Cold Smoked Butterfish

Mix all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

Weigh out the butterfish filet and use a ratio of 200 grams of curing salt per kilo of fish.
Rinse the fish gently under filtered water and pat dry with paper towel.
Stretch plastic wrap over a sheet pan which is the length of the fish filet.
Place the fish filet skin side down on the plastic wrap.
Pack the curing salt evenly on the fish filet.
Take the sides of the plastic wrap and fold up over the fish to seal in the curing salt.
Wrap the fish again in more plastic wrap to ensure none of the juices will escape the plastic wrap.
You need the juice from the fish to create the brine.
Place the fish skin side down on the sheet pan and store in the fridge. For up to 16 hours or until the fish has firmed up.
During this process, flip the fish over every eight hours to ensure the salt cure is getting evenly distributed throughout the flesh of the fish.
Once the fish has firmed up, remove it from the fridge, unwrap and with the back of a knife, gently scrape the cure off of the fish.
Rinse the fish gently under cold filtered water, pat dry and place on a cooling rack on top of the sheet pan.
Place the fish back in the fridge, uncovered for a minimum of eight hours, or until the fish has dried out a bit.

Line a 600 full size solid hotel pan with aluminium foil.
Place on top of the stove with the coconut husks over medium-high heat.
Once the husks start to burn and smoke, turn off the heat.
Meanwhile in a 400 perforated full size hotel pan place ice with fish on top, skin side down.
Place on top of the smoking coconut husks and cover with an inverted 200 solid full size hotel pan.
Place the cover pan, slightly off center on one corner to create a flu so the smoke will draw upwards.
This process should take about 20 minutes or longer until desired smokey flaavor is achieved.
Once you have achieved the desired smoke content, remove the fish from the smoker aand place baack on the cooling rack on top of the sheet pan.
Place back in the fridge to cool (if by chance the fish got hot from the husks.)
Once cooled, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place back on the sheet pan in the fridge over night to chill and set up thoroughly.

Now that your butterfish is cured, smoked and set up overnight, you are ready to slice and enjoy.
With preferably a slicing knife with gratin edge, start at the tail end and slice your desired thickness at a 60 degree angle until you have enough for you and your guests.
Note-it’s better to slice only what you need and keep the rest on the fish to keep fresher longer. More air contact to the flesh equals more opportunity to dry out and or bacteria to grow.
If stored cured & stored properly covered in a fridge, butterfish should last for up to seven days.