Trout & Kitchen

Smoked Salmon Risotto & Dip

2012-01-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

Having smoked your salmon fillets what to do with them?

Wrapped up in the refrigerator they will keep a couple of weeks if need be, but I find they disappear if I have visitors drop by for a beer or vino. A risotto dish can be made in 5 minutes.

Heat the fillet for two minutes in the microwave. Break up into small bite size pieces and remove any pin bones. Mix in with a 250 gram packet of Express Rice and heat mixture for 90 seconds on high in microwave. Express Fried Rice is precooked steamed long grained rice and comes in a range of flavors, such as with ham, peas and egg. To serve, spoon a little risotto into small pottery bowls for visitors to snack with a fork while having a drink.

I always keep a small portion of smoked salmon (or trout) to make a dip or some salmon butter. Use your blender (I have a small one) to shred the salmon and blend in sour cream to get the right consistency. A little finely chopped parsley or chive gives the finishing touch. Salmon butter is made the same way but mix the shredded salmon with softened butter, lemon juice and a dash of herbs. This is great on your breakfast toast or muffin.

How to smoke salmon or trout check here

Pickled Walnuts

2012-01-16T12:11:00.000-08:00

By now you should have a goodly amount of black walnuts sitting in jars of pickle solution awaiting maturity. Too late now to pick the green nuts as the hard shell will have formed, which you can ascertain by trying to poke a knitting needle through them. So what to do? (This is for Southern hemisphere people). Let the walnuts ripen on the tree and in a few months time (Feb) the green shells will split open and the hard brown nut will fall to the ground.

This is the ideal system. In Australia one often has a running battle with marauding flocks of cockatoos, sometimes 20 or more, who delight in twisting off the green walnuts and when disturbed, will drop them on your house roof or in the swimming pool. You get to harvest only the low lying nuts. In New Zealand there are no such annoying birds, but anyway, the nuts on the tops of the trees are too high to harvest. I wonder if people make pickled walnuts in Chile, Argentina and South Africa? That would be interesting to know.
Recipe here
Buen provecho.

New Year's Resolution

2012-01-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

I decided to reactivate and up-date my blogs starting with this one, Trout and Kitchen. Fishing and cooking go together like a horse and carriage. Sounds like an English pub name. So what's new?
I have recently modified the way I smoke salmon fillets by using as a smoke box my baby chiminea set up on an outdoor table (see foto). The aluminium pot containing the fish sits on top. Besides the two fillets I added two lamb chops, sausages and some cheddar cheese to fill up the space. After getting a few hot coals I covered them with a handful of hickory wood chips (bought at Bunnings) and blocked off the front of the chiminea. Copious smoke resulted. After 15 minutes I turned over things in the pot and gave it another 15 minutes with another lot of chips. 3/4 hour is quite long enough to get a good smoke and partial cook. For more details check here for my Helium article on the matter.

Instant Clam Chowder

2010-06-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

I have always been a great fan of clam chowder, New England style, having encountered it at various conferences and house parties in that part of the US. To create the genuine article is as much fun as enjoying the results, but it takes quite a long while to do so. This is a problem.

Therefore, I have devised an “Instant Clam Chowder” recipe which can be made and served within 15 minutes, which is useful to bring forth when you have a couple of friends descend upon you unexpectently for a chat and vino.

Of course, you have to think ahead and always have the necessary ingredients, such as a few cans of soup and clams sitting in your pantry, just waiting for this happy occasion.
Continue ... here

Collecting Cookbooks

2010-05-26T01:20:00.000-07:00

I don’t know that I actually collect cookbooks but I certainly have vast numbers of them. They seem to accumulate spontaneously somehow. They are my friends.

My apartment has innumerable bookshelves loaded with old books, together with paintings, knickknacks, pot plants and travel mementos. There is no more room for additional bookshelves so I have also isolated stacks of books on the floor. More than half of them are cookbooks.

Where do they come from? Very rarely do I buy myself a new cookbook. Sometimes I get a new cookbook as a birthday present or Christmas gift, which is most welcome. When traveling overseas I may purchase new a cookbook as a memento of the country visited, which often becomes a favorite.
Continue ... here
Foto: Breakfast in Guatemala: omelet, refried beans, chili sauce, toasted bun

What Oh! .... Bangers and Mash

2010-03-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Bangers and mash is a typical English meal composed of two sausages served on top of mashed potatoes covered with brown onion gravy. It became popular at working class pubs in the UK during and after the 2nd World War when food supplies were limited. Now it often features as a classic meal in pubs worldwide where English (and Irish) settlers frequent......

....... When stopping off in South Africa or New Zealand, the first thing I do is make a beeline to the nearest Irish or English-style pub to devour a meal of bangers and mash, in order to quell my halluciations and restore my alimentary system back to normal.
Read more ... here
Foto: Typical b & m hotel: Theatre Royal at Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.

Trout fishing philosophies & techniques

2010-02-04T05:27:00.000-08:00

There is a tendency for practitioners of a fine art to become bogged down in a rut and believe that they have reached the ultimate of their endeavors, and then write a book about their activities. This is very worthwhile, but is often far from the extended truth.

