Cook's Country

[ Theme music plays ] -Today on "Cook's Country," Bryan makes Bridget a California favorite -- smoked fish tacos... Adam reviews chimney starters... and Christie makes Julia a streamlined recipe for grilled steak fajitas.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-In the late '90s, Jim Ruddell started smoking seafood in his backyard and turned it into a sideline business.

-Now, one of his neighbors called the cops on Jim a lot, and they even claimed that Jim and his wife, Kathleen, were doing witchcraft.

-Then in 2001, on the advice of an inspector, Jim moved his business to a beachfront spot in Cayucos, California, right on Highway 1.

-They make a lot of different things at Ruddell's, but it's the tacos filled with shredded glazed salmon that's all put Ruddell's Smokehouse on the map.

-And, luckily, our own Bryan Roof was able to spend some time at Ruddell's before Jim passed away in 2018 and learned all about these incredible smoked salmon tacos.

-We're going to head into the kitchen.

Jim, this one's for you.

Now, these tacos are not like California Baja-style tacos.

Those are usually made with white fish, like grouper or mahi-mahi.

But Bryan's here, and he's gonna show us how to make these fabulous salmon tacos.

-That's right.

I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours with Jim Ruddell in his kitchen before he passed away last year, and he walked me through the ins and outs of smoking salmon, smoking all kinds of fish, and he showed me how to make a perfect smoked salmon taco.

So, why don't we begin with the star of the show?

And that's the salmon.

-Okay.

-Okay?

This is a 2-pound center-cut salmon fillet, and you want to get a center-cut fillet 'cause it's more even in size.

If you get something closer to the tail, it tends to taper off.

-Right.

-And we prefer to cut our own fillets out of a whole 2-pound piece 'cause they're going to be more even and consistent, so they'll cook more consistently on the grill.

-Sounds good.

-So, we'll just begin by trimming any excess fat from the top edge here, and we'll just square up the bottom portion a little bit.

Okay.

And then we can split it directly in half.

And each half will go in half.

So now that the fish is cut up, we're going to make a cure for it, and the cure is going to do several things for us on the grill.

One, it's going to flavor the fish, obviously.

Two, it's going to give us a nice mahogany color on the grill, and, three, it's going to improve the texture -- make it a little bit more meaty by drawing some of the moisture out of the fish.

So, this is a very simple cure.

It's brown sugar.

I have 1 cup of light brown sugar.

And to that, we're going to add 1/4 cup of kosher salt and 1 tablespoon of granulated garlic.

I'm just going to whisk this together.

Okay, and the most efficient way to keep the cure in contact with the fish is by putting it into a Ziploc bag.

-All right.

-So if you don't mind holding this bag, I'm going to first take each fillet and run it through the cure to make sure all sides are coated.

-This is the worst Halloween ever.

[ Laughter ] -This is the best candy you're ever going to get, Bridge.

-That's true.

Yeah, exactly.

-Okay.

-All right.

-Now I will just dump the rest of this cure right into there.

-Okay, good, 'cause I was like, "There's a lot left in that bowl."

-It's a significant amount of cure, but you really want to have this much to make sure the fish gets evenly cured.

So, we can press all the air out of that bag.

Okay, and we want to cure this for at least 4 hours, but if we have the opportunity, we can go for a full 24 hours, and it's even better.

-Great.

-We'll just throw this in the refrigerator, okay?

Okay, Bridget, so, the fish has been curing for about 24 hours.

-Okay.

-So we're going to work on the vegetable garnish and then the sauce.

Both were created by Jim Ruddell's wife.

So, this is a combination of celery, grated carrot, and diced Granny Smith apple.

-This is different, yeah.

-Okay, so, that's one rib of celery.

We're going to add to that one Granny Smith apple.

Into the bowl with the celery.

And now the final touch -- a grated carrot.

Stir the salad together, and it's all set and ready for tacos.

So, again, a slightly unusual garnish for tacos.

