The secrets of smoking food

As people may be aware, I am nothing if not experimental and quite adventurous when it comes to food; the weirder the better. Sure, you won't see me in the edgy clothing - what can be better than Levis, Bonds and Blunnies in any situation? Also in my car choice, not much experimenting; I can't think of anything better than a Toyota LandCruiser. I'm aware of exotic cars such as the Scion xB, that tissue box on wheels, and at my age a sleek red convertible would add to my look, that "Oh my god, it's an old guy without a roof!".

However, once you get to food and food production there are no boundaries. A co-worker from Japan is eating something that looks and smells like slightly off giant frog spawn. He hands me a fork and I'm into it without thinking it could actually be a puddle of rancid amphibious zygotes. Thankfully, it turns out to be fermented soy beans in mustard and katsu. Either way, I've got something with the texture of algae in my mouth, and I'm loving it. Not sure if I'll have another spoonful, though; one is more than enough.

Also, I'm always keen to take on new technology and equipment. There's so much available it's hard to keep up or know exactly what it does. Case in point, a recipe requires an ''impregnator''. What the hell is an impregnator? It sounds like a mash-up of some old Schwarzenegger movies (Terminator and Mr Mom?)

I'm thinking, ''What has it got to do with cooking?''. However, a smoking gun has my complete attention. The British Daily Telegraph calls it the top piece of kitchen equipment, so I hunt one down from homesousvide.com.au, and it arrives so quickly it's like it's been fired from a cannon.

So, what is a smoking gun? Awesome, that's what it is. A Glock-sized black gun with a little chamber near the dangerous end where you place your smoking mixture - wood chips, tea, etc. Just underneath this barrel is the outlet where you attach a tube to direct the smoke. It's battery-operated, so you ignite the smoking mixture, turn it on and pump cold smoke into whatever vessel you want.

I've rigged up a plastic container with a hole, so you place the food to be smoked in there on a rack, pump the smoke in and let it sit for the desired amount of time.

Are you not impressed? I know smoked food can be overdone - you only need so much bushfire character in your food. There's heaps of potential, though. Using various teas, you can add very interesting flavours to vegetables, meat and seafood.

The crazy thing about this little device is its simplicity, and you really have to tip your hat to the designers here. I imagine them to be ageing hippies who have basically repurposed an electric bong.

Fish is definitely the easiest food to play around with, as it readily takes on smoke. To get a perfect result you need to prepare the fish by brining it in a salt solution. This prepares the cells to absorb the smoke deeper into the tissue.

So I hit the Rotary regional markets at Hall early on Saturday to see what was around in late autumn for some smokin'. As usual there was so much good produce. This is as close as you'll get to living in a Mediterranean village; you see so many happy people you know, it's actually quite hard to get to the stalls.

I came away with so many other ideas for food to play around with, notably - be forewarned - a lovely heart, the brisket and tongue from a cow.

My mission is accomplished, though; Narooma seafoods, a switched-on business if ever there was one, has beautiful fresh albacore and yellowfin tuna. These are perfect for smoking; any fish with good oil content is, so salmon and kingfish also would suit.

As it getting towards the end of autumn, one last salad is on the cards, and as I have tuna on board, what could be better than the ultimate Mediterranean salad from Nice.

Salad nicoise with cold smoked tuna

Serves 4

400g tuna, blue, yellow fin or albacore, cut into 25g chunks

1 baby cos lettuce, leaves torn

4 ripe late-season tomatoes cut into large pieces

1 lebanese cucumber, sliced thick

1 red and yellow capsicum

1 handful green beans

4 large preserved artichokes, quartered

80g green olives

4 poached eggs

12 basil leaves, torn

flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

8 large bocconcini balls

2 tbsp salted baby capers, rinsed and drained

Dressing

¼ cup champagne vinegar

⅓ cup olive oil

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Shake the dressing ingredient together in a jar. Cook the beans in boiling water until cooked through. Dip in iced water and slice lengthways.

Peel the capsicum and finely slice. Add to the beans in a large bowl along with all the ingredients except the fish and eggs.

Drizzle the dressing over the salad and gently toss so as to not break up the components. Do this just before serving. Pile up on each plate.

Have tuna smoked or prepared as below and heat a char-grill until it is smoking hot, brush the fish with oil and grill for a minute or so on each side.

Garnish the salad with grilled tuna on the side and poached eggs on top.

Brining and smoking

Dissolve 50 grams of salt in one litre of water, place the fish in the brine for 10-15 minutes. Pat dry and chill in the fridge for an hour on a rack.

Place this rack of fish on the top shelf of a cold oven. Heat 80 grams of wood chips in an old frypan until hot. Ignite with a lighter or match and heat until they smoulder.

Put the frypan full of chips in the oven on the rack below the fish and close oven door. Let the fish smoke there until the smoke dissipates. About 10 minutes should be long enough.

If you have a smoking gun, this can all be done with a smaller amount of wood chips, following the instructions that come with the gun. If you don't want wood smoke, you should still brine the fish before grilling it.

>> Bryan Martin is winemaker at Ravensworth and Clonakilla.