To get out of the rut you have to travel the world with an open mind and see how things are done elsewhere geographically and in other cultures. This applies to anything, be it painting, quilting, house decoration, cooking, drinking, music, hospitality and, not least of all, trout fishing.

One advantage of traveling is that you have to leave all your beloved books behind, except one travel guide book, to inform you where you are at any moment and might go to tomorrow.

After awhile this compels you to have an open mind; and then you absorb new ideas, whilst old dogmas fade away. I found this to be so whilst trying to catch trout as a backpacker.

Backpacker fishing is quite different from the "conventional wisdom" of trout fishing.

It is a new challenge!
Continue ... here
Foto: A nice brownie caught spin fishing on the Rio Coihaique in fiordland Chile.

Vintage Fishing Rods

2010-01-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

Fishing is one of the most popular activities devised and fishing rods are an integral part of it.

After a lifetime of fishing the angler accumulates many rods of various types some of which end up adorning the walls of one's den, or lounge room if you have a sympathetic wife. They may have embedded within them fond memories of an exciting tussle with a trout or salmon in some distant land. Or they may be "collectibles" and valuable in the sense that their construction is representative of the rod technology of a bye gone era.
Continue .... here
Foto: Early morning catch on the Pungwe River, Zimbabwe

Flyfishing in New Zealand

2010-01-06T23:35:00.000-08:00

Trout Fishing at Taupo, New Zealand - Past and Present

The Taupo Fishery lies on the central North Island volcanic plateau and is managed by the New Zealand Government Department of Conservation (DOC) as a rainbow trout fishery. It is unique in many ways. The trout spend much of their time in Lake Taupo, which occupies a huge volcanic explosion crater some 25 by 35 kilometers in size and is only 1800 years old.
Continue .... here
Foto: Anglers at the Waitahanui River mouth, Lake Taupo.

How to make and use sun-dried tomatoes

2010-01-06T15:02:00.000-08:00

Sun-dried tomatoes are a gourmet delicacy easily made if you have plenty of sun.

Living in a Mediterranean climate helps make the task a pleasant one. Here in Adelaide, South Australia it is normal to have hot dry summers where there may be many consecutive days of temperatures in the range 30 to 40 degree C (or 85 to 105 degrees F). This region produces a huge amount of wine and some dried fruits such as raisins, sultanas, prunes and apricots.
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How to make pickled walnuts

2010-01-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

The pickled walnut is a rare delicacy infrequently found in shops and mostly imported from England where it is traditional fare.

The shiny black pickled walnut resembles a black olive and is made from the whole fleshy nut before the hard kernel forms. It is eaten sparingly with the main meat course of dinner and provides a good color and taste contrast. Serve alone in a bowl, or in salad, or perched on top of mashed potato.
Continue .... here

How to roast peppers

2010-01-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

Roasted red peppers are frequently used in Spanish and Latin American dishes where they are called pimientos rojos asados. These large red peppers (also green and yellow) sweet peppers, or bell peppers, are native of Central and South America, but are now grown all around the world.

First cut peppers into quarters or smaller strips depending on their size, and remove the seeds and membrane.
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Dry fly success

2010-01-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

(A true incident on New Zealand's famed Tongariro River)

"Only four fish" informed Alister as he climbed back into the front seat of Murdoch's car.

"Not very promising" grunted Murdoch, driving off into the darkness.

It was nearly midnight. Rain had set in making it hard to see through the windscreen. Soon they came to a halt alongside a row of cabins. The tiring night drive from the city was over. They pushed their way in and turned on the light. Inside were two bunk beds, a table, wardrobe and chest of drawers, typical of Turangi-style fishing cabins of modest rental. Gear was quickly stowed away and the car locked.

A bottle of Scotch was liberally sploshed into two tea cups for a night-cap.
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Foto: Upper Major Jones Pool and swing foot-bridge across the Tongariro River, Taupo.

How to get started with fly tying

2010-01-05T14:50:00.000-08:00

It is not necessary to spend a lot of money to get started in fly tying.

Maybe $25 would do the trick to buy a few feathers and gear needed to create two fabulous flies that will catch trout and salmon anywhere in the world.

What are the odds and ends that you need?
Continue .... here

They best way to cook trout

2010-01-05T12:15:00.000-08:00

....Smoked trout is a delicacy and is rather expensive to buy. So why not learn how to make some more cheaply yourself?

If you have a patio area or balcony suitable for a small barbecue outdoors, or even on a high rise city apartment building, you can make and enjoy home-smoked salmon or trout. Smoking gourmet fish is an interesting hobby and does ensure unending invitations to your friends' dinner parties if you share your creations with them by bringing along delicious tapa dishes.
Continue .... here
Fotos: (1) Smoking split salmon over a smoky fire at Hornopiren, fiordland Chile.
(2 & 3) Smoking salmon fillets in my patio at Adelaide, South Australia.