East Asian Salmon Mushroom Soup

Speak of bones, I have a lot of bone, along with the giant head, from the giant salmon left. A stock is made, of course, with just the bones and head and water. I like to use this rich stock to make a hot miso soup. White miso, gochijang, wakame and tofu are usually what I put into it. Here I added some chanterelle to it too. Rich and comforting and health, do you see the omega-3 floating on the surface?

Crispy Skin

When a piece of gravlax is finished, you have a piece of skin left. There is nothing tastier than putting it under the broiler for a few minutes to crisp it up and eating it. The fattier the fish, the better it is. Now that markets sell the bones and collards of salmon, I wonder if they will sell the skin they cut from the fillets...

Good Morning Fish

When I was living in Southern New England and the Tri-State Area and staying with Jewish friends, I had a lot of cured and smoked fish for breakfast. I am still salivating from memories of those great smoked white fish that they had and I haven't been able to find any good ones else where. This is my version of fish in the morning. Slices of cured Chinook over some eggs and lightly toasted homemade baguettes. Pretty to look at too.

Gravlax

Here is a look at the gravlax I made from the big fish. It is amazing how rich and fine the meat is on this fish. Chinooks are often too soft but this one is just right. Now I think giant Chinook is the best eating salmon over the lean sockeye and the soft coho.

Homemade Smoker

When you have a 25-pounder salmon, you can't really eat it all at once, unless you have 20 kids. Preserving it is therefore necessary. Here I smoked part of it in cherry after brining in sugar, salt, crush peppercorn and dark maple syrup.

The smoker is my spare large stock pot with aluminium foil lining the bottom and racks hold a pan of water and a perforated dish for the fish. At low setting on the stove top, I kept the temperature at minimal for the chips to smoke. For about five hours, it was between 140℉ and 160℉. The inspiration is from smokers they sell in store that burns coal. I see that it is but a heat source that make smoke out of wood chip and then a pan of water and a rack. I change the hear source to the stove and I can do it indoor under the rangehood. The result is very good, the fish takes in sweet sweet smoke flavour without any hint of burnt. The house smell slightly of smoke, more like a little incense. All hail the powerful Cypress Hi-Jet!

Steak and Cukes

In old cookbooks cooked cucumber recipes are very popular. These days though you usually only find cucumber in the raw forms. I do like cooked cucumber very much, particularly at this time of the year when overgrown cucumbers are common in the garden. I simply sauté it in a little oil and salt. Rather enjoyed it with a piece of fillet mignon.

Scandinavian Sushi

After two days, the gravlax from the big fish is ready. Because I have too much fish and not enough dill, I make it with more black pepper and less dill. The process is simple, equally amount of salt and sugar are mixed together with plenty of cracked pepper and the fillet of fish is covered with plenty of the mixture. I put some thin slices of lemon on it and then chopped dill. Wrap tightly in plastic onto which some holes are poked. Put some weight on and then refrigerate for a couple of days. Et voilà, gravlax. One fun way to eat it is to make maki with it.

Mushroom Season

Besides great wild salmons, the other great wild product this time of the year here is mushrooms. For the last couple of years, it was rainy at this time of the year and the wild mushrooms were very wet and wormy. This year however was great. The ground is moist but the sky is clear so the mushrooms are very very good and plentiful. I picked up some pine and some chanterelles from Louis of Wild Products. I made rice with the pine for the salmon dinner; unfortunately my camera was out of battery to take pictures. Here I make this risotto with the chanterelles, onion, chicken stock, Parmigiano Reggiano, butter and rice. At the last moment, I added some crumbled roasted salmon from the other night. So very BC in the fall...

Giant Chinook Salmon

I went down to the Fisherman's Wharf by Granville Island three time in the last five days and finally got a good fish from Steve Johansen of Ocean Organic. I was luck, maybe as a reward of my persistence, because this is the smallest and last of his whole fresh fish, caught the day before. Normally a 25lber is quite large but Steve said he caught only 20+ fishes in this opening but the largest is 40+lbs. Too bad I didn't get to see that monster. I asked who got it and he told me it was Raincity Grill who ordered 100-lbs of salmon and he delivered just three fishes. That is pretty impressive.



To give a better scale, here is the head of the fish again my 9-inch Trident chef's knife. Makes it look like a paring, doesn't it? I simply pan seared and then roasted a 1.5lb fillet and the collar and the belly tips to serve to my aunt, my visiting cousin, her husband, and three of their friends. The meat is so moist, so sweet and so tasty that this simple preparation is just right. Now I still have a good 17 or so pounds of fillets, I will make some gravlax, some hot smoked, and some poached for the freezer. Should last me a bit of this winter.

Easily Roasted Chicken Pieces

I salt-and-peppered these chicken thighs before browning them in a pan. Some garlic, rosemary and sage were thrown into the pan and the pan were thrown into a 400℉ over for 15 minutes. The time in the over is just right for cooking vegetables and in no time a complete meal is done. Crispy skins.

Roof of the World Chili

This is what the Bhutan Chili looks like when fully ripe. Not as dramatic as the purple and green look earlier but still very pretty and bright. It would be nice if it tasted stronger, but then it is plenty nice enough already.

Leftover Pork

Thin slices of leftover roast pork are warmed by the heat of the rice. A couple kind of kimchee round up the meal.