Smokinlicious® Wood Recipe Blog

This Avocado recipe features melted cheese stuffed avocado inside Turkey, wrapped with Zucchini strips.!

This Avocado Recipe is double stuffed for Yummy Flavor! Click To Tweet

I love taking a basic recipe and being able to offer variations to that recipe which allows the cook to customize for those being served. That’s why I refer to this recipe as the Versatile Smoked Avocado Loaf since you will have options in the ground meat or poultry used to surround the cheese filled avocado as well as the cheese and outer covering to the loaf. This is referred to as a meat wrapped, stuffed avocado recipe.

(more…)

Our finished Cauliflower rice with Tomato we fire roasted with just a chimney starter!

CAULIFLOWER RICE WITH TOMATO

#cauliflowerrice

With my special chimney starter cooking technique, which you can view in a separate posting, a fresh head of cauliflower was wood fired for a charry flavor. Now, it’s time to take this fabulous flavor and marry it to tomato and spice in a cauliflower rice dish that can be consumed as a main course or a fabulous side dish. A simple recipe that’s full a flavor that you’ll want to enjoy again and again. Plus, you’ll enjoy the added benefits of this super nutritious food due to its low saturated fat and cholesterol and high vitamin and mineral daily needs.

(more…)

Our Grilled Peaches for the perfect salad addition with sweet onion, Tomatoes, and fresh herbs!

GRILLED PEACHES FOR THE PERFECT SALAD ADDITION

If you’ve been a follower of our recipes and techniques for a while, then you’re aware of our preference to grill, smoke, coal cook, and ember fire in-season produce. Peaches are no exception!

I’ve got my two quarts of fresh peaches and a plan to grill these on the charcoal grill using charwood coals. Then I’ll use my luscious smoked peaches in a salad that features two additional seasonal ingredients – tomato and shallots.

Get your chimney starter of charwood or charcoal and meet me at the grill for this quick technique and recipe featuring peaches.

(more…)

Our Grilled Seafood Recipe for Squid and Mussels

My Favorite Grilled Seafood Recipe: Simple but Exquisitely Mediterranean

By: Chef Calle, Resident Executive Chef

Over the past several weeks, my good friends at SmokinLicious® have allowed me to make their Tips & Techniques blog platform “my home away from culinary home” to highlight cooking with wood style. I hope you’ve enjoyed the articles as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. Before I begin an extended hiatus overseas, as my thanks, I thought I’d leave you with a pretty easy and flavorful recipe that showcases all the virtues of wood grilling with a couple of my favorite seafood- squid and mussels. The cooking style is one that is very popular in the Mediterranean region. Give it a try and let us know how it fared!

Let’s start out with squid or “calamari” as my Italian friends remind me. Whether it’s squid or calamari, it’s got to be fresh! Prepare first by thawing and rinsing thoroughly with cold water. Drizzle with a good quality of EVOO.

(more…)

SMOKED STRAWBERRY HAND PIE is a great recipe for fresh or frozen Strawberries. The smokiness will add a special twist

THE MAKING OF A SMOKED STRAWBERRY HAND PIE

Summary: This strawberries recipes for smoked strawberry hand pie using cooking wood chunks; is the art of wood fired cooking with a two-zone cooking method is easy! Using pie dough and strawberries fruit! Add this to your strawberry dessert recipes or to smoked strawberries recipes so something to delight your guests.

It’s one of my favorite times of year – strawberry picking season! As my area of Western New York State has such a short strawberry season, I literally am consuming strawberries for three weeks straight.

Good thing they are packed with vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C and K, folate, potassium, magnesium, as well as being low in calories and fiber-rich. They sure are great at filling you up which makes you eat less.

This season, I’ve got a trio of recipes all using the smoked strawberries that I’ve done on my charcoal grill. Get yourself a flat of strawberries, follow our easy smoking technique (we do have 3 to choose from that offer various levels of smoke flavor), and prepare to make simple hand pies, perfect for the hot days of summer or frankly anytime you can find strawberries.

