Jasmine Tea cured salmon was one of the first Culinary Tea recipes I ever made roughly 20 years ago, and I still regularly turn to it. Although I’ve varied the tea and secondary ingredients used, I still often return to Jasmine as seen in November 2016 in Tea Journey. Smoking is of course a classic way to preserve and flavor Salmon and has been utilized for generations in various cultures around the world. Chef de Cuisine Logan Foos of L’Espalier has enhanced the basic tea cured salmon (gravlax) by combining these two favorite approaches for an incredibly aromatic and succulent first course.
Click here for the recipe for Jasmine Cured Salmon.
Tea Smoked Salmon
This lightly cured and smoked Salmon can be used as shown here for a first course, or with different accompaniments as a main course. It would make a fabulous tea sandwich, breakfast or canapé as well!
The recipe may be scaled up without problem. If scaling up, portion the salmon before you begin the smoking process.
Chef Foos is using a commercial smoker here. If you are using a stovetop hotel pan, you will use one smoking pile instead of one over each burner. Place the salmon on the rack away from the burner that will be used to ignite the tea leaves and wood chips. As soon as the smoke is steady, cover the hotel pan and turn the flame down as low as possible to just keep the leaves smoldering.
Equipment
- 1 Hotel pan
- 1 Smoker set up
- Heavy duty aluminum foil
Ingredients
- 200 grams King Salmon
- 84 grams sugar
- 42 grams salt kosher or sea salt
- 20 grams jasmine tea dry leaf, divided
- 5 grams bay leaves
- 3 grams pink peppercorns
- woodchips
Instructions
- Clean salmon and check for any remaining bones, set aside
- Set aside half of the jasmine leaves for the smoking mixture. Combine half the jasmine and remaining ingredients together and grind in a food processor.
- Cover the salmon in the cure and refrigerate for up to two hours
- Portion the salmon if needed
- Set the smoker to 110 deg F, and add dampened tea leaves and an equal volume of wood chips.
- Smoke for 15 minutes.
- The lightly cured and smoked salmon is shown as plated by Chef Foos with fresh pickled rhubarb, cucumber and meiwa.
