Pacific Northwest Gold

I can never get enough smoked salmon, a Pacific Northwest treat. So when my neighbor, Sean, surprised me with a beautiful salmon he caught in West Seattle, I decided to cure and smoke it. Sean has been smoking his bounty for years and he offered this treasure as a way of trying out some other cure recipes.  After discussing the different cures and wood smoke combinations Sean has used in the past, I set out to try my own version. By the way, Sean could easily sell his smoked salmon alongside the packaged brands.

After looking through some of my favorite cookbooks and studying up on flavor combinations, I came up with the following cure recipe. Two books I refer to continuously are The Flavor Bible and Culinary Artistry, both by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. These books are fantastic for those times when you return from your local farmers market with fresh vegetables but aren’t sure what you want to make. I have also found these books invaluable when cooking without recipes.                                                           

Smoked Salmon Cure

Simply mix the following ingredients together in a mixing bowl:

            - 1 ¼ cups dark brown sugar

            - 1 cup kosher salt

            - 2 tbsp coarse ground black pepper

            - 2 tbsp dry dill

            - 1 teaspoon dry thyme

            - 4 bay leaves (ground fine in spice grinder)

            - 2 tbsp ground brown mustard seeds

            - 1 tbsp ground coriander

            - 1 tbsp ground cumin

            - Zest of 2 oranges

            - Zest of 1 lemon

I placed a large sheet of plastic wrap on top of a sheet of foil to wrap the fish in after applying the cure.  After placing 1/3 of the cure mixture on the plastic, I laid the first salmon fillet skin side down. I spread another 1/3 of the cure over the flesh side of the fillet. Next, I put the second fillet on top of the first (flesh side down). Then I covered the skin side of the second fillet with the remainder of the cure.  I wrapped the fish up tight in the plastic and foil and placed it on a half sheet pan covered with foil. (You need to cover the sheet pan with foil because a good amount of liquid works its way out of the wrapped fish as it cures.)  Finally, I placed a 9 x 13 baking dish with 2 soup cans to weigh the curing fish down. I turned the fish over every 12 hours to allow for even distribution of the curing process.  I cured this particular fish for 72 hours before taking it out and rinsing off the fillets with cold water and allowing them to dry for a few hours to form the pellicle - the layer formed on the surface of the cured fish that is tacky to the touch. This tacky surface allows the smoke to bond to the fish. 

Cured salmon with pellicle formed

I smoked the fish for about 7 hours using alder chips for the first 6 hours and cherry chips for the last hour in a 4-rack smoker, which I placed in my backyard. This particular smoker has an electric element at the bottom that you place a pan full of the wood chips on top of. The photo shows the smoker with the face plate removed. I smoked a couple of Sean’s fillets, too, since he seems to be catching more fish than he knows what to do with. 

4 rack electric smoker

The photo at the top shows the finished product with some items that create some nice flavor pairings for the smoked salmon. I served it with a simple seedless cucumber salad made with rice vinegar, dill, salt and pepper. I also included capers, crostini, Dijon mustard, and crème fraiche with dill.

I spent all day Saturday in anticipation of eating the smoked salmon, drinking cold beer, and watching the Red Sox versus Mariners game. Overall, the smoking required an extreme amount of patience. But it turned out to be a great day … even though the Red Sox lost.

How did these guys find Sean's secret fishing spot?

I want to thank Sean for giving me this beautiful fish and allowing me to use his smoker. I have a feeling I will have an updated fishing license and smoker of my own in the not too distant future. I also want to thank Sean's wife Ruth, for being just as excited as myself when it comes to trying out new recipes. We use each other as recipe guinea pigs when we are feeling creative. Ruth makes a French Onion Soup that simply makes you exhale that comfortably satisfied sigh. Last I want to thank my neighbor Carol, for sharing her love of food and hosting several barbecues over the years. Carol's pretty cool even though she's a Husker fan. I say this in jest, knowing full well that Husker fans are probably the most respectful college football fans in the country. Cheers!

Spice shop discovery: Ras El Hanout

Ras El Delicious

There’s an entire section of Chef Tools’ warehouse devoted to spices, sugars and dried peppers – it’s like our own little spice shop. I was combing through this section recently and, among exotic sea salts and sugar decorations, I found a stash of Ras El Hanout. 

I didn’t know what it was when I saw it, which is probably why it was attractive to me. The jar advertises it as a “classic blend” of spices from Morocco.  Local Seattle spice company India Tree distributes it and it contains: all spice, black pepper, mace, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, rosebuds and cloves. 

I did a little research and found that this stuff is good on almost anything. There are recipes that describe adding it to coffee or tea, using it as a rub for meat or infusing it in rice or couscous. What’s more, the ingredients seem to expand and contract at the whims of the chef. 