This is a mayonnaise-based sauce, and the secret ingredient here is spicy brown mustard.

-Hmm.

-I have 1/2 cup of mayonnaise.

And to that, we're going to add 1/4 cup of spicy brown mustard, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, and 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin.

So, we'll just whisk this together to combine.

Now we can turn our attention to making a wood-chip packet to go on the grill so we can smoke the fish.

-Okay.

-I have a cup of presoaked applewood chips.

I've soaked them in water for about 15 minutes.

And you can use any type of wood chip that you like.

We prefer fruit woods, like apple, because they're a little bit less intense than, say, something like hickory, which you tend to find all over the place very readily.

-Gotcha.

-So, we want to make an 8-1/2-by-4-inch wood-chip packet.

Okay, so, if you want to hand me my knife there, I'm just going to poke two 2-inch slits right into this foil to give the wood chips and the smoke an outlet.

All right, so, the wood-chip packet is set.

Now, this fish has been curing, and you can see that a lot of moisture has come out of the fish, and all that salt and sugar has essentially created a brine for the fish.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, we flipped this over once halfway through the curing process just to make sure the fish cured evenly.

We're going to rinse this off because we don't want to cook any of those sugar chunks onto the fish.

So I'm just going to go back here and rinse them off.

You want to pat the fish dry.

We are now ready to head out to the grill and smoke this fish.

-Let's go.

-All right.

Okay, Bridget, we're going to cook the salmon with relatively low heat, between 250 and 275 degrees, so I have a very small amount of charcoal here.

-All right.

-I have about 2 quarts of charcoal briquettes, and I'm just going to pour them evenly over half of the grill and just reorganize them with my grill brush.

-Get them all over to one side.

-Right.

And then we can put the wood-chip packet on top of the coals.

-Okay.

-Then we'll put our cooking grate in place.

We'll cover the grill and let that go for about 5 minutes until the wood chips begin to smoke.

-Okay.

Sounds good.

-Okay, Bridget.

It's been about 5 minutes.

And the wood chips are just beginning to smoke.

So we'll clean and oil the cooking grate.

-Good idea to do every time you set up your grill.

-And fish, probably more than any other protein, has a tendency to stick.

-Yes.

-Now, at Ruddell's Smokehouse there in Cayucos, California, they brush an apricot-based glaze on the fish towards the end of cooking... -Okay.

-...but they also smoke the fish for about 4 hours.

We're smoking the fish for about 30 minutes, so we found it best to go ahead and apply this glaze right at the beginning of the cooking.

-Yeah, because you don't want to be taking the lid on and off and on and off.

-Exactly.

So, this is just 2 tablespoons of apricot preserves mixed with 1 tablespoon of water, and we just microwaved it for about 30 seconds to loosen it up a bit.

-Okay.

-And we're going to brush that all over the fillets.

Okay, so, that's all brushed.

Now we can place the fillets on the grill, and I'm going to position them with the thick end of the fillets a little bit closer to the fire because they can really absorb some more of that heat.

Cover that and position the lid vent directly over the salmon.

-Okay.

-We'll let that go until it hits 135 degrees, and that takes about 30 minutes or so.

-Sounds good.

-All right, Bridget.

It's been about 30 minutes.

-Beautiful!

-So, we want to temp the fillet in the thickest part to make sure it's 135 degrees.

-Nice.

-All right.

-So now we can just transfer the fillets to a plate.

Okay.

You want to tent that loosely with some foil?

-Sure do.

-Great.

We're going to take these inside and let them rest for about 5 minutes.

-Okay.

-Okay, Bridget, so, the salmon has been sitting for 5 minutes, so it's a little bit cooler to handle, and we're ready to flake it.

So, I'm going to take each fillet, and the skin just comes off very easily.

-Mmm!

-So we're just going to flake it coarsely with the back of a fork.

You could use your fingers if you wanted to.

And then even though we cured this with a fair amount of salt, we're just going to season it a little bit to taste with a little kosher salt here.

