Smoke gives both fish and potatoes a really delicious taste.
Smoked potato and salmon roe are served with cream sauce. Roni Lehti
Finns get their preference for the taste of smoke already in their mother’s milk. Chef Risto Mikkola is convinced of that.
– Even small children in Finland like smoked salmon. In the rest of the world, it seems to be quite strange. Smoking is not as familiar there as here in Pohjola.
He urges you to look at the fish counters of shops abroad: we rarely have warm smoked salmon that can be found on every counter.
– When I was working at the Yankees, one day we had a lot of salmon that I thought of smoking. The answer I got from my colleagues was that we can’t, you can’t, Mikkola recalls with amusement the disbelieving reactions.
Mikkola was not discouraged by that. He took a metal kit, a grate, wood shavings and built a smoker himself.
The colleagues were amazed – and Mikkola’s appreciation immediately rose to heights.
– Meat is smoked in the Yankees, but it’s a different kind of smoking than the quick cooking of fish.
Mikkola smokes more than just fish, because boiled potatoes, for example, become incredibly delicious by smoking them. You should try!
Especially when cooking small potatoes, you have to be careful with the maturity of the potato. When the potatoes start to fall apart, pour out the water and leave the potatoes in the pot under the lid to cook.
The cooled potatoes are smoked with the salmon rolls.
The smoking time depends on the size of the raw material. Of course, a whole large fish cooks longer than rolls made from salmon slices.
– The fire should not be too strong, because otherwise the food may taste bitter, Mikkola reminds.
He always lets the first smokes out of the pot and only then puts the food to be smoked in the pot. It’s like tossing and turning in a sauna.
Remember that smoking can also be done in a regular grill (both gas and charcoal grills). Here is a restaurateur and a chef Akseli Herlevin and a food supplier Mari Moilanen tips:
Smoked potato
800 g small washed potatoes
1 tablespoon of salt
1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until cooked.
2. Smoke cooked potatoes for about 5 minutes.
Smoked salmon roe
800 g of salmon fillet in slices of 40 g each
1–2 teaspoons of salt
0.5 tsp black pepper
half a bunch of chopped dill
1. Season the salmon slices with salt, pepper and dill. Roll the slices into rosettes. Place the rosettes on the smoking rack.
2. Smoke salmon roe on low heat for about 15-20 minutes or until they are cooked. Serve warm.
Egg custard tart
1 cup of whipped cream
4 boiled eggs, chopped
half a bunch of chopped dill
0.5 tsp of salt
1. Mix all the ingredients and serve immediately.