The Finished Glazed Smoked Turnips are garnished and ready to be served
ROOTING FOR GLAZED SMOKED TURNIPS
It may not be the preferred choice in vegetable but it is one you should get to know as the health benefits noted from turnips are amazing. Known to improve bone health, protect your heart, and be an active cancer fighter, turnips are also known to reduce inflammation and optimize digestion.
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.
Often, when it comes to smoking poultry, many people become quite nervous as they may have had a previous experience that resulted in a dry outcome. Or, they may have read how difficult it is to maintain moisture when you smoke poultry. Today, I’m going to show you how to smoke Cornish game hens on the Orion Cooker.
Why does the Orion Cooker make a difference? Because this isn’t a traditional smoker. This is a convection cooker that you can smoke with.
Wood fired Lobster Tails with Ash Minuto® smoker wood chips on the Plancha stove-top grill
When the temperatures go down and you simply can’t stand the thought of firing up the grill, but you crave something smoked, think plancha. This is a great method of bringing wood fired flavor to foods using the heat from your gas, electric, conduction, or infrared stove top.
I’m going to add a unique flavor to traditional chili by cooking lobster tail meat on the plancha using AshMinuto® Wood Chips. This will give not only great sear to the lobster meat but a true smoked flavor.
Get ready as we give the SmokinLicious® take on Wood Fired Lobster Tails Chili.
Smoky bourbon cranberry cocktail is a simple but elegant drink for holiday celebrations during the colder months.
SMOKY BOURBON CRANBERRY COCKTAIL
For those of you who love bourbon, we’ve got a special cocktail for the sampling. This is a rather festive drink containing cranberry. We add an additional layer of flavor by cold smoking the cranberry cocktail syrup for a unique blend of sweet, tart, and smoky. Let’s get started on how it’s done.
Smoky Bourbon Cranberry Cocktail- Making Cranberry Syrup
Our smoked bourbon cranberry cocktail starts with the ingredients for a cocktail syrup. Similar to traditional simple syrup, this one has a bit more acid in the form of white wine vinegar. You’ll need to gather together:
1 cup of fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup of white wine vinegar
Sugar- 1 cup
You also need a saucepan and heat tolerant spoon.
Start by placing a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the white wine vinegar and the cup of sugar and stir to dissolve the sugar. Next in, one cup of cranberries, fresh or frozen, though I’m using fresh as they are available at the time of this recipe. Bring the mixture to a boil stirring constantly. Once the sugar is dissolved and the cranberries have reduced, remove from the heat and allow to cool in the saucepan. While the mixture is cooling, let’s prepare the handheld smoker for the smoke vapor infusion.
Cold Smoking is in Your Hand
It’s never been so easy to produce smoked ingredients with the development of the handheld food smoker. It all began with The Smoking Gun™ which is the unit I will be using today, but know there are many options available to you. I set up my handheld food smoker with Sugar Maple Minuto® Wood Chips.
Bringing the cooled saucepan to a table, I have a piece of press and seal at the ready, but you can use plastic wrap, a food storage bag, or vacuum bag, anything that will provide a seal. I seal around the saucepan leaving a small opening to insert the tubing of the food smoker. Turning the unit’s fan on, I light the wood chips and allow the smoke vapor to fill the saucepan. Once filled, I release the tubing from the pan and seal the pan completely with the wrap, allowing the smoke to penetrate the cranberry syrup. The longer the pan stays wrapped, the more smoke flavor the syrup will take on. Once infused, remove the wrap and prepare to make the cocktail.
Smoky Bourbon Cranberry Cocktail- Building a Smoky Cocktail
To make the cocktail, place ice in a rock glass. Add ¼ cup plus a splash of your favorite bourbon. Add two tablespoons of seltzer and two tablespoons of the cranberry syrup. Stir and add a tablespoon of fresh cranberries. It’s now ready to serve! Smoky Bourbon Cranberry Cocktail – a unique drink for all those bourbon lovers you know.
We’re putting a new flavorful twist to traditional quiche by adding a cold smoked cheese combination that’s perfect with this egg and cream based recipe. Be sure to see our previous series on cold smoking cheese on the stove top, then bring your favorite cheeses to this easy, basic recipe. We’re making smoked cheese & bacon quiche!
Smoked Cheese & Bacon Quiche- Simple Ingredients Are Best
Quiche is one of those recipes that doesn’t have a lot of rules. The base is eggs, cream and pie shell or pastry. The fillings are yours to experiment with. For our Smoked Cheese and Bacon Quiche, you’ll need the following ingredients:
We start off our recipe by first cooking the onion. Taking 1 yellow onion, peel the skin and dice this. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a hot skillet. When melted, add the diced onion. Let this sweat for about 3 minutes until translucent, then stir. Cook until the onion browns and crisps slightly. This should take less than 6 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside while you begin to prepare the wet ingredients.
