This is proper sort of Cub Scout stuff, even though I got kicked out of the
scouts, don't worry about that, don't judge me on that. Beautiful smoked fish,
trout, prawns, horseradish sauce and a lovely little watercress and onion salad.
You can go and buy a smoker, but I don't want you to go and buy a smoker because to
be honest all you need is a bucket. Right, so we put holes in the bottom for
airflow very very simple so fill a bucket with about three inches of white
hot charcoal from the barbecue. Then I've got some wood chips here which you
can buy you know from garden centers and stuff like that or get a penknife and
just do a pile of splinters. You want to use things like oak, apple, cherry
woods. You don't want anything oily like pine.
You can see the smoke coming off it now. Dead simple. Over here I've got some
prawns and trout. Okay, so first of all I've just got some nice big prawns. I've
taken the shell off. Let me show you how to do one. Hold the head, just crack off
the body shell, pull that off and go right down and leave the tail fin on just
because it looks quite cool and it's good to hold on to. So peel that off like that
and then skewer it and then just lay these just like that. Then I want you to
get a load of skewers, wooden everyday skewers you can use metal ones if you
want, and just lay it across almost like a game of kerplunk,
alright crisscross like that. Then I've got some trout fillets and could use
salmon, some seasoning, we could even get some lemon zest if you want just give it
some freshness and some brightness and then I'm going to lay that trout over
the kerplunk, flesh side down and the smoke will come around and it will kiss
your fish and then all you have to do is get a wet cloth, I'm just going to lay it
over the top like that, and that means it's holding all the smoke in.
So that bucket now is just full of like foggy smoke and it's only going to take
about five to seven minutes to cook. I want to make a punchy dressing so it's
50:50 horseradish sauce:yogurt and a good pinch of salt and pepper and a
squeeze of lemon. I just think this is exciting you know, I can't wait to teach
little Buddy how to do this. I love the fact that you know if you teach your kid
to do it he'll probably do it with his kids and I just love love love all that
sort stuff. So look I'm really pleased with that, got my sauce done , I've got my
smoker on yet I'm gonna make a lovely little salad. Finely slice some onion,
season with salt and a nice squeeze of lemon then massage it all over to
take the heat out of the onion. Get some watercress and some good old fashioned
cress and dress with a little olive oil. Job done.
Then we come to our fish. Alright these would be done by now. You pretty much know
when fish is cooked when you can pull the skin off. Look at that. Let's pick up
this fillet and I let gravity flake it. Just let it bust cooked in its own
juices it's such an intelligent way to cook and then look, what's quite
interesting is all the heads did fall off, off of your head, right but what's
quite lovely is the flavour of prawns is in the head right so as the head falls
on the charcoals like all of the oils from the shell and the flavor turns into
smoke. Do you know I mean? That's what all this is about. Just dress it with a
little lemon juice and of course olive oil. I love the little dream of
going away with the family, with an old fire bucket you know full of a few
little things to do this. Imagine, and like you know picnic but not as you know
it. For me that's what this kind of summer festival food season is all about.
Do you know what I mean? It's about the unexpected, it's about 'bigging' it up, it's
about surprising yourself with things you can do. So there you go, beautiful
smoked fish, prawns, trout horseradish sauce and a lovely little watercress and
onion salad. Happy days. Hang it in your gob.
Absolutely gorgeous