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.

Seafood Sausage Choucroute

Wish I was a Kellogg's Cornflake
Floatin' in my bowl takin' movies,
Relaxin' awhile, livin' in style,
Talkin' to a raisin who 'casion'ly plays L.A.,
Casually glancing at his toupee.

Wish I was an English muffin
'Bout to make the most out of a toaster.

I'd ease myself down,
Comin' up brown.

I prefer boysenberry
More than any ordinary jam.
I'm a "Citizens for Boysenberry Jam" fan.

Ah, South California...

from Punky's Dilemma, Simon and Garfunkel

Indeed.

I remember hearing this song years ago, its words set the scene, I imagine myself floating in Hockney colors without a worry in the world. A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to South California (Northern San Diego County to be exact)and the scene surpassed our imaginations: Fish tacos, beer and the beach, our winter was warmed. For the trip back, Bonne Femme bought me a Sunset Magazine. At first I snickered thinking of the stacks of old Sunset Publications on the book sale racks at the library. But wait, this mag is kinda good, a hip Better Homes and Gardens, or a Real Simple with a sense of place (and purpose). On the plane I got intrigued by a recipe for Wine Braised Seafood Choucroute. It hits some of my favorite flavor points, Sauerkraut, smoked fish and sausage. It's party time.

A word about Choucroute.

Chou is French for cabbage. Choucroute is French salted cabbage or as my German pals say, Sauerkraut. Choucroute a L'Alsacienne is the comfort food of the Alsace region in which sausages, smoked meats, maybe confits de goose or duck are braised cabbage with a wine broth. But will this work with seafood?


Quenelles.

For the seafood sausage I skip the "gourmet" markets the magazine suggests and turn to Ruhlman and Polcyn's Charcuterie, for a recipe. The Shrimp, Lobster and Leek sausage seems like a good start. As I am reading it I start ruminating about how seafood and sausage really don't go together: The ingredients are expensive and highly perishable, and stuffing a fish mixture into a hog or sheep casing really knocks my Feng Shui out of whack. I look around for other seafood "sausage" recipes, the French must have done something like it. Well they did, only they don't call it sausage. The secret term that links the Charcuterie recipe to culinary history is mousseline forcemeat. Escoffier defines the mousseline forcemeat as preparation of pounded meat whipped together with egg whites and heavy cream. Form this mixture using a spoon, pastry bag, or just rolling it, and you get quenelles. Thems fish balls, yo.








I ended up doing two batches because the recipe only made four 4-1/2oz sausages. The first batch I stuffed into hog casings the second batch I poached in plastic. I used crab instead of lobster.



Braising liquid.

I saved the shrimp shells and sauteed them with a mirepoix of onion, fennel and parsnip. I added a package of bonito flakes for a little extra zip. The addition of wine turns the stock into what pros call a fumet, and Hey Presto, you got yourself a braising liquid for your choucroute.



Smoking Fish in the comfort of your home.

I laughed when I first saw these smoker bags at Walt's, I mean what kind of cockamaime tomfoolery is somebody to to foist on me? But when I discovered that these bags were made in Finland, I loaded up. Seriously what the Finns DON'T know about smoking, aint worth knowing. I went to this farmer's market over there where these dudes were selling hams that they had smoked in their Sauna. I gotta get me a sauna.





Anyway I loaded the about pound and a half of salmon into the bag folded it shut, and popped it into the oven. I could smell the smoke working, but it wasn't a nuisance. It didn't even come close to setting off a smoke alarm.



20 minutes later I had hot smoked fish. As you can see it's not very pretty and a little undercooked, but that's okay it will finish cooking when we do the braise.



I followed the Sunset recipe and braised the cabbage in the fumet along with some garlic and a sachet containing juniper, thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns. After an hour I added the smoked salmon and the quenelles. I browned the quenelles before adding them. Heat and serve. Everything was delicious and worth the fuss. Here's the recipe I used for the seafood "sausage."

Shrimp and Crab Sausage (Quenelles)
1lb/450 g large (16-20 ct) Shrimp peeled deveined.
8 g (1 teaspoon) salt
2 g ground white pepper
1 large egg white
100-150 ml heavy cream
2 g dry tarragon
50 g leeks, chopped fine, blanched
55 g crab (whatever you can afford)

Use a food processor puree shrimp with salt pepper and egg white. With machine running add heavy cream, keep an eye on the mixture you don't want it to get too loose. And make sure everything stays very cold. Transfer to a bowl and fold in remaining ingredients. Chill. Stuff into casings or roll in plastic then gently poach until done.

I adapted this recipe from Charcuterie with input from Escoffier and Larousse.

Cheers.

Smoked Fish in the Southland

The Accidental Foodie goes to Calumet Fisheries.

