Smoked Sockeye Salmon Sushi for Sunday Lunch

It’s the greatest sockeye salmon return in almost a century.  And it’s got a lot of scientists and government-types here in British Columbia are trying to figure out how we went from one of the worst returns in recorded history last year to a glut of 25 million head this year.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are waking up from our sockeye-less nightmare to hear stories of the Fraser River running red with salmon, and a beleaguered industry caught short of totes, processing and freezer space.  Processors have started to turn fisherman away, and the fish is rotting on the boats.  This unfortunate loss of infrastructure isn’t that surprising in an industry which last opened up for a commercial catch in 2006.  People simply couldn’t hang on anymore.

The moral of the story?  Well, while we need to be concerned about unsustainable fishing practices, rising water temperatures, and the problems of open-water salmon farms — this year’s run tells us one thing — Mother Earth is well beyond our capability to understand, never mind control.

And with that, I’m going to act like a Grizzly and gorge myself on sockeye.

A friend of Howard‘s dropped off some frozen sockeye from a recent fishing trip, and the first thing I did separate half of it for smoking.  I started with a cure a salt-sugar brine, then moved it into the cutest little smoker this side of Calgary.  After about 2 hours in a hickory smoke bath at about 130° F, it was perfect — one or two white droplets on the surface of each fillet told me the fish was cooked to medium rare.

Hot-smoked salmon will keep in the fridge for a week to 10 days.  Store it in the freezer for up to 1 month.

I crisped up the salmon skin by removing it from the smoked fillets, and baking it on a rack in a 400° oven for about 5 minutes.

My recipe for sushi rice comes from a friend in Japan, and has never failed me.

Sushi Rice

Yield:  (6) ½ cup servings

Sushi Rice	1 C	240 ml
Water	1 1/3 C	320 ml
Rice Vinegar	3 T	45 ml
Sugar	1 T	15 ml
Salt	1 t	5 ml

C=Cup      ml=millilitres       T=Tablespoon       t=teaspoon

Bring the rice and water to a boil over medium heat.  Stir once, cover the pot, reduce the heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.

While the rice cooks, combine the vinegar, sugar and salt and stir well to dissolve.

Empty the cooked rice into a wooden bowl and pour the vinegar mixture over top.  Using a wooden spoon or rice paddle, gently fold the rice over itself until all the liquid is absorbed, about 30 seconds.

Using a sushi fan or a few sheets of paper, gently fan the rice for about 10 sec onds to cool it.

Gently fold the rice with the wooden spoon or paddle for another 30 seconds, then cover the rice with a damp towel and allow to cool for 1 to 2 hours.

So in the end, it was hot-smoked sockeye, crispy salmon skin, green onion, gomashio (sesame-salt), and preserved lemon-chili mayo — a most excellent flavour combination if I do say so myself.

I made some rolls, but we mostly prefer to roll our own homestyle cones (temaki) — it’s easy to do in the palm of your hand — just watch this master…