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Cedar Smoked Sablefish

a pile of food

smoked-sablefish-recipeI’m getting bored of salmon, so I decided to smoke one of my favourite white fish.  Sablefish(Black Cod) has a nice amount of fat in it and it’s silky texture really stands up to smoking well.  I serve this with a wedge of lime to squeeze over it and cut the richness.  Here’s the cedar smoked sablefish recipe for y’all.

Brine:

Make a brine solution, that means dissolving salt and water till you get a liquid that tastes a little saltier than you’d like your fish to taste.  Then add your secondary flavour notes to the brine; I chose 1 stalk lemongrass, a handful of lemon balm from my garden, 3 red thai chillis, 3 cloves garlic and the juice of two limes, cracked pepper.

Cover your fish with this liquid and brine for 1 hour.

The next morning drain your fish and pat dry, it’s ready for smokin!

Smoking: 

You can use a smoker if you have one or use your charcoal BBQ and just push the coals to one side so that the fish doesn’t cook too quickly.   Build your fire with cedar or if you don’t have cedar wood, you can use wood charcoal and then just throw some fresh cedar boughs over the coals to really get the smoky cedar flavour into your fish.  I smoke my fish in my Jamaican drum BBQ for 20 minutes (warm smoke) or until just cooked.  The juices should just be starting to coagulate and come out of the fish on top.  This isn’t brain surgury.  Have fun with it, but just don’t overcook your fish.  This fish is  pretty easy to for beginners, because it is so fatty it can stand up to a lot of cooking mistakes.

Chef Robin