Basic Quiche Batter
After cooking the onion, it’s time to assemble the other ingredients to our quiche. Start with 6 large eggs in a large bowl. Add the ¾ cup of heavy cream and whisk until combined. Add the cooked onion, followed by the bacon that has been precooked and chopped. If you’re short on time, feel free to use precooked bacon strips commonly available in most grocery stores. Whisk all these ingredients together until well combined.
The final ingredients are your favorite smoked cheeses. In my version, I’m using Swiss, muenster, and fresh mozzarella, which have been previously cold smoked for about 4 hours. My technique was a stove top smoking application using a cast iron pan. You can visit our previous series on this technique. Once all the ingredients are combined, it’s time to pour the batter into the prepared pie shell. This recipe will make one 9-inch quiche. Now place in to a preheated 350°F oven for 40-45 minutes.
After cooking in a 350°F oven for about 45 minutes, a golden crust will form on the top. Allow the smoked cheese & bacon quiche to cool slightly before cutting it into serving slices. Loaded with the saltiness of the bacon, the creaminess of the smoked cheese, and the sweetness of the cooked onion, this is a great dish for brunch or dinner, or even served as an hors d’oeuvre. If you want to add more smoke flavor, feel free to ember cook the onions or smoke the bacon. Smoked Cheese & Bacon Quiche – soon to become your favorite quiche recipe!
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The warmer season means we all look for new cocktails to serve and enjoy during the longer days of sunlight. For those of you who are a fan of the fruity cocktail, why not take a less traditional approach and bring a new flavor level in.
NOT JUST ANY MAPLE SYRUP-A New Flavour Twist- Smoked Maple Syrup
Smoked Maple Syrup
The Gourmia® Mini Smoker or any handheld smoker is the perfect equipment for those who want to infuse smoke flavor into raw and cooked foods, beverages, herbs, and spices. Using SmokinLicious® Minuto® or Piccolo® Wood Chips ensures maximum flavor infusion from a clean, 100% bark-free hardwood. Select from 8 hardwood species and combine woods for your owncustomized flavoring.
We are taking a step on the intense side and preparing to smoke pure New York State maple syrup. I am using SmokinLicious® Sugar Maple Minuto® Chips in Size 8. In addition to the smoker and chips, you will need a container to hold the syrup, some plastic wrap and a lighter. Keep in mind, this smoked syrup isnot intended to be used on waffles, pancakes, or french toast due to the intense flavoring. Get ready, for a fun, quick way to smoked maple syrup!
So simple to do, cold smoke generators let you direct the smoke just where you want. With the maple syrup placed in a glass bottle, the tubing of the Gourmia® Mini Smoker or any handheld smoker is inserted into the bottle and then sealed with simple plastic wrap. This ensures that all the smoke vapor produced is contained within the bottle and exposed to the syrup. You can fill the smoke to the level you want – just a little or right up to the top like we did. Remove the tubing and tighten the plastic wrap or secure the bottle’s cap, and the flavor infusion begins.
Once the smoke is retained within the bottle, we gentle rotate the bottle, turning the liquid within so that it mixes with the smoke vapor. Remember, the more smoke in the bottle, the stronger the flavor will be as you mix it in. You can see how the amber color of the syrup darkens as it is combined with the smoke vapor. That’s it!
Now, you can take this smoked maple syrup and use it in place of simple syrup for cocktails, add it to marinades and sauces for a balance of flavors that are unique. We will be using this batch in a special maple glaze for pork (see our recipe blog for our recipe and technique).
The Gourmia® Mini Smoker is the perfect equipment for those who want to infuse smoke flavor into raw and cooked foods, beverages, herbs, and spices. UsingSmokinLicious® Minuto® or Piccolo® Wood Chips ensures maximum flavor infusion from a clean, 100% bark-free hardwood. Select from 8 hardwood species and combine woods for your own customized flavoring.
SmokinLicious® Minuto® Wood Chips and the Gourmia® unit.
It’s squash season and that means you have a tremendous variety of product available to do many styles of cooking. How about trying your hand at stovetop smoking? Today, I’m featuring the very popular butternut squash. You’ll need a stovetop smoker or a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven with an insert pan and lid, Minuto Chips® in Size #4 from SmokinLicious®, and about 1 hour of time. Be sure you also have a hood vent where you will be using the stovetop smoker. Now let’s gather our ingredients and get ready to infuse great wood-fired flavor!
