How to Smoke Seapony

What is going on every griffon! Your long lost blogpony WeAreBorg is here on Spring Break in the fantastic Kingdom of Griffonstone and I'm here to share one of my favorite recipes and a traditional Griffonstone staple, Smoked Seapony.

Join me below for this traditional Griffon recipe you can do at home, a step by step smoking guide at altitude, and minimal vore jokes.

Warning: Recipe contains real-life pictures of Seapony fillets. 

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It's Spring Break time here and griffons are kicking back, having a few less arguments with each other, and really enjoying their carnivorous side with some traditional seafood recipes, such as Nested Clams, Poached Feathered Jellyfish, and Grilled Rock Eel. But here in the Kingdom, the biggest parties on the City-Tree serve the best of these traditional dishes: Smoked Seapony. 

Wanting to help you join in on these culinary festivities, I wanted to share with you this recipe for Smoked Seapony I recently learned (at a price) from some friends here in Griffonstone. This time of year Seapony fishing season is just wrapping up and the prices are good to grab a fillet. The most well off Griffons get their fresh Seapony flown in from the harbor market villages at a premium but today we will prepare some flash frozen Seapony I got from the local fish monger.

What's ideal about Seapony is its tail. Seaponies are soft and cuddly all over as a result of lacking hard scales. Instead of fishy hard scales they have a scale-like pattern of thin skin on their tails. It is this part of the Seapony that is most enjoyed and most susceptible to acquiring that smoke flavor from a good barbeque.

As I'm serving some friends as well, I'm going with 1.4 lbs of flash frozen Seapony but before I get into the recipe, let me tell you the inside scoop on how to choose your Seapony from the market, what to look for, and how to prepare that soon to be tasty pastel colored flesh.

The taste of Seapony is defined by the color of its scales. Lighter colors in whites and yellows are going to give you the the richest Seapony taste without tasting too fishy. Stepping down a level lighter Teals, Greens and Blues, again, are not too fishy, but will have a more earthy tang to it its meat. Once you start getting into further shades of blues and reds and deeper shades of other colors, the fishiness really ramps up and these Seaponies are best prepared with days of smoking or salting. As a very acquired taste, dark red or black scaled Seaponies, also known as OC colors, should be avoided at all costs, as the taste of these Seaponies are not pleasant to average griffon.

First let's see the edible flesh...

Oh yeah, that's some good looking Seapony. Just opened, there is no odor being given off, a good sign this Seapony was indeed flash frozen and hasn't been sitting anywhere for a while. Other than flown in Seapony, this is as good as it gets.

Now for the skin reveal...

Not wanting to risk embarrassing myself by making a mistake on a premium cut of Yellow Seapony, I went a step down for a the Teal variety. My camera insisted on making this teal richer than it is so have no doubt this is a lighter variety.

First, let's prepare the fillet by removing any super-believable Seapony-sized tail bones that the fish monger forgot. I got mine pre-deboned but I will check along the crack in the meat where the bones should have been removed.

Now Seapony tail bones are tiny so you are going to want to get some tweezers or pliers to help remove them. Like me, you don't likely have a set of dedicated kitchen pliers so be sure to sanitize your implement of choice by heat or alcohol. I prefer to use a more ingestible alcohol to help sanitize my kitchen "tools" so luckily my host has a bottle of Princess Luna's new tequila.

Griffon's make a mean Margarita! EQD reminds you to friendship lubricate responsibly.  

I like to wear a glove as I touch the raw meat and avoid sliding a bone under my finger nail. Yuck! Here you just grab the tip and pull in the direction of the bone. Avoid damaging and displacing the surrounding meat. I found about eight that the fishmonger had missed.

Let's get on with some challenges with this cook..

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Because we are at altitude on the City-Tree in the mountains, it is important to know that water evaporates quicker which can result in a drier cook so to counter this, cooking temperatures should be lower, cook times longer, and outdoor grilling and smoking temperatures need to be carefully monitored as they can fluctuate wildly. 

This is why this traditional recipe helps hold in the moisture of the Seapony by leaving on the skin and using a thick marinade on the meat.

Like many cultures, Griffonstone prefers their cooked seafood with strong citrus flavors and Seapony is no exception. Fresh lemon juice will be the base for this citrus flavor as well as zest from any one or more citrus fruits. Here I'll use a bit of lime and tangerine, but what really sets the stage for a unique twist on the citrus is the addition of Griffonstone Za'atar, a spice blend you should be able to find online with little effort. While many family lines guard their own recipes jealously, generally, Za'atar is a blend of oregano, thyme, marjoram, sumac, dried orange zest, toasted sesame seeds and its namesake, the wild herb za'atar which is in the same family as oregano, and thyme. 

Ingredients

Marinade for 1.5 pounds of Seapony

• 3 tbs Chipotle Mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (Optional)
• 1-2 Cloves Garlic
• Zest of Citrus
• 1.5 tsp Griffonstone Za'atar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Oil to coat skin side

Steps

Start by oiling the skin, Regardless of what recipe you follow, oiling the scales is the most common first steps as it will help crisp up the skin and add that crackly texture to your dish. No griffon wants to eat soggy Seapony skin.

Flip the Seapony back over and combine all the measured ingredients into a bowl and use a plane grater to add in your garlic and citrus zest.

Sample your marinade and if satisfied, using the back of a spoon apply the mixture onto the flesh and coat it evenly as pictured above.

Next, Add salt and pepper to taste. Za'atar and mayo may have its own salt content so it's important to taste your mixture before over salting.

For best flavor, leave your Seapony to rest overnight in marinade, wrapped in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before you cook.

Ready for smoking

Due to altitude causing temperate fluctuations, we are going to be using a Traeger pellet smoker, with mesquite pellets, instead of a traditional Griffon brick oven. Pellet smokers use a thermometer, logic, and a pellet feed system to keep temps on point despite the elevation. In addition we will be cooking at a low and slow smoking temperature in order to combat that lower boiling point of water. Also, this is a thinner piece of Seapony so it should cook pretty fast.

Always clean your grill to prevent fires...

I'll be using the Traeger App to bring the smoker to temp from a chilly 48 degrees. Once it gets up to temp, I will get a notification and it'll be time to put that cute little Seapony flank on to cook.

It'll look something like this once it hits the grill...

It's important to cook to an internal temp of 145 degrees Fahrenheit at the thickest part. I will use a Bluetooth probe to monitor this magical piece of meat because opening the smoker repeatedly to check the temp will cause too much heat to be lost. Also, my phone will send me an alarm when it hits the perfect temperature. 

I will smoke at 280 degrees until the Seapony is about 130-135 degrees then ramp up the Traeger's temp to 450 degrees to help really crisp up that skin. 

Just over 30 minutes later we have 145 degrees! Some traditionalists will smoke lower and longer to get a very intense smoky flavor.

Here is the result...

Look at the great browning on our marinade on top. It smells great!

On the flip side, the oil did it's job and the skin is nice and crispy, adding a great contrast to the meat and sauce.

Serve with citrus fruit and Yak's cheese and enjoy! The smoke really comes through and blends fantastically with the complex citrus notes and the spices from the chipotle mayo and cayenne. The flesh and skin easily cuts with a fork and has remained moist and tender. This is really a great meal to wrap up a big week here in the Kingdom.

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying or has enjoyed a special Spring Break and I hope you get a chance to find some za'atar and a prime colored fillet of Seapony so that you too can enjoy this Griffonstone delicacy.

Let me know in the comments if there are other recipes you'd like me to explore! This is WeAreBorg signing off from the Kingdom of Griffonstone.