Name: Tea-Smoked Salmon with cucumber salad
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: ¼ cup (4 g) black or oolong tea leaves; ⅔ cup (165 ml) water; 2 cups (80 g) young tender frisée leaves or 2 cups (200 g) finely sliced fennel; Sesame seeds, toasted; ½ small red onion, halved and thinly sliced; One 2-inch (5-cm) piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped; 2 whole star anise; 1 pound (455 g) English, Kirby, or Armenian cucumbers; Four 6-ounce (170-g) salmon fillets, skin and pin bones removed; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; ½ cup (110 g) brown sugar; ½ cup (100 g) white rice; ⅓ cup (75 ml) mirin; Pinch of cayenne pepper; 2 teaspoons sugar; 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil; 1 tablespoon kosher salt; 1 tablespoon fresh lime or lemon juice; ¼ cup (60 ml) rice vinegar; 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood

By John Ash

Published 2023

About

Tea-smoking, best known for the famous Chinese dish tea-smoked duck, lends itself to many other preparations. Here, black or oolong tea adds an aromatic note to smoked salmon. You can use a commercial stove-top smoker or make your own using a wok (for more information on stove-top smoking).

Ingredients

Brined Salmon

1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
⅓

Method

To brine the salmon, combine the sugar, salt, mirin, water, and ginger in a bowl and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Place the salmon in a single layer in a bowl and pour the brine over. Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 hour.

To smoke the salmon, line a wok with aluminum foil, fitting it tightly. To make the tea-smoking mixture, in a bowl, stir together the brown sugar, r