The purpose of my attending the course (which I would highly recommend) was to establish if I could learn some basic skills that could be transferable to Nepal as a form of income generation for the girls we've rescued from the Indian circuses. Jo and Georgina were fantastic and very knowledgeable hosts and I
came away all fired up (so to speak) with enthusiasm for the technique.Last month New Zealand expatriate volunteers in Kathmandu, Sarah and Ian Broughton built a smokery to my guidance. This isn't exactly rocket science; essentially you can convert a metal filing cabinet to meet the demands of smoking. All you need is to cut a hole in the top of the cabinet and add a chimney. The bottom of the cabinet becomes a heat source, one drawer up from that is where you do your hot smoking and the top drawer is reserved for cold smoking. Delightfully simple.
Today I trialled their smoker for the first time, cold smoking a drawer full of fish (salmo
n, trout and king fish that I had suitably primed beforehand). I'll see what the results are like tomorrow morning before continuing the experiment with a hot smoke of chicken.
n, trout and king fish that I had suitably primed beforehand). I'll see what the results are like tomorrow morning before continuing the experiment with a hot smoke of chicken.No one in Nepal is smoking any foodstuffs to the best of my knowledge and early indications are that there could be a lot of mileage in refining this technique for an increasingly discerning local market.
