Friday, August 28, 2009

Pink Salmon Year

Around here on odd years, Washington experiences a heavy return of pink salmon (also known as humpies). Currently, these salmon are making their way back to their spawning streams. Apparently, this is a record year for humpies. The other morning, we watched 11 seiners fishing out in front of our beach-we've never seen this before, definitely a first!
My uncle went fishing, caught his limit that morning, and was so kind to share some fillets with us. Many people turn their nose up to pink salmon. We actually like it. In my opinion, it is best to eat the day you catch it, since this particular salmon does not freeze well. My favorite thing though, is to smoke it, and that's what I did with these. Once the fish is filleted, I remove the rest of the bones, and cut into 2-3" wide pieces. I lay the pieces in a 9 X 13" glass baking dish and sprinkle a mixture of 1/3 Cup salt and 2/3 Cup brown sugar over all the pieces. This mixture turns into a brine that I leave on the fish overnight.
In the morning, I rinse the fish very well, and pat dry. The pieces of fish are now ready to put on the smoker's rack.
The rack then gets inserted into the smoker and the fish smokes with mesquite chips for a few hours.
We like our smoked salmon a little soft, so I only smoked this fish approximately 3 hours. Thicker fish would take longer.
This batch turned out really well. I used a few pieces for smoked salmon orzo pasta - it was so tasty!
My hubby and I are looking forward to fishing with my brother Labor Day weekend. I have my white flasher and hot pink hoochie combination set-up and ready to go! Oooh... now, that does sound strange...really, that's what you use to catch humpies... hehehe

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never really liked to eat Salmon but I sure liked watching them! ♥

Laurie said...

Oh yum!!! Your island trip looked like heaven. I'm so envious!

Its So Very Cheri said...

Oh yummy-I LOVE salmon and it is soooo good for you too. We eat a lot of it.
Just checking in with everyone and to give an update.
I have a new party starting- Wed Sept 2. So each week I will have the Knock Off Knock Out party on Mondays and the Holiday/Seasonal party on Wed. I hope you come for a visit.
New buttons to grab as well.
Cheri
Its So Very Cheri
Can you tell me the name of those books you have, for collecting vintage soda fountain glasses. I have searched and not found anything.

sue williams said...

Smoked Salmon is just about my favorite food! Bob used to bring me smoked Salmon instead of flowers when we were dating and just married. (mmm...he hasn't done that in quite awhile) You are lucky lucky people!

Linda Reeder said...

Oh, what an abundance of smoked salmon! Wonderful.