Okay, so, the fish is flaked, and then we're ready to assemble our tacos.

We have some warmed-up flour tortillas.

So, we're going to hit it first with the sauce so our little chopped salad sticks to it very well.

And then we'll hit it with the salmon.

-Okay.

-And then the final touch, a true sense of California -- a little bit of salad.

-[ Laughs ] -Just a few leaves of mesclun mix.

Can I have your plate, please?

-Sure.

-And I'll hand you a taco.

-Thank you.

That is picture-worthy.

Mmm!

You turned salmon into bacon of the sea.

That is amazing.

It's juicy.

It's sweet.

It's salty.

I love the crunch of the vegetables, too.

-Very nice.

-That's me saying that.

The Granny Smith apple is nice and tart.

I love that.

-I love it.

It's my favorite part of the salad.

-Mm-hmm.

-Jim Ruddell is a smart man.

-I think it was the husband/wife team.

-His wife is a smart lady, as well.

-Mm-hmm!

Well, if you want to make our version of Jim Ruddell's famous salmon tacos, it starts with salmon fillets.

Coat salmon fillets with brown sugar and salt and refrigerate overnight.

Meanwhile, create a quick salad with apples, celery, and carrot, and a spiced mayo sauce.

Heat a packet of wood chips on the grill until it's smoking.

Brush the salmon with an apricot glaze.

Then cook covered until medium-well.

Shred the salmon and make the tacos with mesclun, the mayonnaise sauce, and the apple salad.

So from "Cook's Country," a California original -- smoked fish tacos.

You're going to want to make this.

He turned salmon into bacon.

-[ Laughs ] -When lighting a charcoal grill, you never want to use lighter fluid because it imparts this nasty, chemical flavor to the food.

Instead, you want to use a charcoal starter, and today, Adam is going to tell us which one is best.

-Julia, we have six different models here.

-Mm-hmm.

-The price range was $14.99 to $29.95.

-So pretty inexpensive.

-Yeah.

And you can see they're all basically the same design.

It's a chamber that's separated by a little divider into a smaller bottom portion, a larger top portion.

You put a couple of sheets of crumpled paper right in the bottom.

-Mm-hmm.

-Put it down into the grill.

Load up the top chamber with charcoal.

Light the paper.

It lights the charcoal, and, like, you know, 20, 30 minutes later, Bob's your uncle, you have a bunch of glowing, hot embers.

You're ready to pour them out into the grill and get grilling.

-Yep.

-So, to test these, our testers used each one with three different quantities of charcoal -- 3 quarts, 6 quarts and 7 quarts.

-Mm-hmm.

-And they built the two types of fires that the test kitchen relies on the most -- just a straight-up single-level hot fire or a dual-zone cooler fire, a fire with a hot zone and a cool zone for things like chicken, poultry, or a low-and-slow project like pulled pork.

-Mmm!

-The capacity of the top chamber was also an important design factor.

In our lineup, it ranged from 5 to 7 quarts.

And you can see I have these two bowls of charcoal here.

This one's 5 quarts.

This one's 7 quarts.

The problem with the smaller capacity and the smaller amount of charcoal is that sometimes your fire may not get hot enough, so you won't get that sear that you're after, or it could die out... -Yeah.

-...before you're done cooking the food, and then you have to go in there and put more charcoal in.

It's kind of a nuisance.

So testers absolutely preferred the larger ones -- one at the end, this one.

These are 6 and 7 quarts top capacity.

Now, you can see that most of these are cylindrical.

One of them is not like the other.

-[ Laughs ] -And testers really learned why when they started pouring charcoal out into the grill, because this curved edge helps direct the charcoal down into a pretty accurate flow, so you can place it easily.

That one in front of you... -Mm-hmm.

-...the square one.

-Oh, yeah.

It'd almost be, like, a waterfall of charcoal.

It would just kind of go everywhere.

-Exactly.

