Perhaps not known to everyone, but certainly no less tasty. The red gurnard is a special fish with firm flesh, but a delicious soft taste.
The red gurnard gets its name from the red color of its skin. The red gurnard owes this to what it eats. His diet consists of many crustaceans and shrimps that contain red dye. You can also taste this in the red gurnard. The meat has a slightly sweet taste that resembles shrimp.
You can prepare the red gurnard in different ways. You can bake the fillets in a pan or prepare the gurnard in its entirety in the oven. However, the red gurnard is an excellent fish for smoking. With its firm flesh, it remains intact during smoking. In addition, the smoky flavor combines very well with the taste of the gurnard.
We started working on this recipe one afternoon and got the following result: deliciously smoked gurnards that were ready in the evening. Are you going to smoke fish for the first time? Then try it with red gurnard, with the method below it is almost impossible to fail.
Smoked red gurnard
Ingredients
- 4 red gurnards cleaned and with the heads still on
- 450 grams salt
- 5 liters water
- salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- First, we are going to clean the red gurnard. There can always be some blood in the bellies. Sprinkle the inside of the gurnard with some salt and rinse it well with cold water.
- The red gurnard must first be brined before smoking, this gives more flavor to the fish. Fill a clean bucket with about 5 liters of cold water. Dissolve 450 grams of salt in this.
- Place the red gurnard in the brine and leave it there for 45 minutes.
- Remove the gurnards from the brine and rinse them with cold water. Then dry them with a clean cloth or paper towel.
- Heat the barbecue or smoker to a temperature of 45 degrees and place or hang the gurnards in the smoker or BBQ.
- It is the intention that the red gurnards dry in the BBQ. Keep drying them in the BBQ at 45 degrees until the skin feels dry to the touch.
- When the skin is dry, we will raise the temperature a bit. Bring the temperature of the smoker or BBQ up to a maximum of 80 degrees. We are now cooking the gurnard to a core temperature of about 60 degrees. This will take about 45 minutes to 60 minutes.
- When the red gurnard has reached a core temperature of 60 degrees, we start the smoking process. Add enough smoke wood to the smoker or BBQ. Bring the temperature back to about 45 degrees and smoke the red gurnard intensively for an hour.
- After an hour of smoking, the gurnards are ready to eat. You can eat them warm, but they are also very tasty when they’re cold.
