Smoked Mahi Mahi Dip

Did you know you can buy an electric smoker a Home Depot for $39? If you're a girl, I'm going to guess that you didn't know that. If you're a guy, you might have known that, because I've seen men wandering the aisles of Home Depot the same way that the women do at Target. Just looking. At everything. And putting random things in their cart that they ditch at the last second. But I'm talking about myself now and I'm supposed to be talking about a smoker.

If you'll remember (will you please?), I spoke of a restaurant awhile back called Son of a Gun. About a month ago, we finally went, and had a very, VERY memorable meal. Everything was excellent, but the Smoked Mahi Mahi Dip was something magical. A dip Carson and I have been thinking about almost daily since we went. And when something food-related is on our brain, you know we'll eventually do something about it. In this case, we decided to recreate it ourselves.

But first, where to buy smoked mahi mahi? Um, nowhere, that's where. You have to do it yourself. Next, how do you smoke fish? Well, there are lots of ways, but the easiest is to google electric smokers and find the cheap kind they sell at Home Depot...


We actually splurged on the $69 one because we're certain we'll put it to good use. Next up, email the chefs at the restaurant and beg them for the recipe. Luckily, they are friends of mine and pointed me in the right direction: smoked fish, lemon, mayo and chopped white onion. WE CAN DO THIS, YES WE CAN! So we got to work...

We read online that sometimes smoking fish can dry it out, so we decided to brine our mahi mahi for roughly 4 hours in water, sugar, salt and a little lemon juice.


After Carson and his dad put the smoker together (fyi: it's cheap because it comes in eleventy thousand pieces), and after the fish had properly brined and dried, we started the process. The fish goes on a rack that rests over hot lava rocks and soaked hickory wood chips (fyi: these resemble potato chips to people over the age of 60, ahem Carson's mom... be careful).


We weren't sure how long to smoke it for, but after an hour and a half it was looking good...


We took the fish out, and started furiously flaking it with a fork. Fun.


And after an absurd amount of taste testing, we came up with the right balance of mayo, lemon juice and onion. We added a touch of salt to ours, some hot sauce, and a chopped hard boiled egg that Carson thought would add some richness. It did. He's swell.


It is to be served over Saltenes. Nothing else. Do you hear me?! Alongside some lemon wedges and extra hot sauce for those who need more. You guys, I'm really proud of our dip. It might not have matched the MAGIC of Son of a Gun, but it's damn good. In fact, I'm going to go eat some right now. Good Day.