Ingredients

Protein
12 salmon collars

Brine
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup kosher salt
1 gallon water
2 bay leaves
12 peppercorns
2 serrano chilies

Bring all ingredients to a boil and cool off.

Place salmon collars in brine and remove after one hour. Drain on a baking rack until dry and slightly tacky (this coating is called a pellicle, it's what the smoke sticks to).

Garlic Red Chile Glaze
2 cups honey
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sambal (you can find this in any super market)
6 tbsp chopped garlic

Mix all ingredients together and bring to a boil. Cool off and glaze salmon collars with a liberal amount. Broil until glaze is bubbly and brown.

Hot Smoking
You can use any wood chips you like: hickory, apple, mesquite, alder. All will work nicely. They should be soaked for at least two hours or overnight.

You'll also need:
Heavy-duty aluminum foil
12 King salmon collars
Salt and pepper, to taste
Charcoal grill with lid
Charcoal or charcoal briquettes

Warning: DO NOT attempt this with a gas grill!

Take some heavy-duty foil and make a shallow pan with it. This doesn't have to be anything perfect. As long as it holds the salmon collars and is a couple inches deep, you will be fine. Place salmon collars on the homemade foil pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You can also use a foil pie tin if you want.

This technique works best with white, dying coals. The coals need to be hot enough to smoke the wood, but you don't want them so hot that the collars are cooked before a nice smokiness is imparted. Spread the white ashy coals evenly around the outside of the grill and up the sides. There should be no coals in the center of the grill.

Take about a cup of wet wood chips and sprinkle evenly on top of hot coals. It will take about five minutes for the chips to start to smoke enough to begin smoking the salmon.

Once the chips are smoking, replace the grill grates and slide the foil pan with the salmon collars into the center of the grill.

Cover the grill and make sure the vents on the lid are closed to keep in all the smoke. Smoke the collars for an hour and a half, adding more chips if needed during the smoking process.

 

Click here to see Chef Brian O'Connor's tip

July 2010