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.
There are so many ways to smoke a turkey with the main difference found in the amount of time for both preparation and cooking. One of the favorite methods is hot smoking whether done on a traditional smoker, charcoal grill, or gas grill.
Fresh strawberries are pretty much available all year, so why not do something different with this fruit favorite and try your hand at smoking them! One of the easiest methods for controlling the smoke level to a fruit is to use a hand held food smoker.
By our stove top smoked chives techniques we will be adding a pinch of smokey flavor to these wonderful bright green chives
Fresh chives are in season so why not do something different with this wonderful herb and try your hand a smoking them! One of the easiest methods for controlling the heat and smoke level to a delicate item like herbs is to use a stove top smoker or stove top smoker set up with a cast iron pan. The point of smoking the chives is to add a depth of flavor to any recipe.
INGREDIENTS FOR STOVE TOP SMOKED CHIVES:
A stove top wood smoker or cast iron pan with an insert pan for the chives and a lid
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.
Having the experience of viewing her dad, our youngest staff member tried her hand at grilling for the first time! Look how great these Kabobs look!
MY FIRST EXPERIENCE AT THE CHARCOAL GRILL (by the intern)
I’ve had a lot of experience over the years watching my Dad at our homemade barbecue pit. I’ve never had the experience of doing the actual prep and cooking until now.
I’m taking on the grill and preparing some kabobs using charcoal and wood. This is my first attempt at cooking on the charcoal grill without any help. Learn what worked and didn’t work for me, a 20 year old who tackles the fire!
Selecting My Menu
In deciding on a menu and given that it is the hot summer in the East, I went with kabobs. Shrimp and chicken were selected as proteins and an assortment of vegetables plus pineapple for sweet.
I purchased fresh, de-veined shrimp to cut down on some prep time. After washing the shrimp, I laid them out on paper towels and pat dry with additional paper towels. To get a good char on the shrimp, I’ve read how important it is to get as much water out of the shrimp.
Something I learned after: I should have sprinkled a little kosher salt to aid the water removal.
For my chicken, I purchased chicken breasts with the skin already removed and cut these into cubes trying to keep all the pieces the same size for even cooking.
Protein Preparation
I wanted a little spice to the menu so I elected to use a Cajun seasoning on my shrimp. I made sure every piece was coated well.
Something I learned after: if I had prepared these even a few hours early, I could have sealed them in a storage bag and let them really infuse the flavor. For my chicken cubes, I marinated in a simple preparation of Italian salad dressing. This protein I did marinate overnight.
Other Preparation
I decided to incorporate more traditional items for my kabobs like tomato, pepper, mushroom and pineapple. I do a simple wash of the vegetables, then cut peppers and pineapple into even pieces big enough to be skewered. Button mushrooms are left whole as are my small tomato rounds. I make sure everything is at the ready to make assembly easy. I think this step in the kabob making was relatively easy to manage.
Kabob Assembly
As you can see, I did a bit of variation to my assembly process for the kabobs. I did mix my vegetables and fruit on a single skewer as well as my two proteins.
Something I learned after: I should have first oiled the skewer to ensure ease in removal of the food items once cooked. I also should have made skewers with the same food item on them so I could control the timing each item takes to cook. So, next time I will have full skewers of mushroom caps, full skewers of pepper, full skewer of shrimp, etc.
Charcoal Barbecue Setup
My barbecue is an open pit style, hearth level, hand built by my Dad. When cooking, we generally use charcoal or charwood with wood chunks and chips for flavor. Today, I went with Sugar Maple chunks (double filet size), for the kabobs. I learned the importance of starting a chimney starter of charcoal first to be sure all the coals are hot before they go into the charcoal area of my pit.
Something I learned after: if your grill is in a safe area, you can start the chimney starter while preparing the food items so by the time you get everything prepped, the coals are hot and ready to go.
Once my embers are burning red and starting to gray over, it’s time to pour them into the chimney brazier. My pit will hold about 6 lbs. of charcoal. Once the charcoal is in, I add my Sugar Maple wood chunks for flavor to the kabobs.
Something I learned after: I should have laid a bed of unlit coals in the charcoal brazier. That way, I could be sure to have enough heat for the entire cooking process and I would have a chance to use the hot embers later for other cooking.
Time to Grill
With my grilling grates in place, it’s time to add the foods. I ended up putting a series of skewers on the grates trying not to crowd the grates. I did cook some of the chicken and shrimp off the skewers to give my guests options for just extra protein.
Something I learned after: I really didn’t give much thought to the cooking time of each item so some things were cooking faster and drying out before others. Shrimp cooks faster than chicken so lesson learned: chicken needs to go on first. Plus, I need to brush with marinade or oil to keep things moist.
Lessons Learned
For my first ever effort at making kabobs on the charcoal pit, I was pleased with the results. Without question the sugar maple chunks from SmokinLicious®added to the great flavor. I was amazed at just how little wood it took to impart that smoky quality to the foods. I learned quite a bit along the way: my sequence of adding items to the grill needs to change. My longer cook items like chicken, peppers and mushroom need to go on first. That’s where having skewers made with just the one ingredient will really come in handy. Pineapple, tomato, and shrimp certainly take less time. I also need to keep a basting brush and cup at the grill so I can coat the food items either with marinade or oil to keep the moisture locked in the food.
Toasting Marshmallow & Peanut Butter Cup S’more
A great way to use the hot embers leftover when your main dish cooking is done is a simple dessert. Nothing shouts summer and fun like a s’more! Graham cracker, peanut butter cups, and marshmallow fired in the hot embers – oh so yummy good!
I hope you enjoyed this first-time griller’s experience at the charcoal grill. Leave a comment and subscribe to us so we can keep bringing you innovative tips, techniques, and recipes on working with wood for cooking, grilling & smoking.
We receive a lot of questions about preparing and smoking a beef brisket on different equipment. There is no question, that people in North America love their beef and anyone who has sampled prime BBQ knows that brisket has a truly unique flavor that puts this food experience on many people’s bucket list. Let me share some of the key tips we offer as well as some of the interesting questions posed regarding this infamous meat.
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.
