We just (as in about an hour ago) had a home-smoked fish dinner from a recipe that my wife found in a “Food of China” book. It was really quite tasty, but we’re probably never going to make it again.
First off, the ingredient list turned out to be much more expensive than we’d first anticipated. It includes things like a quarter cup of black star anise and another of jasmine tea… And it all goes into the smoking mixture. You might as well set fire to a ten dollar bill and use that instead.
The second problem is that the smoking process may have ruined two nice bits of cookware. You’re supposed to put the marinated fish on a grille and then seal it into a bubble of heavy duty foil with the smoking mixture below it, then pop the whole thing into a wok and put it on a hot burner “Until you smell smoke.” Then you let it smoke away for another fifteen or so minutes. Afterwards, you set it outside to cool off.
The first ruined bit of cookware was because of a problem with the cooling off process… Where do you set a red-hot wok that won’t cause a problem? We decided to use a dual-layer cookie sheet on a couple of hot pads, in the hopes that the pocket of air inside the sheet would be enough insulation to keep the hot pads from bursting into flame. It was… Unfortunately, the bottom of the wok was hot enough to take the non-stick coating off of the cookie sheet.
The second bit of damage was to the wok itself… The tinfoil holding the smoking mixture wasn’t strong enough to withstand the heat of the burner, and it melted. Plus the bottom of the wok has that strange blue rainbow coloration that you get when you overheat steel.
Still… It was tasty… If you ever see “Jasmine Tea Smoked Salmon” on the menu at a restaurant, go ahead and order it. Just don’t try to make it at home.