob Hart’s new book, Barbecue Unplugged, will be in shops by mid-November.

Why this recipe?

This is a dish I have been cooking for years, and which first appeared in Heat & Smoke II, my second barbecue book. I loved that version. But this one, through the simple addition of star anise to the curing mix and a shorter smoking time, is even better, and appears in my new book, Barbecue Unplugged.

If you can get your hands on a modestly-priced baby (40cm) Weber Smokey Mountain, do so immediately: they are brilliant, and the ideal, compact smoker with which a keen griller can embark, effortlessly, upon his first venture into hot smoking.