Garden Dinner with Julie

Sunday July 26

When you have a cool evening in July in Cincinnati, it behooves you (did I ever think I'd write that word?) to dine outside on the patio, overlooking the garden from which you picked the produce you are about to eat. It also inspired Holt to fire up the smoker and try to smoke a side of salmon, more or less as HERE.

We adapted it to what we saw Steve Raichlen actually do on TV, by letting it marinate all day. And instead of sawdust, we used dried herb clippings from the garden, so the smoke savored of sage and thyme. It took about 45 minutes, but we whiled away the thyme drinking white wine (Julie brought a nice New Zealand sauvignon blanc) and eating bowls of heirloom tomato gazpacho (traditional type, with cucumber and red onion dice and a slug of sherry vinegar).
Results were great: firm and savory smoked fish, delicious eaten warm (as we did) or cold (as we did later). Teamed with the aforesaid garden produce: last of the sugar snap peas and first of the baby pattypans.
Our strawberry plants provide about one strawberry a week, and we have to fight the birds for that. So dessert was South Carolina peaches from Madison's.