Stove Top Smoked Salmon

Many of you know I am a fan of Chef Todd Mohr because his philosophy to cooking is similar to mine. We both believe you don’t have to go to culinary school to learn how to cook at home and it is more important to learn the cooking technique rather than just following a recipe.

If you learn the technique of Smoke Roasting properly, you can smoke-roast a chicken breast, fish, shellfish and even a steak. It’s all about learning the technique.

Smoke-Roasting

We are hearing more and more about true barbecue on the food tv and in the cooking magazines. This is where you slow cook food like ribs and chicken at lower temperatures for longer periods of time using indirect heat. Actually you want the smoke to cook the food and not the heat from the flame.

My buddy Barbecue Bob is mastering this technique in his giant smoker at home and prepares some mean pulled pork. He’s now curing his own bacon and finishing it in his smoker.

Smoking Indoors

If you don’t have a smoker but still want to try your hand at smoking a chicken breast or whole trout, Chef  Joe shows you in this video how you can smoke roast in your own kitchen while teaching the basics to this technique. You can use his technique on the stove-top or take his ideas and use them on your own gas or charcoal grill outside.

Warning - If you do decide to try his indoor method of smoke roasting, be sure you have the proper ventilation and a strong exhaust fan that takes the smoke out of the house, not one of those fans that recirculates the smoke back into the house.

I am a big fan of learning the basic techniques of cooking and then applying them to create your own recipes with your own favorite ingredients and what’s on hand in your refrigerator. Not that I don’t use recipes, I do, but recipes are not always developed with your skills, likes and experience in mind. If you learn the technique properly, you never really need a recipe except for coming up with new ideas.

Saute is one of those techniques that I think every home cook can learn to master and when they do, they will be coming up with dozens of there own recipes and variations.

Saute is a dry heat method requiring a minimal amount of cooking fat whether it be oil or butter and intense high heat. Literally it means “to jump” and is associated with chefs tossing the ingredients in the air but I can tell you from experience, if the pan and cooking fat is as hot as it should be, smaller cut ingredients can actually “jump” in the pan.

I received an email from a reader who asked me a question about saute temperatures and I realized I had it wrong on my web site so I just updated The Secret to Great Saute as well as How Hot Should You Heat Your Pan When Sauteing and you may find this update easier to understand.

I go into much more detail and describe:

• What Is Saute?
• What’s The Difference Between Sauteing and Pan Frying?
• The Formula For a Great Saute
• The Right Pan For The Job
• The Right Fat - Butter or Oil
• How Much Fat
• Preheating The Pan
• Equal Sized Ingredients
• The Ideal Temperature
• Caramelizing and the Maillard Reaction
• How Do You Know When the Fat Is Hot Enough?
• Smoking Points
• The Basics

How To Saute Video

Just added to the site is a new saute cooking video page with three excellent cooking demonstrations by Chef Todd Mohr offering step-by-step instructions on the secrets to a great saute. I highly recommend you check out the How To Saute Cooking Video. It is an entertaining way to learn the basics and pick up some valuable cooking tips.

Related Articles

• How to choose a good saute pan?
• How do I choose the right cookware?
• How much heat when sauteing?
• How to saute properly