Apparently, Ras El Hanout means “top of the shop” (or “head of the shop”) in Arabic, which means that it’s a blend of all the best spices from the spice shop.  Some recipes contain anise, saffron or simple salt. Whatever the blend, it smells delicious and there are literally hundreds of different recipes out there – at least on the Internet – for this stuff. 

Does anyone out there have any experience cooking with Ras El Hanout? I immediately pictured chickpeas stewing in a Ras El Hanout sauce in a tagine; then served over a bed of steaming rice pilaf. Anyway, from the top of Chef Tools’ little spice shop comes this wonderful little jar of culinary possibilities!

I would totally eat deep fried butter

The deep fried butter stick, courtesy of KCCI in  Des Moines.

 The Iowa State Fair is an amazing combo of giant livestock, fried food and politics, but they’ve really increased the intensity this year … some intrepid midway fry cook has introduced deep fried butter. It's an entire stick of butter fried in a cinnamon honey batter. It’s like a reverse pancake. (Idea: deep fried blueberry pancakes.) Oh, and it’s also drizzled with sugar glaze.

What’s the craziest food you’ve ever fried at home or eaten at a state fair? Deep fried Doritos? Deep fried Pepsi? I’ve had deep fried chicken feet, and I swear I was one of the first Americans to try a deep fried snickers bar.

Here's a link to a video of a reporter from Des Moines' KCCI investigating the deliciousness of deep fried butter.

Inventorialization!

The 9s section of the warehouse (BBQ stuff)

It was a busy week here at Chef Tools. We inventoried our warehouse this week, which means the entire staff spent 3 days counting what felt like millions of products. Chef Tools has over 10,000 products and we have several of each. I would estimate that we counted somewhere in the range of 20,000 items, from tiny pastry tips to hulking Dutch ovens. 

We worked in teams of 2, with one person counting items, the other keeping tally. Then, we went back for a second wave of counting to correct miscounts. The count required agility and creativity. One moment you might find yourself suspended 12 feet in the air balancing atop a shelving unit, a few minutes later you were emptying a box of Meri Meri party supplies, counting, and then re-packing it correctly, which was like solving a Rubik’s cube. 

The Nana Saver

We inevitably found some items that we had forgotten about. Doing inventory is sort of like cleaning out your attic or basement. But instead of finding an old middle school yearbook or a love letter (or gross spider carcasses), we found things like bottle dust caps. Or, my personal favorite, the ‘Nana Saver. No, it’s not a cryogenic chamber for your beloved grandmother; it’s a plastic cap for bananas to keep them from browning. I also discovered that we have an enormous stock of silicone spatulas. I counted so many spatulas that the word “spatulas” lost all meaning to me. 

The coolest thing I found was a Reed’s Rocket Nutcracker. I’m not sure who Reed is, or if he’s still alive, but his invention looks like a rail gun for nuts. It is awesome. It’s made in Glenville, Ga., by a company called Peas and Corn Inc., and I could totally picture a guy sitting on a porch in a rocking chair with a julep, a Reed’s rocket and a pile of pecans just completely set for the night.

At any rate, inventory was a success. It will help us get products to you faster because we have triple checked what have and what we don’t have. Also, if you know anyone who needs a ‘Nana Saver, send them our way.

Do you have art hiding in your house?

The Le Creuset Ogive teakettle

I came across a really great looking art exhibit that I can’t go to. Atlanta’s High Museum of Art has a show called Modern By Design, which is full of beautiful and functional household and industrial items from the last century (the collection is on loan from MoMa). It includes some items that you might even have in your own home, even in your own kitchen.

The High’s website does not give a good preview of what’s in the exhibit, but one item they show is the Chemex coffee maker. I have one at home; not only does it make great coffee, but it’s nice to look at – it shimmers and has a voluptuous figure tied at the center by a wood collar and a leather strap.

The “modern” part of the exhibit references a couple of different periods from the 20^th century: World War II era industrial design – large springs, motor parts and all – then the Space Age, and finally the post-counter culture 1970s. The exhibit got me thinking what items in Chef Tools’ arsenal would fit in this exhibit; kitchen and household items that are beautiful, durable and very useful.

The Matfer black steel fry pan (9-1/2" inch model)

The top prize, I think, goes to that Le Creuset Ogive teakettle (in fact, most Le Creuset items, especially their iconic French ovens, could fit in this exhibit). Other coffee-and-tea-making items could fit, too (what is it about vessels that hold hot liquids that inspires fine industrial design?) like the Bialetti espresso maker, or the RSVP pyramid-shaped tea infuser.

But there are other items, like this set of measuring cups by Amco, or soft kitchen tools by OXO. I really like these intense black steel fry pans by Matfer and these RSVP stainless steel straws. And – to prove that I’m not solely into steel and glass – the Tovolo King Cube ice tray.

