Food and Crafts for All Occasions

Smoked Trout Dip

This dip is another delicious use of smoked trout. My husband raves about it every time I make it.

Have it on warm toasted bread. Some thinly sliced radishes on top will give a nice touch.

Green Salad with Smoked Trout, Poached Eggs, Potatoes and Asparagus

This has been one of my favorite salads lately. Sort of a version of Niçoise salad with smoked trout instead of tuna and poached eggs instead of boiled ones. My greens choice for this salad is a mix of frisee (I love ’em bitter!) and Asian greens mix (not to be confused with Asian salad mix!) which includes mizuna, pak choi, baby tat soi and other fancy and very tasty herbs.  If you cannot find Asian mix in stores, go for Spring Salad Mix or something like it.

As for the trout, you can smoke it yourself or buy it in a store. Trader Joe’s carries quite delicious and inexpensive smoked trout. If you want to smoke trout yourself and are a happy owner of a Green egg grill, follow the instructions given here for salmon. The only difference with trout would be that you would need much less salt and shorter time to cure it in the fridge since trout fillets are much smaller and thinner than salmon. For the same reason, the cooking time will be shorter too. Shoot for 45-50 min.

Brined Mackerel (or Herring if you're lucky to get it!)

This is not exactly a summer dish for me (it was 90 in Seattle this afternoon!), but I was asked to post this recipe, so here it is. Elli, thank you for reading my blog!

Salted herring, especially salted in brine, is a popular Russian dish. Skinned, filleted, thoroughly deboned, then sliced into bite-size pieces, layered with sliced sweet onions and drizzled with aromatic unrefined sunflower oil and several drops of table vinegar or lemon juice, it makes a nice dinner along with boiled potatoes and some vegetable salad. 

Miso Marinated Black Cod

To my taste, this is hands down the best preparation of black cod. Its natural fattiness combines so well with the sweet and salty sauce. They serve it at high end-ish Japanese restaurants, but you can easily make it at home.

Grilled Whole Trout

Grilled whole fish has become one of our most favorite casual dinners. As I have mentioned before, we’re happy owners of a Green Egg, a ceramic charcoal grill, that is perfect for grilling, smoking and even pizza baking.

When grilled right, a whole fish has a beautiful thin, crispy skin and tender and moist flesh.

Tuna Poke

Poke (POH-kay) is a Hawaiian chopped raw fish dish that is usually served on top of boiled rice. When on Hawaii, we can live on poke only (well, add fresh fruits, too!). Poke is ubiquitous there – you can find it in restaurants, in supermarkets, in special poke cafes.

Salmon Roasted under a Grainy Dijon, Soy Sauce and Mayo Glaze

This recipe is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Everybody raves about it. Even my most picky gourmet friends find it amazing, despite the use of such an unpopular ingredient among foodies as mayonnaise. I learned this recipe many years ago from my mom-in-law and since then it was one of my favorite salmon preparations.

Copper River Sockey, Roasted in Cedar Wraps

Hello guys! If you are fans of wild salmon, I’m super happy to announce to you that it is Copper River salmon season now, yay! It’s still on a pricey side, but it should become cheaper soon. It’s always like this with seasonal products, you know.

Homemade Lox or Salt-n-Sugar Cured Salmon

Homemade lox is Ilya’s favorite snack. A piece of dark bread and several slices of the salmon and he is happy as a clam. For a weekend lunch, I cut croissants in half, spread some light whipped cream cheese on them (chèvre works great too!), top with thin avocado slices, some capers and, finally, with the lox. You  can eat the sandwich as is, open faced, or bring the halves together to form a tall closed one.

For a party, the cured salmon goes well with small rye toasts and sides of horseradish and sour cream or crème fraiche.

The good news about homemade lox is that it's surprisingly easy to make. It takes less than two days to cure it and almost zero effort. You can take any kind of wild salmon: king, sockeye, silver, whichever is available in a store.

Broiled Sardines with Zesty Crust

When we're in a mood for sardines (and we always are whenever they are available), but the weather makes grilling sound like not the best idea,  we broil them instead.

Grilled Sardines

Ilya and I love sardines and buy them whenever we come across them in stores. Usually at Uwajimaya and occasionally at Whole Foods. If you haven’t tried them yet, I encourage you to. They have a distinct pleasant flavor and delicate oily consistency, which resemble those of mackerel and herring.

Tara Nabe: Japanese Black Cod and Matsutake Mushroom Soup

I am not the biggest fan of the fall in Seattle with its heavy rains and gusty winds. The only thing that somewhat reconciles me with this season is that it is a wild mushroom season as well. Chanterelles have been around for about a month; matsutake have just started and trumpets are coming to the markets and stores any day now.

On a rainy Saturday like today I love to treat Ilya and myself with some nice warming soup. Like Tara Nabe, a fantastically fragrant Japanese soup with black cod, matsutake mushrooms and mizuna. I fell in love with this soup at Nishino restaurant several years ago and reconstructed the recipe at home so we can enjoy it any time we want. Since then, I cook it whenever matsutake are in season.

Deep Fried Smelt

Recently, I bought myself a mini deep fryer and yesterday was trying it out for the second time. I made deep fried calamari and deep fried smelt (my favorite) and since both turned out absolutely fantastic, here I am with the recipes for you.

Niçoise Salad

Whenever we’re in a mood for a lighter dinner, I made a large “all inclusive” salad like Caesar with chicken or fried oysters or Niçoise. Here you have your proteins, greens and starches all in one light and healthy dish.

Ceviche with an Asian Flair

To continue the ceviche theme, here's another one for you. This time, with an Asian flair.