Smoking inside the house.

My wife came through, and gave me one of the few items on my x-mas list, a stove top smoker.  I've toyed with the idea of getting one of these things ever since I saw Jeff Blank use one to smoke a few quail during a cooking demonstration at the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival about 10 years ago.  I have a gas grill, a charcoal grill, and one of those electric kettle style smokers already, so I kept putting the purchase off.  Now that I have one, I suspect it's going to become one of the most used pieces of equipment I have.

If you've never seen one before, a stove top smoker is basically a roasting pan with a tray, a rack, and a slide on lid.  To use it, you simply put about a tablespoon of wood shavings, sawdust really, in the bottom of the pan, place the tray and rack directly on top of that, add the food to be smoked, slide on the lid, and place it on a burner set to medium.  After about five minutes the chips will be smoking away, but as long as the lid is firmly in place, the kitchen remains pretty much smoke free.

The main reason I wanted one of these things is for smoking seafood.  This always seemed like more trouble than it was worth in my regular smoker, which requires a least a little advanced planning, and is a bit of a mess to clean up.  It's fine if you're going to smoke a brisket or a couple of chickens, but for a fillet of salmon that requires just 20 minutes of cooking time, the hour or more of setup and cleanup were a real non-starter.

For my first attempt with the new toy, I picked up a fillet of wild salmon, and a rainbow trout.  I brined them both for about an hour, then seasoned them with pepper, an smoked them using alder wood shavings for 25 minutes.  We ate the salmon for dinner, and stashed the trout in the fridge for a later use.  The salmon was tasty, with a nice mild smoke flavor.  The next day I made salad with the chilled trout, arugula, and a goat cheese vinaigrette dressing.  The trout was amazing.  Because it was thinner, it took the smoke much more than the salmon had, yet it hadn't dried out at all.  Beautiful.

For the second go, I bought some large shrimp, and more trout.  I gave them the same brining treatment as before, but this time, I used a mix of alder and cherry wood.  The cherry produces a stronger smokey flavor.  We haven't had the trout yet, but the shrimp went into a smoked shrimp cocktail I made for a party last night.  They were a big hit and disappeared in about 10 minutes.  I think quail are next on my list.

Stovetop Smoked Shrimp Cocktail


1 lb 20-25 count shrimp
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
ground black pepper to taste


1 cup ketchup
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp fresh grated horseradish
juice of one lemon
salt to taste


Peel and devein the shrimp, leaving the last segment of shell and tail intact.  
Make a brine by whisking the kosher salt and sugar in 1 quart of water until completely dissolved.  
Add the shrimp to the brine, and refrigerate for one hour.  
Remove the shrimp from the brine, and rinse briefly under cool tap water to remove the excess brine.  Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels.  Season with black pepper.
Set up the stovetop smoker using 1 1/2 tbsps of wood shavings.  Line the tray the rack sits in with aluminum foil for easy clean up.  Smoke the shrimp for 20 - 25 minutes until just cooked through.  Remove the shrimp from the smoker, but reserve any juices that have collected in the smoking tray.  These are salty smokey goodness that can be used to season the cocktail sauce.


While the shrimp are cooling, prepare the cocktail sauce.  Combine the ketchup worcestershire sauce, horseradish, and lemon juice in a small bowl.  Taste.  If it needs salt, add a tablespoon or two of the reserved smoking juices if you have them, otherwise just season with salt.  


Serve the shrimp chilled or at room temperature with the cocktail sauce.