Holy Smoked Trout, Batman!

After a very successful fishing trip to my local watering hole, I've managed to bring back some nice chunky Mt. Lassen rainbow trout.  They are 5lb and 7lb big behemoth.  They have a lovely red flesh reminiscent of wild salmon.  I will spare you the gruesome dispatching of the fish and skip right to the brining of the fish.  For this recipe, I've do-boned the trout and kept the skin in tact.  Simple recipe for the brine.

• Salt
• Sugar
• Whole peppercorn
• 1 lime
• 1 sprig of rosemary

Simple brine, complex flavors

 Combine the ingredients in a pot with hot water to dissolve the solution.  Let it cool for 30 minutes.  Taste to your preference.  If you like it to be on the sweeter side, add more brown sugar.  If you want it to be saltier, add more salt. 

The amber color from the brown sugar will ensure a lovely and sweet aroma to your trout.

After it is cooled down, you can transfer the liquid to a measuring cup or whatever is easier for you to pour on the fish.

Brine is ready for prepared trout

You can either use a Pyrex dish or big bowl to marinade your fish in.  I like to use gallon size Ziploc bags because it's an easier method of brining the fish.

Easier and best method to concentrate all the flavors of the brine into the fish

5lb and 7lb together marinating in the brine.

I used the same pot from the brine as a container for the fish.  I was lazy and didn't want to wash the pot so I thought it would be useful to hold the fish.  You must be thinking "Why didn't I just put the fish in the pot?"  Well, I didn't want any air inside that would lessen the effect of the marinade.  Brine the fish for 12 hours.  After that, remove the fish from brine and air dry in the fridge overnight. 

Make sure there are no moisture to the fish.  Let it dry in the fridge overnight.

These suckers are ready to get a tan. 

After spending a night in the fridge, the trout is ready for the smoker.  I intentionally left the skin on because this will make for a nice moist smoked trout.  If you want to get a "jerky" consistency, you can remove the skin and lay the trout on the grill exposing the meat.

After 4 hours they are getting that lovely smoke color. 

After 4 hours of smoking, you can check and taste the trout.  At this point it's pretty much done.  As it progressively smoke throughout the day, the flavor will intensify.    I chose to smoke it longer to get a more rich bodied flavor.

After 6 hours, they are almost done.  My mouth was watering at this point.  Click to Enlarge.

After 8 hours, they are done.  Look at that color.  Click to Enlarge.

Removed it from the heat source so that I won't get burned.

The fish is ready to be removed from the smoker.  Now the tricky part to this is that the skin will stick to the grate.  If you do not want the skin, you can simply just remove the meat that is inside.  If you are like me who loves the skin, you would want to take the entire grate with the fish and invert it onto a serving tray and slowly work the skin off the grate from the bottom.  This will leave the fish intact and the skin will come off.

My attempt to remove it straight from the grill.  Didn't work out as planned.  On to plan B. Click to Enlarge.

Look at that beautiful color.  If you tap on the skin and you hear a hollow tap, that is the wonderful sound of crispy skin.  Click to Enlarge.

 Plan B calls for a fork to just slowly pry the skin away from the grill.  It worked, although not as pretty and presentable as you would like, it gets the job done.

As you can see where fish skin meets grill.  Can you see how moist that fish is? The trout skin is like crispy roast duck skin.  Absolutely delicious.   Click to Enlarge.

Here is the more presentable side of the trout.  The final product. Click to Enlarge.

The smoked trout came out superb.  It had a lovely smoke flavor and the meat was very moist.  You can eat it like that or with rice.  You can also flake it up and mix with some mayo, celery, hard boiled egg for a delicious dip or spread on crispy toast.  For breakfast, I used the leftovers in scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes.  What a great way to start your day.  I hope this inspired you to go out and try this method of cooking your fish. 


So here are my budget tips:

* It tends to be cheaper if you buy your fish whole.
* Save yourself some money and a trip to the supermarket.  Only couple simple pantry items such as salt and sugar will make an outstanding brine.
* Smoking fish will cost you less in the long run as oppose to buying it at a specialty shop.  You can control what goes into your product.

Smoked Ribs: a Superbowl Champion, unlike Tom Brady.

Superbowl Championship Smoked Ribs. Click to enlarge.