It was a lot harder for them to pour accurately.

Now, when you are going to pick up a container full of glowing-hot, sparking coals, the handle is very important.

You can see these two right in front of you.

-Oh.

Oh, it's not substantial at all.

-Little, thin wooden handles, and that's exactly what the testers thought.

They just felt insubstantial.

They much preferred bigger, beefier, grippier handles like this.

And this doohickey here... -Oh, yep.

-...is a helper handle.

-I love that.

-So, you hold this with one hand, obviously with a grill glove on, this with the other, and it sort of supports the whole chimney and helps you pour with more accuracy.

This is actually the winning chimney starter.

This is the Weber Rapidfire chimney starter.

It's $14.99, so it was one of the least-expensive ones here.

And it's great.

It has a 6-quart capacity.

It has a big, beefy handle and a helper handle, and it's everything we could possibly want from a chimney starter.

-So, there you have it.

Our winning chimney starter is the Weber Rapidfire chimney starter at just $14.99.

Beef fajitas are a Tex-Mex staple, but there are a lot of bad versions out there, so today, Christie's going to show us how to make them the right way.

-There are so many bad versions out there.

-Mm-hmm.

I've eaten them.

-[ Laughs ] But when you're making them at home, you want good ones, and the key to that is having a really great, flavorful, balanced marinade.

You need a plan.

-You need a plan.

-We got a plan.

-All right.

-Well, we're going to start out with the beef first.

So, skirt steak is great.

This is 2 pounds.

It's a long cut.

-Cooks very quickly on the grill.

-Mm-hmm.

But this is way too unwieldy for us to put on the grill as is.

So first of all, I just want to trim a little bit.

Now, this is well-marbled, and you're going to have a lot of fat, so you don't want to go crazy, but if you have big pockets or if you have a lot of silver skin, you can kind of trim that away.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, I'm just going to cut each of the pieces into three equal segments, and then we'll come back and work on the marinade.

-Okay.

-We actually went to this great restaurant in Houston, Texas, called Ninfa's and had great fajitas there.

-Mm-hmm.

It's like the home of fajitas, Ninfa's.

-Right, right.

They're fantastic.

And we wanted a marinade that was similar to theirs.

Our marinades usually start with soy sauce, and we found out that theirs does, too, and that makes a lot of sense because soy sauce is full of umami, and it will season the meat really well.

So that's where we're starting.

So, I have 1/4 cup of soy sauce.

-And that sodium helps the meat hold onto moisture as it cooks.

-We like a juicy steak, right?

-Mm-hmm.

-Also, I have 3 minced garlic cloves here.

Big, bold flavors to start.

Then 1/2 cup of vegetable oil.

Now, this is really potent and heavy, so we wanted something to lighten it up, and we tried the usual suspects -- some lemon juice, some lime juice -- but what we really liked was pineapple juice.

-Mmm!

-Because in addition to the acidity, we also got some nice sweetness.

-Yeah.

-So we're hitting all of the great flavors.

So, this is 3/4 cup, or 6 ounces, which is what'd you get in one of those little cans.

So we'll just mix this together.

So, now I'm going to reserve about 1/4 cup, and we'll use this a little bit later.

And, then, the rest, we'll put into our handy-dandy gallon-size zipper-locked bag.

-You want me to hold the bag for you?

-Oh, thank you!

-Yeah.

-I love this teamwork.

-[ Laughs ] -And now we can add our steaks to the bag.

I'll just try to press out as much air as I can.

So, we're going to put this in the refrigerator and let it marinate.

Now, we want to go at least 2 hours or up to 24, and the window is important because less than 2, it's not really going to do much.

-Right.

-Over 24, the meat could start to get a little bit mushy because of the acidity.

-Mm-hmm.

All right.

-I'm going to put this in the fridge, and we'll come back.

So, the steak's been marinating for a few hours.

-Mm-hmm.

-Now we can focus on the vegetables.

I have three bell peppers.

