Spring is in the air, and even a not-so-young-anymore boy's thoughts turn to love. I sit at my desk, and the sunny day causes thoughts of a certain comely shape to flit through my mind. I count the moments until we will see each other again.
My smoker and I have an occasional love affair. Tim and Mitch, whose garage is where the smoker lives, encourage frequent trysting, but time is short, and smoking food is an inherently time-consuming activity.
But I decided it was time for another rendez-vous, so we made plans to eat dinner with Tim and Mitch (they are generously willing to let me cook for them on short notice), and we invited Melissa's shopmate Ashley and her sister Whitney to join us.
(I should note. Another guest photographer, this time Tim. Though of course we were at his house, so that does make him the guest, or us? His full set of pictures is at his mac.com page. I've chosen my favorites.)
I was in the mood for smoked trout, so the day before I bought four whole rainbow trout at a local butcher/fishmonger. The clerk (who has handled some odd requests from me before) asked if I wanted them prepped in any way. I said, "Are they scaled and gutted?" "Yes" "I'll take them as is". Heads and tails and bones and all.
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| Tim's original caption was "The victims". Not a whole lot I can add to that |
For an opener, I made a nice little dish (and it didn't present well, so you don't get to see pictures). I sautéed some ham, and then steamed some cauliflower. When the cauliflower was done, I cut it into sixths, piled some ham close by, and topped the cauliflower with a raisin-nutmeg vinaigrette (made with raisin butter and olive oil that I infused with freshly grated nutmeg). Given the casual nature of the evening, it was perhaps a little too small. Cutting a cauliflower into fourths might have been better, but when you've got one cauliflower and six people, you do the best you can.
The main course, of course, was smoked trout. But Ashley and Whitney brought some asparagus to roast as a side. I'm afraid I didn't monitor it too closely, so the asparagus became very tender. It was good, but lacked the crunch which would have been a nice textural contrast to the fish.
For the fish, I seasoned the insides of the fish with salt, and then smeared horseradish over the meat. I tossed in some green garlic, pressed the edges of the belly back together, and smoked over hickory chips for 30-40 minutes. I had hoped for apple wood, but apple wood seems to be hard to find before the barbecue season starts. One of the lessons a relatively new smoker user has to learn, I guess.
To serve with all this, Melissa and I brought two bottles of Grüner Veltliner. We started with the Salomon Undhoff 1999 Reserve, and moved on to a 2001 Bründlmayer Grüner Veltliner. Same grape, same country, but the two wines are vastly different. The Bründlmayer smelled like dust and stone and ash; it was just plain funky (we opened one on New Year's Eve which smelled similar). The Salomon had a fruitier smell with a more obvious pepper component. Of course both had a rampant acidity.
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| Cheese |
Finally, we had dessert. Tim brought cookies (from Zocalo Coffeehouse), and Tim and Mitch always seem to have ice cream in their freezer. This time they had eight zillion different kinds, so people mixed and matched.
So when will my romance with my smoker continue? There are a lot of hot days coming up, though!
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