What from your home would you include if you had to put together an art exhibit about industrial design?

TA-DA! Introducing the World's Greatest Corkscrew

The best word to describe the Rabbit corkscrew is “beautiful.” It is good looking, and it has brains – and by brains, I mean great design.

The difference between the Rabbit – and its brother, the Houdini – and standard corkscrews is like the difference between a rotary phone and the iPhone. As far as opening corked bottles, this is the pinnacle. You simply affix the Rabbit on top of your bottle – be it your favorite chardonnay or a bottle of aged balsamic vinegar – and squeeze. No more broken corks, no more putting a bottle between your legs to pull out a sticky cork. Did I mention that it’s beautiful?

So, we were really proud to start offering the Rabbit and many other excellent products by Metrokane, the company that designed these tools. We started selling these products a couple of weeks ago to smashing success on our Amazon.com page, and we’ll eventually add them to Chef Tools.

In addition to the Rabbit, we offer the vertical Rabbit, the Electric Rabbit, and soon we'll add the economical Houdini, Houdini wine preservers and vacuum wine stoppers, and wine aerators. Ditch that rickety old handheld corkscrew and start opening and enjoying wine on an entirely new level.

Come Wine & Dine With Us - For A Good Cause!

This coming Monday, July 25th, we'll be participating in a great event at the Shilshole Bay Beach Club to help launch the new book "Food Lovers' Guide to Seattle" by Seattle based food blogger Keren Brown.

We are partnering up with Ritrovo Italian Regional Foods, who also happen to be our neighbors here in South Seattle, to offer some tasty tidbits and demonstrations of popular tools available through ChefTools.com.

The best part about this fun evening event is that the proceeds from ticket sales go to FareStart of Seattle, which provides culinary job training and placement for the homeless. For those of you who have never been, FareStart has its own cafe right here in the Rainier Valley and serves up some delectable soups, salads and sandwiches - all prepared and served by youths in the FareStart training program.

Details about, as well as tickets to the event can be found at Brown Paper Tickets. If you don't have your tickets, get them now and come join us for a fun evening on the waterfront! We hope to see you there!

Monday, July 25th, 2011

7:00pm to 9:00pm

Shilshole Bay Beach Club
6413 Seaview Ave NW

Visit us to sample some fantastic Ritrovo Italian foods:

~Ritrovo Selections Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar on Bruschetta

~Truffle and Salt Almonds by Miller Farms

~Michele Ferrante Controne Beans cooked with Olive Oil and Salts

And enter to win one of 2 gift baskets with a hand-picked selection of top selling Ritrovo and ChefTools products!

Salute!

ChefTools Customer Profile: Cakes By Kemi

ChefTools, being an online business, sees a huge variety of customers. On any given day, people from all 50 states and Canada will shop at ChefTools.com. Some are shopping just to shop, some are buying supplies for their business, and some just need 100 aluminum funnels for their laboratory (true story!). 

The notion of the huge variety of people who shop at ChefTools struck me today after noticing one particular order. Today, Adekemi Fowler bought a jar of American Silver Disco Dust from us. I did a little digging and found out that Adekemi owns her own cake catering and decorating business, Cakes By Kemi, in Jonesboro, Ga., just about 30 minutes south of Atlanta. 

Fowler is a well-trained baker and decorator, having graduated from a Le Cordon Bleu school – yes, the world-famous cooking school founded over 100 years ago in France – in Georgia. Take a look at the photo gallery on her website and you’ll see a host of incredible cakes that prove her training. She makes wedding cakes, themed cakes (one shaped like a movie theater popcorn box, or one themed on Georgia Tech’s mascot), and cupcakes – just all kinds of cakes covered in ornate fondant, frosting and decorations.

And, the cakes come in all these off-the-wall and delicious sounding flavors: raspberry limeade, humming bird, pink lemonade, pina colada …

A cake by Kemi.

“If you don’t see a specific flavor or filling listed, just ask! I can make just about any flavor combination you can imagine!” she writes on her site. 

It’s really cool to know that the little jar of Disco Dust will travel from our warehouse here in Seattle thousands of miles to Adekemi in Georgia. And then – even better – that Disco Dust will adorn one of Adekemi’s unique cakes, which later a bride and groom, or a birthday girl or boy or whomever will enjoy.

I hope to use this blog to highlight more of our customers – you’re all very important, and you’re all probably doing cool things with the stuff you buy from us. So, if you want to tell us about what you’re cooking or how you’re using something you bought on ChefTools, please email me  at Neal@ChefTools.com. Otherwise, you might get an email from me one day bugging you to tell me your story. And thanks to Adekemi for letting me share hers!