We're going to leave them in large pieces to start.

So I'm just going to use my paring knife and cut out the stem.

And now we have a red onion.

I'm just going to cut this into half-inch slices.

Okay.

This is one of my favorite tricks of all time.

And it's so easy.

-All right.

Bring it.

-I have toothpicks here.

-Yeah, you're going to toothpick the onions.

-And we're going to toothpick the onions, yes.

You don't really need to go through the whole thing.

As long as you go through half to the center, this will hold all the pieces together.

-That is so much easier than a skewer.

-Isn't it great?

Now I have a tablespoon of vegetable oil, and I'm just going to brush them on both sides.

And don't forget the peppers.

I'm going to brush these, too.

And now I'll season these with a little bit of salt and pepper.

We'll have a chance to season these later, too, so if they're not totally done here.

Vegetables, done.

Follow me.

-Hmm.

All right.

The container for a fajita is a tortilla.

-We're using flour.

They're nice and flexible already.

And we want to keep them flexible, but we want to warm them up.

So, I have 12 flour tortillas, and we are going to use the grill like an oven.

We'll wrap them in some aluminum foil to keep them nice and warm and tender.

-All right.

And that foil will also trap in the moisture so they won't dry out.

-Yes.

So that's ready.

Now we can move on to the beef.

These smell great, but they're dripping with marinade, so we're just going to pat this dry because the marinade has done its job.

Patting it dry and removing it at this point is not going to mean less flavor.

It's going to mean fewer flare-ups.

So, the steaks are dry, but we have one more thing to do before we go outside.

-All right.

-We're just going to put a little bit of salt and pepper on the outside.

So, this is 3/4 teaspoon of salt.

And then we'll do 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

-All right.

So the steak's done.

Vegetables are done.

Tortillas are wrapped.

Are we good to go?

-Well, I want to clean up a little bit, and then we'll go outside.

-Sounds good.

-All right.

Julia, the grill is nice and hot.

-I can feel it from here.

-[ Laughs ] I turned all the burners to high and let it heat up for 15 minutes with the grill closed.

Then I left the primary burner on high and turned the other burners down to low.

-So it's a two-level grill with a hot side and a cool side.

-That's right.

But now it's time to clean.

Now we're going to oil it.

So now we can put the vegetables on.

So, the peppers and the onions are going to go over the hot side.

Last but not least, we have our tortillas all wrapped up and ready to get warm, so these are going to go over the cooler side.

-Okay.

-You just want to warm these up.

I'm just going to close the lid and let these grill.

We want to get some nice, brown char marks on the vegetables.

They'll take about 8 to 13 minutes to get to that point.

The tortillas need, maybe, about 10 minutes to heat up, but I'm going to come back, flip the tortillas after about 5, and check my vegetables.

-Okay.

-So, it's been about 5 minutes.

Time to flip.

We're just going to give this about 5 more minutes.

-All right.

-The vegetables should be done now.

You ready?

-I'm eager to see.

Perfection!

-Ooh!

So good!

So we can take the tortillas off.

-All right.

-They should be nice and warm now.

So, we're just going to set these in this disposable pan.

Now, before I put the steaks on, I'm going to close the grill.

We're going to let the grates heat up again because we want those to be really, really nice and hot when we put the steaks on.

So, in the meantime, we want to keep the vegetables nice and warm, so I'm going to cover them with some foil.

-All right.

-It's been 5 minutes.

The grill should be nice and hot.

-Ready for this.

-Ready.

-All right.

Let me get it for you.

-So, we're putting this over the hot side of the grill.

These are really, really thin steaks.

-Mm-hmm.

-So it's hard to get good browning on them before they overcook.

Now, in the meantime, we've got these vegetables.

They're nice and brown, but they could get a little softer, so we're going to let them finish cooking on the cool side.

-Ah!

-So we're just going to let these go 2 to 4 minutes.

Then we'll flip them.

It's been a couple minutes.

