Our Delicious Smoked Grape Flatbread with Brie and a little fresh Rosemary
Smoked Grape Flatbread- Even if you aren’t the biggest fan of Concord Grapes, this recipe completely changes the flavor of this variety of grape to produce a very pleasing outcome. I’ve gone to my own personal grapevines and selected grapes at their peak for a flatbread recipe that is super easy and scrumptious. It all starts with the grapes so go to your own vines, a neighbor’s, a farmer’s market or fresh market, and pick up a quart or two to bring to the grill for wood flavor infusion to make the ultimate in flatbread. Remember, any grape you find will work for this recipe, so go ahead and pick your favorite.
It’s Asparagus season and that means you should get the most out of this sensational vegetable while it’s fresh! Be sure to visit our series on the ember roasting of fresh asparagus (see the previous blog) so you can move on to our fabulous recipes. Our featured recipe in this series is Crostini with Ember Roasted Asparagus, Pimento & Olive Spread, a perfect snack, appetizer, and certainly a spur of the moment food for the pop in visitor. So, here we go!
Looking for a great smoky appetizer or snack but don’t want to go to the trouble of firing up the charcoal or gas grill? Then think stove top smoker and prepare to bring the best out of mushrooms when they get wood fired for full flavor. I’ll bring you the easy stove top smoker technique that takes less than 30 minutes and then offer up a super easy but full of flavor smoked mushroom toast with kale and ricotta.
You’ve seen us use our plancha to do squid, now we’re going to smoke some artichoke hearts and mushroom caps using just one application of wood chips. This time, our plancha will be set up with BeechPiccolo® wood chips to infuse wood flavoring into artichoke hearts and button mushroom caps for the ultimate stuffed mushroom appetizer. I’ll take you through the recipe and cooking technique using my plancha on the gas range. Easy entertaining starts here with Stuffed Smoked Artichoke Mushrooms.
Wood Firing the Artichoke Hearts
We start off with a 14 oz. can of artichoke hearts packed in water. This will be roughly 8 artichoke hearts. After draining, rinsing, and patting dry, we fire up the plancha on our gas range placing a small handful of SmokinLicious® Beech Piccolo° wood chips on the plancha. As the plancha temperature rises close to 300° F, it’s time to add the artichoke hearts to the smoker racks. Place the cover on the plancha and let the artichoke smoke for about 8 minutes, turning one time half way through the cooking time. Then remove the hearts from the plancha, rough chop them, and put aside for the mushroom filling.
Button Mushroom Caps
Next on the plancha go the mushroom caps. We prepared them by first washing them, patting them dry, and then removing the stems. The stems are reserved to be used in the filling mix. If you want extra smoky flavor, feel free to smoke the stems as well but you should smoke them separate from the caps so they don’t shrink and lose too much water.
We’re still using the Beech wood chips that were used for the artichoke hearts as these still have plenty of smoke vapor to be released. Again, these mushroom caps will only take a matter of minutes. Remember, mushrooms are loaded with water so don’t let the caps stay on the plancha too long causing them to shrink and fall apart. Just bronze them with the smoke vapor, then remove to be stuffed. A good sign that they are ready to come off the plancha is when you see a small puddle of water forming in the cap.
Mushroom Cap Filling
With the artichoke hearts and mushroom caps smoked, it’s time to start on the filling. Here are the ingredients need for the filling:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small shallot, minced
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
½ cup dry white wine
1 cup grated parmesan
¾ cup panko breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme
1 egg white
First, I chop the mushroom stems, dice the shallots, and mince the garlic cloves. In goes the butter to a hot skillet, then all three prepared ingredients are added. Once cooked down, the white wine is added to the mixture with cooking continuing until the wine has evaporated. This is a highly aromatic filling that will blend well with the smoky flavors of the artichoke and mushroom.
The aromatics are now ready for the rest of the filling ingredients. First, add the chopped smoked artichokes hearts. Next in, the parmesan, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, and egg white. Mix everything together until it binds well. Time to fill the smoked mushroom caps. Using a teaspoon, I fill each mushroom cap heaping the filling on top. Although we prepared 20 mushroom caps, there is enough filling to do 40-50 caps depending on the size of the mushrooms selected. I place these in a baking dish and slide them into a pre-heated 350°F oven for about 30 minutes.
Soon to be the Favorite Stuffed Mushroom Appetizer
After smoking both the artichoke hearts and the mushroom caps, I infused the filling with the smoked, chopped artichoke hearts. With the additional flavors of parmesan, thyme, parsley, garlic, shallot and wine, these mushroom caps are full of flavors including that subtle smoke undertone. These are sure to become a favorite appetizer or snack. Plus, when done on the plancha, they can be smoked year round without concern for the weather.
Bringing smoke flavor to stuffed squid done on the plancha will provide wonderful and unique flavor to this appetizer.
STUFFED SQUID COOKED ON THE PLANCHA
We love demonstrating the versatility of SmokinLicious® products with all types of equipment. We’re taking our Piccolo® wood chips to the plancha to smoke infuse some stuffed squid for a unique appetizer. Don’t own a plancha? You can do the same thing with a standard stovetop griddle and a small roasting rack. Or, use a charcoal or gas grill with some wood chunks for the same smoky flavor.
Plancha Cooking
A plancha is a flat top grill made of heavy metal that can be placed on any type of heat source: electric, gas, infrared, induction, charcoal grill, gas grill. Basically, a plancha is a griddle made of metal.
What’s great about a plancha is you can do simple hot smoke infusion using a micro wood chip that is quite fast due to the intense heat these quality metal cookware pieces produce.
My plancha is made by the French company, Mastrad. I prepare the plancha by placing it on my heat source – in this case my gas range – set the heat level to medium-high, place a handful of SmokinLicious®Piccolo® Wood Chips in Beech size #10 on the plancha, and place the two smoking racks on the griddle. I’ll give the wood chips about 5 minutes to heat up and start releasing smoke, then it’s time to place on the stuffed squid bodies.
1-1/2 heads of frisee or other green lettuce, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons capers
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 lime, zested and juiced
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1-1/2 pounds squid, bodies only, rinsed – should be about 8 bodies
Stuffed Squid- Making Stuffing
Time to make the squid stuffing. Taking a medium bowl, combine the seeded and diced tomato, chopped greens, and capers. In a small bowl, make the dressing by whisking together the 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, lime juice and zest, salt, and pepper. Drizzle over the stuffing mixture and toss to coat.
Stuffing the Squid
Taking one squid body at a time, fill with the stuffing mix using a teaspoon within ½ inch of the open top. Then lace a toothpick through the top. Brush all the bodies with the remaining teaspoon of olive oil. Then they’re ready to place on the hot plancha.
Stuffed Squid- Plancha Cooking
With the wood chips hot and releasing smoke vapor, I place the readied stuffed squid on the cooking racks. These will cook and smoke for about 7 minutes before I will turn them. Another 4-5 minutes on the other side, and you’ll see a golden hue and plump shiny bodies emerge. Turn off the heat to your plancha and carefully remove the squid. Cut into 1-inch slices and serve warm.
There are many variations to stuffing squid bodies but this is one that is essentially vegetarian in design so it can be enjoyed by everyone.