(more…)

Our Breakfast Pizza Pretzel served with Eggs!

Our Breakfast Pizza Pretzel is easy to make! Click To Tweet

(more…)

Our smoked strawberries work perfectly to make a smoked strawberry marinade for our pork or any other meat!

SMOKED STRAWBERRY MARINADE

Summary:

Smoking on a Gas Grill or Charcoal Grill and using smoking wood chunks brings out the power of strawberries for this special smoked strawberry marinade. Smoked fruit by using Single filet® and a mild hardwood species like ash, alder, maple or cherry will have you adding this to your smoked strawberries marinade recipes.

If you’re like me, you love strawberries for the incredible juice they contain. One of my favorite ways to capture the essence of that juice is to smoke the strawberries on a grill. Not only do you end up with phenomenal smoked strawberries but the juice the grilling/smoking process renders is a must-have ingredient for so many recipes. I took a batch of the smoked juices and made a fabulous marinade for fish, chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, and goat.

(more…)

Our Wood Fired Leg of Lamb

WOOD FIRED LEG OF LAMB

Summary:

Our wood fired leg of lamb, is charcoal grilled lamb over Charwood, which is directly fired lump charcoal or cooking wood chunks. Wood cooked Lamb using sugar maple hardwood has great flavor! Syrah wine, Garlic, Onion, mint leaves make up our fresh herb rub or grilled lamb marinade. Add this to your grilled lamb recipes

Lamb is one of those proteins that tend to be associated with special holidays and occasions rather than as a common animal protein to introduce to the grill. Let’s change that with this easy and highly flavorful way to add wood flavoring to cuts of lamb on the charcoal grill. Know this technique can easily be done on the gas grill as well so simply pick your equipment and follow the suggested technique to bring abundant flavor and juiciness to your favorite cut of lamb.

I’ll be doing a leg of lamb and rib loins of lamb on a charcoal grill using charcoal and wood chunks to bring the great smoke flavor.

Leg of Lamb- Grill Set Up

(more…)

Smiling Burmese child before surgery for wide, bi-lateral cleft Lip repair. After surgery photo of same child showing the correction! DINING FOR SMILES EVENT PREPARATIONS

DINING FOR SMILES EVENT PREPARATIONS

With the goal to repair children’s broken smiles by providing free comprehensive treatment for cleft lip and palate anomalies in under-served areas of the world, Alliance for Smiles, founded by six members of the San Francisco Rotary Club, Board member Carl Vahl (Chef Calle) hosted a gourmet, six-course dinner to raise funds for this exceptional cause at the Enchanted Valley Inn. And SmokinLicious® was right there to lend our support. We’re going to provide you with a behind-the-scenes look at what goes in to preparing a six-course gourmet meal featuring wood-fired fresh Canadian salmon and wood-fired leg and loin of lamb.

Dining for Smiles- Early Fire Start

For SmokinLicious®, set up is crucial for a long event that has the menu relying on the perfection of the wood-fired proteins. That means ensuring plenty of charwood and wood chunks are at the ready. We keep two chimney starters loaded with charwood to keep a steady flow of hot coals going into the grills. Since this event’s gourmet menu featured four foods to be wood fired – lamb, salmon, red peppers, and Brussels sprouts – it’s necessary to get the fires going early so they can burn down to hot coal beds. That is the key to successful wood-fire cooking. Don’t cook over flames, only hot coals that will radiate heat throughout the grill.

Dining for Smiles- The Wood-Fired Foods

(more…)

Spicy-char hummus is made by grilling/smoking the hot peppers and then add to your Hummus! Great way to keep the grill flavors when the weather turns colder!

Let's try Spicy-Char HJummus Click To Tweet

The centuries old Arabic bean dip has gained in popularity substantially over the past few years in United States. Part of the draw is the fact that hummus is high in protein and fiber, and low in fat.

(more…)