Moment of truth.

-I want to see it.

-Mmm!

You sure do!

-[ Laughs ] -Ooh!

-Oh, gorgeous!

-Yes!

-And, now, you wouldn't have gotten those grill marks if you hadn't let that grill heat up for another 5 minutes.

-Right.

It needs to be really nice and hot.

We're good to go, so we're going to go another 2 to 4 minutes, and we're looking for a temperature between 135 and 140 degrees.

-Okay.

-Okay.

We need to catch these at the right temp, so let's check them out.

-Oh, they look beautiful!

-They really do.

It doesn't take very long.

Like I said, just 2 to 4 minutes.

We're going to temp these, and what we're looking for is between 135 and 140.

-Nailed it!

Mmm!

-So, we're not ready yet.

First we have to tent the steaks with foil while they rest.

Ready to go in.

So, all of our hard work is about to pay off.

-That looks amazing.

-Now it's time to slice.

-All right.

-The most important thing to do here is to make sure that we're cutting the steak in thin slices across the grain.

-Ah.

-That does not look too bad, does it?

-It looks amazing.

All right.

On to the vegetables.

-On to the vegetables.

The big reveal.

-Ooh!

-Not bad.

-Not bad.

So, now you're just cutting them down to nice, thin strips that sort of match the size of the steak pieces you cut.

-Right.

So, now these toothpicks have done their jobs, so now I'm just separating the onions.

-No need to chop 'em.

-Nope.

Now, we've got all sorts of great flavor in here, but remember we saved that marinade from the beginning.

We have the cooked marinade on the steak, and we'll marry that flavor with the bright, fresh flavors -- the marinade on the vegetables.

And I have a tablespoon of chopped fresh cilantro.

We'll just give this a little toss.

-Goodness, that looks good.

-Mm-hmm.

So, then we'll just add this to our platter.

Just dress this... -Oh, I was hoping you were going to do that.

Yes!

-There we go.

I think we're ready.

-Okay.

-So, we have the steak and the vegetables, of course, but we also have the toppings.

We have some avocado, some sour cream, some lime wedges just for a nice burst of acidity, and some fresh pico de gallo.

-Now, if you want to find a recipe for pico de gallo, you can find it on our website at cookscountry.com.

-We have warm tortillas.

-I'm going to top it with a little bit of pico de gallo.

Just a little bit of sour cream.

A couple creamy bits of avocado.

A squirt of lime.

Do you fold up the end?

-I'm not sure if it's right, but it just seems to be good engineering.

-I don't think there's a law, so I think -- Yeah, right?

Just for the juices so they don't get on your shirt -- just a little fold.

Mmm!

Mm-hmm!

That's a good fajita.

The steak is tender.

There's no tug.

I can taste the beef.

The little bit of soy sauce just adds to the overall beefy flavor.

-Mm-hmm.

-Vegetables are perfection.

-And it really does feel really cohesive.

-Reserving some of the marinade for the vegetables so it's nice and bright, that's really important, to really add a good flavor there, too, at the end.

-Mm-hmm.

Very balanced.

-Great job, Christie!

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

So, to make these killer beef fajitas, start with 2 pounds of skirt steak.

Cut the steak into smaller pieces and marinate in a mixture of pineapple juice, soy sauce, and vegetable oil.

After prepping a few bell peppers, an onion, and some tortillas, set up the grill by leaving one of the grill burners on high and turning the other burners to low.

Cook the vegetables and tortillas first, then set them aside while cooking the steak.

Finally, slice everything into strips and toss with some of the reserved marinade.

From "Cook's Country," the ultimate recipe for grilled steak fajitas.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our tastings, testings, and selected episodes at our website, cookscountry.com.

I put it down.

Picking it back up is always the dicey part.

Oh, I did it.

-Let us help with dinner tonight.

Visit our website anytime for access to this season's recipes, taste tests, and equipment ratings.

Or to watch current-season episodes, log on to cookscountry.com.