Yesterday I made delicious and smokey ribs for Superbowl.  It was my first time using the Weber smoker and I am quite impressed with the performance.  My journey started when I picked up a pack of ribs from my local Costco.  For the ribs, you want to get the spare ribs.  In my opinion, the spare ribs have more fat in them.  That is crucial in terms of smoking.  The fat will keep the meat moist during those long hours of slow smoking.  You can use baby back ribs, but those are probably better suited for grilling.The spare ribs only cost me around 20 bucks for the 2 racks, about 10 bucks a rack.  This is not a bad score considering how much you would pay for a full rack at your local bbq joint.  I've seen a rack of ribs go for 25 bucks a full slab.  Got the ribs home and prepared them for the seasoning rub.  Every cook out there prides themselves in their trade secret and recipes.  This goes the same for Mister Ballin' On A Budget here.  Perhaps one day, Mister Ballin' On A Budget might want to enter into a rib cooking contest and will need his super duper secret spice rub recipe.  Although I can't divulge my whole ingredients list, I can name the core spices in which you can play around with, expand on and experiment.  The rub I used contains:

• Salt
• ground black pepper
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• brown sugar
• cayenne pepper
• red pepper flakes
• a cup of "don't worry about it" 

Just these ingredients by itself will be enough to make a delicious slab of ribs.  If you want to go to the next level, then by all means build upon this core of ingredients.

Season your slabs of ribs well. 

After you have combined the rub for your ribs, be generous with it.  Covering every part of the rib will ensure the flavor of the spices will penetrate and infuse throughout the rib.  It would suck to bite on a piece of unseasoned ribs.

Cover the ribs, refrigerate and let the flavors mingle with each other

After you apply the rub on the ribs, cover and refrigerate for 4-6 hours or even overnight so that the rub will mingle with the meat.  After that, remove the rib from the fridge and leave it at room temperature for about an hour.  I

2-3 chunks of the wood per hour and half is sufficient for smoking

Beautiful fresh green rosemary.  These are courtesy of Tina and Craig.  2-3 sprigs every hour in the smoker.  Fresh rosemary will provide more smoke than dried rosemary.

In the meantime, set up and prepare your smoker.  I was using mesquite wood and fresh rosemary for my smoking process.  You can use anything you want or like.  My friend Tina happened to have a thriving rosemary plant in the backyard.  They had more than enough and I was happy to grab a bunch from them.  Fresh rosemary will give it a more aromatic and fulled bodied flavor to the meat.  If you don't have a rosemary plant, I wouldn't advise going out there and buying expensive rosemary.  You can do without it.

See the brown sugar and salt dissolve from the marinading process.  That's good stuff right there.

 Place your ribs in the the smoker and let the smoking begin.  I've smoked my ribs for about 4 hours, between 200-225 degrees F.

Look at those lovely slab of ribs getting ready to be transformed into something magical

After 1 hour of smoking.  The meat starts to take color.

After 2 hours of smoking.  You can see the bones starting to pull away from the meat.

After about 4 hours of smoking.  See the rich deep smoke colors.  That is going to taste great.

To check if your ribs are done, simply look for signs such as color.  The color on the ribs should take on a rich caramel color.  You can also tell by the bones on the ribs.  If the bones on the ribs start to pull away from the meat, that is a sign that the meat is ready.  The final and true test to see if your ribs are done is the digital thermometer.  Poke a thermometer in the thickest part of the rib.  Should read between 160-170 degrees F.  I tend to take mines out around 150-155 degrees because the ribs will continue to cook after you pull it out of the smoker.

Look at that caramelizing. 

After this, you should let the ribs rest for 5-10 minutes so that the juices will evenly distribute throughout the ribs.  Then start cutting.

See the smoke ring that penetrated the ribs.  That's the sign of a successful smoking.  That little piece right there was so delicious.  That intense smokey, crunchy and sweet rib meat.

Look at that.  My stomach was growling at this point.

See how juicy the meat came out.  That fat is crucial to keeping the meat moist.  I still haven't forgotten about that little end piece.  First bite of this rib and I was in heaven. Click to Enlarge.

The reward of your hard work.  It was heaven and delicious.

The final product was delicious.  It was absolutely delicious, flavorful and has a right amount of smoke to it.  This is best straight out of the smoker.  I would say within half an hour of taking it out, you should enjoy it piping hot.  Grab a ice cold beer and maybe some tortillas, take a bite out of the rib, a bite out of a tortilla, and then take a swig of beer.  Now that is what I call good eating.

So here are my budget tips:

* When buying ribs to smoke, buy the spare ribs instead of baby back ribs.  The spare ribs are cheaper and will give more flavor to your overall smoking experience.
* If you have leftover herbs such as rosemary, dry and save them for smoking your meats.  They will add a nice aromatic flavor.
* Don't be afraid to explore the spice cabinet.  It's a great way to make use of those forgotten spices that you've only used once or twice in the past.
* You don't need buy a fancy smoker for smoking ribs.  Just simply put your hot coals on one side of the grill and your meat on the other side.  Indirect heat and smoke will do the trick.