Produce for Summer

We are in the peak season for locally grown produce and farmers markets.  So how do you buy at the peak of the season and keep them fresh?  There are many ideas and theories about this.  Just remember that the sooner you eat, freeze or preserve the produce, the better.  Here is a link to a great article.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4496128_keep-produce-fresh-longer.html

I also try to handle the produce as soon as I get home. I find that if I take the time then the less I loose. 

To freeze fruits and vegetable is easy.  I regularlly freeze any fruit or vegetable I can.  Rather than go into all the details, use this link.  It has a lot of great information and will help.  If the fruit does get mushy - make a compote.

Here is the link

http://allrecipes.com/howto/how-to-freeze-fruits-and-vegetables/

Don't be afraid to try - you may just amaze yourself!

Collecting Recipes for the Second Book

If you have a great recipe that you would like to share, I am collecting recipes for my second cook book. It will have a section for Best of The Blog and reader submissions. You will get credit for recipe. So share!!

The next book will also be a digital cookbook but will have pictures and illustrations.  You can submit the recipes via my new website under contact me.  http://www.vegaswesgoutmet.com/

I look forward to reading your recipes!

Smoke and Grill

Yesterday I helped a friend cook some fresh Salmon by smoking.  That is not the same as creating "Smoked Salmon" which is a process to preserve as much as cooking.  Yesterday we wanted to cook the Salmon using Alder Wood in a way that kept it moist and added the flavor of the wood. Here is how we did it.

Prepare the salmon - She had purchased the fish with the skin on. That is great for this - just make sure that the fish has been de-scaled. If not you must do that.  Next rinse the fish under cold water to remove any scale and surface bacteria.  Pat the fish dry.  Oil the basket or the grill where the fish will cook.  Then put he fish skin side down and rub with some EVOO.  Lightly sprinkle with seasoning.  We used DAVIS DUST which was Fantastic!! 

My grill has a smoker box built in.  So after soaking the Alder Chip overnight I filled it about 1/3 full and turned on the that burner - which is very small - to high.  I put the basket with the fish in the middle of grill on the grates. The smoker is on the left of the grill.  I also made a smoke bomb using aluminum foil and put it on top of the far right burner which I put on the lowest setting.  Using this method you can  control the heat so the fish cooks slowly and absorbs the wood smoke flavor without being over direct heat.  The 2 pounds of fillets took about 35 minutes.  I kept the temperature right around 250 - 275.

We had a wonderful lunch of Alder Smoked Salmon with some cold salads.