The other day I headed to a BBQ speciality store to buy a smoker. The
salesman talked me out of it. Instead of buying an expensive smoker when I
already have a good gas BBQ he suggested a little metal box that you fill
with soaked chips and set it above the flames. COnsidering it was almost
$300 than a good smoker, I gave it a whirl. I bought the smoker box and a
bag of alder chips and tried it out tonight.
I went out this morning and got a couple of trout fillets and some nice big
shrimp. The trout were brined in a couple of spoonfuls of salt and sugar
with some sliced garlic and chopped dill and water for a few hours. about
an hour before I started the BBQ I shelled the shrimp and made a marinate
of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, Worcestershire Sauce, ketchup,
garlic and parsley.
I soaked the chips and put them in the smoker box, put the box under the
grill and started her up. I laid the trout on sheets of foil just large
enough to the fillets and set them on the opposite side then kept an eye on
the temperature. When the trout looked almost done, I set the shrimp on
the grill directly over the smoker box. They were done in about 10 minutes,
same time as the trout was ready to come off.
It was a smoking success. The trout and the shrimp were fantastic. If I had
know the trout was going to be so good I would have made a lot more of it
and then frozen it for later use. Smoked trout is good in all sorts of
things. The shrimp was so good i could never count on having any left
over.