Szechuan-Style Smoked Salmon

Submitted by Annacia

"This is adapted from a Martin Yan recipe. I'm absolutely in love with it. I have made tea smoked chicken in the past and also loved that. If you enjoy the unique and delicious you must try this."

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1⁄4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1⁄4 cup chinese rice wine
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 2 teaspoons sugar or 2 teaspoons Splenda sugar substitute
• 1 1⁄4 lbs fresh salmon fillets, cut crosswise into 1- inch wide pieces
• 1⁄2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1⁄3 cup uncooked long-grain rice
• 1⁄4 cup oolong tea or 1/4 cup black tea leaves
• 2 whole star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon whole white peppercorns
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in
• 2 teaspoons water

directions

1. Combine marinade ingredients (soy, rice wine, ginger, sugar) in a wide bowl.
2. Add salmon and turn to coat in marinade.
3. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes and up to 1 hour.
4. Line a stir-fry pan or deep skillet and the inside of pan lid with heavy-duty foil.
5. Combine smoking mixture (brown sugar, rice, tea leaves, anise, cinnamon, peppercorns) and spread evenly in the bottom of pan.
6. Set a round cake rack over smoking mixture (Be sure the smoking element does not touch rack).
7. Remove fish from marinade and place on rack.
8. Pour marinade into a small saucepan and set aside.
9. Place pan, uncovered, over high heat.
10. When mixture begins to smoke, cover pan; reduce heat to medium-low and smoke until salmon turns a rich deep color, about 10 minutes.
11. Turn off heat; let stand for 5 minutes, undisturbed, or longer before removing lid.
12. Bring reserved marinade to a boil; add cornstarch solution and cook, stirring, until sauce thickens.
13. Strain sauce into a bowl, discarding solids.
14. If you plan to serve the fish hot, serve with the sauce on the side.
15. Otherwise, serve at room temperature with no sauce.

Reviews

[Gatorbek]

This was very yummy, and much easier to prepare than I thought. Using the foil made clean-up a breeze, and I used a steamer basket instead of a cake rack since I did this in my dutch oven. Couple of minor subs: regular soy sauce, real sugar, and fresh ginger in the marinade. For the smoking spices, I only had anise seed, so I used 1 tsp, as well as ground cinnamon, again 1 tsp. The only thing I will do differently next time (and there will be a next time!) is to allow the spices to begin to smoke BEFORE adding the salmon. By having it in the pot already, it came out a little too done for our tastes, because we like our salmon medium, with some pink in the middle, but this is personal preference. Served this with Recipe #287499 and jasmine rice, with the reduced marinade drizzled over it - paired very well. Thanks!