Smokinlicious® Wood Recipe Blog

There is no question that preparing foods to feed a crowd of holiday visitors can be stressful! But if your challenged by the lack of space in the kitchen, then I have a solution for making holiday grilled appetizers.

A grill is a cooking vessel, just like your oven. Unfortunately, this equipment tends to be forgotten after summer. Well, clean it off in Fall and Winter and gain valuable cooking space to end a stressful holiday season. Time to make holiday grilled appetizers.

Holiday Appetizers: Pick #1

Artichoke Stuffed Mushroom Caps

This is a super easy holiday appetizer that takes no time at all. Start by first heating a gas grill to 350 degrees F. A charcoal grill can be used as well but set up the coals on only one side targeting the same temperature as the gas grill. Now start the food prep.

Wash 30 medium to large mushrooms, patting them dry, and then removing the stems. Reserve the stems to be used in the filling mix. For the filling gather the following:

Ingredients:

For the Filling:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 14 ounce can of artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, pat dry and chopped
• 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
• Reserved mushroom stems
  

  Preparation:

  Start by chopping 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. Continue cooking until the wine has evaporated.

  The aromatics are now ready for the rest of the filling ingredients. Add the chopped artichoke hearts, parmesan, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, and egg white. Mix everything together until it binds well. Time to fill the cleaned mushroom caps. Using a teaspoon, fill each mushroom cap heaping the filling on top. There is enough filling to do 40-50 caps depending on the size of the mushrooms selected. Tip: extra cooked filling can also be serve on crackers or bread slices. Place the filled mushroom caps in a baking dish or on a sheet tray. Place the prepared dish on the grill grate, closing the lid and allow to cook for 20-30 minutes (check after 20 minutes – these should have a golden top when finished). Serve hot.

  What a flavorful nibble to serve guests visiting at the holidays. Best part, you can have the filling prepared ahead of time, even freeze, for those spontaneous visits. All the more reason to keep these ingredients handy all year round!

Smoky Cocktail Sauce is very easy to do by simply smoking the Tomatoes for the recipe!

GIVING AN EDGE TO SMOKY COCKTAIL SAUCE

You’ve seen me use the Orion Cooker before for cooking and smoking more traditional items. Now, see how I produced a great hot smoked tomato using a blend of Sugar Maple and Wild Cherry wood chips to bring subtle smoke flavor. Once smoked, I take the smoked tomato and produce a smoked tomato cocktail sauce that has so many uses.

Smoky Cocktail Sauce- Easy Hot Smoking

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Our Ember roasted peppers make an awesome Charred Pepper Dip

CHARRED PEPPER DIP

Summary:

A great smoked appetizers for your charred peppers recipes; our ember bed cooking of peppers provides great flavor. How to roast peppers in a grill, cooking on coals directly, cooking in embers, gas grill, charcoal grill, even cast iron skillet cooking will work for peppers. Try this charred pepper dip topping.

Peppers are one of those thick-skinned vegetables that release their ultimate flavor when they are introduced to hot coals. Many people think that you need special equipment to cook foods in hot coals but really, it’s as easy as having a disposable pan available and a grill. I’ll give you some options for roasting the peppers and then provide a great recipe to be used as a dip or topping that is quick and so easy.

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Wood firing offers a grilled avocado guacamole treat that will excite taste buds! Your guests will be amazed with this simple but flavor rich recipe!

TRY THE KISS OF FIRE TO GUACAMOLE Click To Tweet

The single seeded berry, fleshy fruit we know as avocado is loaded with healthy fats, 4 grams of protein, and 975 milligrams of potassium which is nearly twice as much as a banana. With 18 of the amino acids recommend in daily consumption, you’ll want to include avocado in your diet.

We thought we would take this fruit favorite and add a flavor level for your avocado recipes by wood-firing the avocado. This simple step will bring all the nutritional benefits of the fruit with a bold new taste.

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Our Snow Pea Cucumber Salad kissed by smoke adds a delicious flavor to this spring salad.

SMOKED SNOW PEAS WITH CUCUMBER SALAD Click To Tweet

With four select ingredients readily available throughout the year, you can make this flavorful and healthy salad anytime of the year. Perfect on its own for lunch or as a side dish to beef, pork, poultry, and fish, you’ll find your own variations to keep it unique.

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Ember Fired Eggplant on the rack cooking above a bed of hot coals. This technique provides the heat for cooking and the aroma of the wood smoke

EMBER FIRED EGGPLANT WITH FETA TARTS Click To Tweet

You’ve heard me mention before how great it is to ember or coal fire certain foods, with a good majority of those items falling in the fruit category. One of the best fruits to use this technique with is eggplant.

Ember Fired Eggplant- Not of Nutritional Value

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everything you need to know about ember cooked sweet peppers on the outside fireplace or pit. Click To Tweet

Ingredients:

• An Outside fireplace or pit that is clean of ashes
• Cast iron skillet, if you prefer to cook in a container rather than directly on the embers
• Sweet peppers- medium to large size, any color though multi colored ones provide for a better presentation, 10-18 quantity
• SmokinLicious® Grande Sapore® wood chips– Ash wood or your favorite wood species
• Herbs – optional
• Drizzle of Extra Virgin olive oil

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Our Roasted onions in fireplace ashes!The one vegetable we can pretty much get all year long is … the onion! So, why not give this common vegetable a special, no, fabulous flavor infusion. The way to this end? Ember cooking in an outside fireplace or cooking pit.

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The smoky deliciousness of breakfast potatoes!

If you’re a fan of breakfast potatoes than you’re going to love this take on the traditional flavors of this first meal favorite. Click To Tweet

Breakfast Potatoes- Give a Slow, Smoky Start

As with most breakfast potato recipes, this one has just a handful ingredients to make it oh so memorable at the breakfast table. It starts with a key ingredient – smoked potato – which you can find the technique for in our previous posting. This is a recipe that can certainly accommodate your specific preferences so alter it as you please. For my rendition, you’ll need the following:

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Getting ready for a Grill Roasted Broccoli extravaganza!

Let's Grill Broccolli on the Gas grill over wood chunks! Click To Tweet

Summary:

Using Smokinlicious® double filet or single filet wood chunks on your gas grill for a grill roasted broccoli experience. Grill roasted broccoli using broccoli florets adds woodflavoring for broccoli vegan! Call it Roasted broccoli, wood roasted broccoli or smoked fresh broccoli just add it to your roasted broccoli recipes!

Ready to add a new flavour twist to your average Broccoli? Then get your LP/Gas Grill ready and find out how easy this method is using wood chunks for great char flavour. All you’ll need for this easy cooking experience is:

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