Hey guys and gals, in the spirit of fishing (yes its on right now) the river is once again filling up with both salmon and those folks who love eating salmon. I am not going to get into the politics of fishing in this post other than to take a swipe at the jackasses who are destroying our rivers, and our salmon and stealhead.
Part of the problem is hidden in a money making gimmick, that gimmick is dividing those who love fishing into two groups, those who fish for food (100% aboriginal) and those of us just entertaining ourselves with fish.
Pure unadulterated bullshit! I have never gone out to brutally play a fish to near death, just for my own high, sorry folks, sport fishing is not a sport, its a money racket!
The rest of us simple love fishing, living off the land, and eating what our land has to offer, that’s not the same thing as prostituting our environment to make a fast buck selling nature off for a profit.
OK end of rant, now back to harvest and ways to eat the great blessings that come from our super Natural British Columbia.
So many people have asked me to share the secret to that tasty bag of treats, both in the outdoors or during winter as an appetizer that so good with a few drinks.
And to my pinoy friends, its awesome pulutan.
Great Northern Salmon Jerky
What you will need is a salmon, it does not matter what kind, I prefer Chinook or Coho but it really does work with all of them.
Fillet your fish skin on or off, it works both ways. Cut your fillet from head to tail direction and make your cuts no thicker than about ¼ inch. Most Pinks and Coho remove the belly portion from the fillet and do them separately, they make a great treat too.
For best results use a large Ziploc bag, 10 ½ x 10 ½ is what we use in this recipe.
We boil our brine to insure it blends perfectly; cold mix does not work as well. So you will need a small pot for cooking, and this goes very fast so don’t walk away from it.
Ingredients List
One cup of dark soya sauce.
One level teaspoon of liquid smoke.
¼ teaspoon of pickling salt
2 table spoons dark brown sugar
4 or 5 cloves of crushed garlic
¼ teaspoon pepper
(optional) a few good dashes of hot sauce or crushed chili flakes or Cayenne pepper.
Bring to a boil, allow it to cool, fill the Ziploc bag with strips of fish, then pour the marinade over it and let it sit overnight in the fridge.
Try to remove all the air so all the meat gets into the marinade, rotate it a few times to insure a better mix throughout the fish.
We used Golden Dragon Dark Soya Sauce and it was the best of several we tried. Once it cooled it is almost like a like gel, be sure to work this through the fish in the marinade bag.
Note of interest, the spices do not make the fish jerky very spicy, it seems to just blend into the flavor instead. If you want peppered taste, then let the jerky sit in the fridge for a day in a ziplok bag, after one day the oils will come to the surface, lay all the jerky on a tinfoil or wax paper, then sprinkle on the pepper to personal taste. You can do this prior to vacuum sealing as well.
Place in the dehydrator at 160 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 10 hours, check it and see if it is close to being dry, but not too dry.
If you did over dry it, place the jerky in Ziploc bags in the fridge with a piece of moistened paper towel for a few days, and then remove the towel and it should be perfect.
Try that out next time you have a group of friends and swap that the peanuts for jerky and they will all love you.
By the way my use of the name Ziploc is purely coincidental, actually PC makes a better bag at a cheaper price, but then no one would know what I was referring to.
We are using the Nesco American Harvest Dehydrator, and it allows you to run at 500 watts, it does not matter what brand you have but having the extra power is really a time saver and produces better results. It comes with only 4 trays but allows you to expand up to 12 trays, four is plenty for the recipe above. Below is the transition from fillets to salmon jerky using coho, we wrapped them in cellophane plastic. then vacuum sealed them in ziplock bags.
Thanks for having taken the time to read what I have shared with you,
