Smoked fish on my bike.

Smoked shrimp and scallop sausage with braised cabbage (Seafood Choucroute)

I'm probably thinking about food 90% of the time. That includes sleeping. My wife says I need to get a hobby. I used to be into bicyling... That's what I'll do ride my bike! But I can't ride in circles, I need a destination. Oh no not food again.



A few weeks ago I made the trip from my house to Calumet Fisheries. I got excited when google maps revealed that most of my ride would be on actual bike trails.


View On my bike, Calumet Fisheries in a larger map

The ride went through a couple forest preserves to Lansing, Il where I hooked up with the Burnham Greenway. The only rough part was a two mile gap between the north and south sections of the greenway where I had to pedal on Burnham ave.



My first job in Chicago was as a bicycle messenger. In the almost 20 years since then I have seen this town become exponentially more bike friendly, but the Burnham Gap shows more needs to be done.



The north section starts at William W. Powers Conservation Area,



and finishes under the Chicago Skyway. Hanging a right under the Skyway put me on a meandering ride through Calumet Park, finishing at 95th ST.





I had smelts for lunch. After eating, I went around back and caught up with Juan, he was unloading the smoker.











I loaded up on some smoked fish and headed home.





I got some smoked shrimp and smoked trout. I could have eaten this stuff right out of the bag, but since it was Oscar Night®, I made up a choucroute.



I used some scallops from the freezer, with some of the smoked shrimp and made up a sausage, here's what I did:

300 g smoked shrimp and sea scallops
20g leeks, white minced and blanched
6 g salt
1 g white pepper
6 g potato starch
30 ml heavy cream

Make sure all ingredients are cold, place in food processor except the cream. With the machine running add cream to achieve a smooth paste. roll in plastic to form quenelles.



Poach in water bath for 12 minutes.

For the choucroute I decided to braise some cabbage in white wine. I diced a couple of ounces of green bacon, sliced one medium onion, and shredded half a green cabbage. I also pitched in the remaining leeks and half a bulb of fennel sliced. I let all that soften in a dutch oven, then added maybe a cup and a half of white wine and a cup of stock. Threw in a sachet of bay, thyme and garlic, covered and let it bubble for anhour or so. In the meantime I scrubbed and boiled some small red potatoes. before plating, I warmed up the shrimp and trout and sausages, by putting them in the braise for a few minutes. with a sausage, a couple of large shrimp, a pice of trout, the choucroute served four nicely,



With some leftover for lunch. Here's a previous post I wrote on Seafood Choucroute.



I think I'm getting the hang of this bicycle thing, the next trip will be someplace more sausagey.

Cheers.