31 Days off Your Duff {Day 10} - Lapsang Souchong Salmon

Last week, I noticed that my shop's supply of the smokey Lapsang Souchong Tea was getting pretty low. I was just about to put it back, wondering how soon until I sold the last cup of that tea, when a great idea struck!

I should marinate some salmon in this tea! Brilliant!

Hooray! I love great ideas, and I knew this was a good one.

Implementation

Friday afternoon I took out some fish to thaw... and saw that I had 1 salmon fillet left, and 1 tilapia. I was skeptical about cooking the tilapia in my Lapsang, but I did it anyway just for sake of the experiment.

After the fish thawed, I put them in a little bowl of my steeped tea and let them soak it up for a couple of hours.

Steeping in tea!

Then, because I was worried that wasn't enough, I cooked them in all of that liquid too. On hindsight, I don't believe that was exactly necessary, but I'll have to see next time.

I definitely took them out at exactly 165 degrees... because I never overcook fish so far that it reaches 190, no, not every single time...

Results

Hooray, time to try the fish!

This is exactly what my finished product looked like

They were a little soggy as I poked into them with my fork, having been cooked in liquid... but that wasn't the point of this. I wanted to see if they actually absorbed the smokey tea!

The salmon turned out really well! Of course, I put absolutely nothing on it but the tea, so it could definitely taste better. BUT, the important thing is that it tasted smokey!

Salmon, success.

Tilapia.... I can't really tell you how it turned out. I took a bite - or maybe a drink, I'm not sure. It REALLY didn't like being cooked in all the liquid - I gagged, and immediately shoved the memory of the experience out of my mind. It was so awful.

Tilapia, no. Just don't do it. No.

Conclusion

My results state that:

"Everyone should get off their duff and try some Lapsang Souchong Salmon!"

Just be sure not to boil it in liquid, and go ahead and spice it. Oh, and don't cook it to nearly 200 degrees.

Not that anybody would do that.