Sunday, September 2, 2012

Smoked Mullet

Mullet is a popular fish here in Florida. This species of fish can be found in many locations around the globe and is an important food source for many coastal communities. When we went to Shelly's Seafood in Homosassa the other day we got two pounds of mullet fillets so I could smoke them.


I marinated the fish overnight. For the marinade I used about half a cup of olive oil, one quarter cup of balsamic vinegar, juice of two limes, 4 tablespoons of brown sugar, some minced garlic, teaspoon of dried oregano, teaspoon of dried thyme, a teaspoon of dried rosemary, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, some salt and pepper, and some chipotle hot sauce  I whisked all the ingredients together and placed a small amount in the bottom of a glass baking dish, then a layer of fish, then a layer of the marinade and so on till all the fish was placed in the dish and topped it off with the remainder of the marinade. The idea is to cover the fish completely with the marinade. I covered the top with saran wrap and placed in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day I removed the fish from the marinade and let them drain for about an hour at room temperature.   Usually the fish will get a nice sheen on them and then they are ready to put into the smoker.

I put them on tin foil and place on the racks of my Anuka Smoker. I added hickory chips to the smoking pan and I smoked them in my smoker for 35 minutes and let them sit for about 10 minutes after the smoker turned off.

We've been enjoying the smoked mullet all week long, plain, on crackers, all kinds of ways.

Thanks for reading and for all your comments. Hope you are having a relaxing holiday weekend.

6 comments:

  1. Hello Linda:
    Gosh, how clever you are to be able to smoke your own fish. And, we are sure that it is delicious hot or cold.

    We have never been ones for marinading and, yet, it does add such a difference to the finished product. Perhaps we are always too impatient to wait? And, Worcestershire Sauce, one of the few things which we bring to Budapest from England. Tomato juice is just not the same drink without it!

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  2. I have only one complaint - you didn't serve it on one of your beautiful platters!

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  3. you are making good use of your little smoker... I have one question that may sound silly... since it is electric, do you use it indoors or out?

    we bought a couple of pork shoulders on sale and tomorrow Jeff is going to smoke them in his big outdoor smoker. the whole neighborhood will smell yummy!

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  4. Hi Jane and Lance, thanks, now you have me wondering just what ingredients are in that Worcestershire sauce, now would those be Bloody Mary's you're having. Ha.

    Hi Elaine, thanks, that's the dish I had in the refrigerator but you make a good point I need to make more plates.

    Hi Michele, thanks, I use it outdoors, when we first got it I put it on the front porch which is enclosed and the whole porch smelled like hickory smoke for weeks. So now we've set up a little block table by the side of the house and we put the smoker on that. This smoker works so well and so quickly, but it keeps the food very moist and I'd like to make some fish with a drier consistency. Some day I'd like to build a brick smoke house patterned after one I saw in Oregon one year. Smoke the fish much like the native Americans did over a fire, some day. Ha. What kind of smoker does Jeff have?

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  5. Jeff's smoker is a charcoal type sort of like this:
    http://www.walmart.com/ip/10583514?adid=22222222227000017064&wmlspartner=wlpa&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=&wl3=13223569390&wl4=&wl5=pla&veh=sem&veh=dat

    He uses a mix of Cowboy chunk charcoal and oak in it.

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  6. Hi Michele, thanks, I'll check it out.

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I love suggestions, questions, critiques, thanks for your comment