Oh boy, I love smoked fish. It's not that hard to make, get some fish, fire up the smoker (really any type of grilling device set on lo) and wait a few hours, Hey Presto, smoky love from the sea. In fact I think it's so easy, that I would never consider buying it. I suppose I have become jaded, I see those golden smoked beauties in the cold case, and I feel like someone is trying to sell me a $20-dollar-a-pound secret that I already know. Well sometimes I'm told to put down my tongs and take a spin on the merry-go-round. And man what a ride.



When someone says "fisheries" in Chicago, the person means a place that serves fried fish of some sort in a bag with fries and hot sauce. Calumet Fisheries is a little bit different in that they also offer fish smoked on the premises. We made the trip up to 95th ST, on a bright Sunday morning. We met Carlos who was working the counter and Ray who was tending to the smoker. They weren't too busy so they happily talked to Bonne Femme and me about what they do and showed us the smoker out back.







If for no other reason you should visit just to see the brick smokehouse. Perched between the store and the river, it is truly a relic of the past, no electric stainless steel chambers, just bricks, smoke and fish. The fish is hot smoked for about five hours with a mixture of hardwoods. Ray split some wood to give me an idea of the different aromas from the different woods.



Ray brines the fish before smoking, he said he would be happy to tell me the recipe if had had one, he does it all to taste.



Back inside Carlos offers a sample of the smoked shrimp. Yum. We get to talking, he reveals that he went to culinary school at CHIC, Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago. After getting his certificate he went to work at the casino down the road, but he didn't like it and came back to Calumet. All the school talk started making the boys antsy, Carlos asks me what I would like.

"I dunno what's coming out of the smoker?" Little did I know Bonne Femme was one step ahead of me, outside:







She zeroed in on a piece of trout and a piece of salmon with pepper and garlic.





We got a shrimp dinner for the boys, they ate it all. The smoked fish doesn't come as a meal, you have to take it home and make your own magic. Smoked trout rillets maybe?

When You Visit:

While this part of town is remote, it is by no means intimidating. It is more industrial than anything else, on the other side of the bridge is one of Chicago's largest boat yards, Crowley's, they have a very nice ship's store. The bridge spans the Calumet river, not the Chicago. Calumet is also the name of the geologic region that starts roughly at 95th ST and stretches around the bottom of the Lake all the way to Michigan. There's a great book by Kenneth Schoon called Calumet Beginnings, that has a history of the area.

Calumet Fisheries
3259 E 95TH ST
Chicago, IL 60617

773-933-9855

calumetfisheries.com

Parking for Calumet Fisheries is on the street, and there are no tables. They are open 7 days 10am-10pm. Check it out.

Cheers.

Chile Time

We had our first freeze in the Chicagoland area yesterday, so I brought in the last of the peppers. I'll hang these somewhere to dry. For the last month I have been real busy with school and travelling, I did manage to make some Italian style chicken sausage yesterday, but no time for blogging. Jolie is off to Paris today to embark on her Baking and Pastry odyssey, she has promised to send postcards.



A couple of weeks ago we were in Columbus where we smoked trout and made Ethiopian Food. We got enjerea from a bakery on the east side. Check out the pictures on flickr



Cheers.

Smoked Trout

Like I was saying in a previous post, I brought some fish home from Rushing Waters Fisheries in Wisconsin. I was ready to try my hand at smoking some fish. Since I had never smoked fish before I consulted The Easy Art of Smoking Food, by Chris Dubbs and Dave Heberle. The book suggests curing fish such as trout for five to eight hours before smoking.

For the salt mixture I used the proportions from my Gravlax recipe, about 3 grams of salt and 5 grams of sugar for each 100 grams of weight. So I applied the cure, put it in the fridge and took the boys to the Museum of Science and Industry.

When we got back, we fired up the cold smoker. The cold smoker consists of my Weber Bullet, an electric burner from K-mart, and a stainless steel bowl in which heated hickory sawdust smolders.

However on this day instead of saw dust, I used the branches from a basil plant I had saved from the garden. I got the idea from The Herbfarm Cookbook, by Jerry Traunfeld, it's at the library go check it out.

I chopped the shrub into bits. By the handful, the basil burned for about an hour. Due to the cold outside temp, the smoker stayed around 100F. The basil had a light sweet smoke, an hour was all the smoke I wanted, so I took the fish inside.

I brushed them with a little canola oil then finished them to firm and flaky in a 250F oven, about 30 minutes.

Holy smokes is it good. Bonne Femme ate a whole filet during the taste test. The skin is very good too. Mix it up with some crème fraîche and some herbs or make rillettes and you got yourself a smoky canapé. But like I said most of this fish didn't even make it to the toast. To Conclude: You don't need to live near a fancy pants deli to live the high life, just fresh ingredients and something in your yard that can burn.

Cheers.