SMOKING SWORDFISH RECIPES

Steps:

• Place chile and 1 tomato in a small saucepan and add water to cover. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook until tomato is burst and chile is soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add hoja santa. Let cool slightly, then blend tomato, chile, and hoja santa with 1 cup cooking liquid until smooth.
• Halve remaining tomato, squeeze or scoop out seeds, and chop flesh. Finely chop half of leek and add to tomato; slice other half lengthwise into thin strips about 1½” long.
• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low and cook onion, carrot, and chopped leek and tomato. Cook, stirring often and reducing heat if vegetables start to take on any color, until tomato is falling apart and vegetables cook down, 25-30 minutes.
• Season vegetable mixture with salt and increase heat to medium-high; add garlic. Cook, stirring, until garlic is golden brown, about 2 minutes.
• Add swordfish and tomato purée. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring often, until liquid is almost completely absorbed, 8-12 minutes. Stir in vinegar; taste and adjust with salt and more vinegar if needed. Let cool.
• Meanwhile, use cutter to punch out circles from tortillas (you should have about 24). Heat vegetable oil in a medium skillet over medium-high. Working in batches, fry tortilla rounds until puffed and crisp, about 30 seconds per side. Transfer to paper towels to drain; season with salt.
• Working in batches, cook leek strips in same oil until golden brown and crisp, about 2 minutes. Transfer to paper towels; season with salt.
• To serve, top each tostadita with a dollop of avocado cream and a small spoonful of swordfish mixture. Garnish with fried leeks.
• Do Ahead: Swordfish mixture can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before serving.
• A 2½” cookie cutter

Steps:

• Mix all brine ingredients thoroughly.
• Cut fish in 1-2" pieces, leaving skin on.
• If fish is fresh, soak for 1-1/2 hours; if it has been frozen, soak for 45-60 minutes.
• Remove fish from marinade and place on smoker-racks skin-side down.
• Allow to glaze at room temperature for at least 4 hours, and preferably overnight.
• I usually set a fan to blow across the fish and help them get dry to the touch and look very glazed.
• Cold-smoke (at 120-140 degrees F) for 8-12 hours to obtain desired flavor.
• Then hot smoke (at 180-200 degrees F) for 1-2 hours or finish in a 300 degree F oven for 30-45 minutes to get desired texture.
• I do not like a mushy fish, so I cook it until it firms up, though it's hard to tell, though, until after it has cooled down.
• Cool to room temperature, freeze on cookie sheets, package, and store in freezer.
• Best with stronger flavored, oily fish such as salmon, tuna, or swordfish; in general, mild fish smoke poorly.
• Notes: I use a Brinkmann Smok’n Pit water-smoker.
• The water helps to keep the temperature low, and the steam in the smoke keeps meat more moist during long cooking.
• My smoker is intended for charcoal smoking, but for fish, I place soaked wood chips in a metal (not foil, foil will burn through, use real metal) sitting on top of a cheap hot plate (with a rheostat control, not just an on-off switch), which sits on a brick so the pan is up under the bottom of the smoker, where the charcoal pan normally sets.
• Adjust temperature by adjusting hot plate up or down (usually somewhere between low and medium), and throw another handful of wet wood chips into the pie plate every 30-40 minutes, when the smoke stops generating.
• Depending on my mood, and what kind of wood chips are available, I usually smoke fish with alder, cherry, oak, maple, orange or lemon wood (on the rare occasion I can find orange or lemon) Alder and cherry are usually the easiest to find, and they both work beautifully for fish.
• Do not use hickory or mesquite; they are just too strong and completely overwhelm fish!
• I usually double or triple this recipe; I have rigged my double-size smoker to take up to 4 racks to handle the larger amounts.
• Since this whole process takes a lot of time, the little extra effort is worth while, and the smoked fish freezes well, lasting a couple years with only a little deterioration in flavor or texture.
• SAFETY NOTE: Needless to say, DO THIS OUTDOORS!
• Cabon monoxide KILLS!