Monday, November 21, 2011

POT SMOKIN'


No its not what you think. But its fast, delicious and extra convenient if you have the munchies. Pot smoking is a method of stove top smoking. There are a few types of "stove top smokers" out there but I am from the school of thought that less is more. A lot of kitchen pots and appliances are not really necessary. For example I don't have a steamer because I use a big stock pot and a cullender. I dont need more stuff taking up room in my kitchen so I use a pot when I am pot smokin. Its a great method of cooking and or infusing some smoke flavor into food. It works especially well with seafood like fish or scallops. Pot smoked scallops are unbelievably delicious!

Its pretty easy to set up, the equipment you will need is as follows:

  • A large stainless steel pot with a good fitting lid. (dont use aluminum, enameled or non stick cookware as these may burn.)
  • One of those spreading steamer baskets or a cullender that will fit inside the pot. 
  • A pie pan that will fit inside the pot.
  • A few tablespoons of hardwood saw dust like oak, hickory, apple etc.

You can buy sawdust from places that sell smoking wood. Home depot and Loews don't carry it though. Its in gourmet cooking shops under different names. You can buy one of these or you can just saw some oak branches or apple branches over a pan to catch some saw dust. It stores well in a glass jar or plastic container

                          Here we are smoking some stripped bass fillets. Extra good stuff!!!

Take the fish fillets and rub them with some salt and pepper and perhaps some other spices. I keep it simple and add only salt pepper and a small amount of Old Bay.

Put the pot on the burner over high heat. Set the fish fillets onto the steamer basket and set aside. Put a few tables spoons of the saw dust onto the center of the pot.



Then put the metal pie pan on top of the saw dust. This is some maple wood dust that I made sawing up some branches. Put the lid on the pot and wait a few moments. When you see the pot start to release small wisps of smoke from around the lid turn the burner down to medium low. Remove the lid and put the steamer basket of fish into the pot on top of the pie pan. The pie pan serves a drip catcher because the dripping juices will burn and perhaps give the fish a burnt flavor.

Put the lid back on quickly and the pot will fill up with smoke. Keep an eye on it. If too much smoke begins to escape turn the heat down. If no smoke is escaping turn the heat up a little. Smoke should be escaping slightly like in the picture above. The house never gets "smokey", left behind is what I would call an agreeable smell of wood fire. No more then a fire place may leave behind. The reason is that you are burning very little wood and you are smoldering it slowly.

After about twenty minutes or so depending on how thick your fish fillets are, they will be done to perfection. Like something from a five star restaurant. People WILL think that you slaved over the smoker for hours preparing the fish.


Pot smokin' works great, it is really fast and very agreeable. clean up is a snap too.

                                                                        Before Clean up.

                                                                          After clean up.

So you don't have an excuses with this one. If you like smoked fish give it a try, get some nice fresh fish and smoke it up!

1 comment:

  1. this one is a good weekday one. quick and flavorful. we of course have the deluxe smoker you gave us and it works great. we made many delicious ribs and trout.

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