Flashback Friday - Where There's Smoke

Smoked food is tasty stuff, and easy enough to do at home with a stovetop smoker.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on August 6, 2012.
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Where There's Smoke

Some time ago, my brother bought us a stovetop smoker. This one, to be exact. We used it exactly once, to smoke some pork tenderloins. We neither burned the house down nor filled it with smoke, so I suppose the first experiment was largely successful. Except that the meat didn't taste particularly smoky. Recently, I got it in my head that I should put the smoker to use again, this time smoking some vegetables. The Fourth of July was coming up, and on that day we'd be eating beef burgers flavored with the smoke from the grill. Portobello mushrooms make pretty good burger substitutes and I wondered if they'd be even better when smoked.

Mushrooms, buns, and poblano peppers were purchased during our usual weekly trip to the grocery store and hung around in the fridge awaiting the weekend. And then Mother Nature struck, knocking out our power for four days. The mushrooms got packed up with the rest of the contents of fridge and freezer and were transported to Dad's place, where we lived until BGE got the electricity up and running (I think they saved our neighborhood for last). Rather than let the mushrooms dry out and go to waste, I chopped them up and used them to stretch a bit of frozen pasta sauce from our freezer (a bonus - doing so made for two fewer things to carry home later).

Once we were back in our own digs, I was determined to make the smoked mushrooms, come hell or high water. (The temperatures around here sure did feel like hell.) I also smoked some thickly sliced onion that became a sweet and tangy jam for topping the mushroom burgers. I was pretty pleased with the results. While the smoked mushrooms would never fool a carnivore, they made for a fine meatless supper.

Smoked Portobello Burgers with Smoked Onion Jam

4 large or 8 small portobello mushroom caps
1/2 onion, sliced thickly

Place mushrooms and onion in a stovetop smoker and smoke according to manufacturer's directions for about 15 minutes. Allow to cool inside smoker. When cool, remove mushrooms and set aside. Place onions in a saucepan to make the jam.

Onion Jam

smoked onion
olive oil
pinch salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)

Add a teaspoon or so of olive oil and a pinch of salt to the saucepan of smoked onions. Cook on medium heat, stirring often, until the onions start to wilt and become translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in brown sugar and vinegar, turn heat to low, cover, and simmer an additional 20-30 minutes, until onions are very soft and have caramelized. If there's too much liquid left in the pot, raise the temperature and cook, uncovered, until the juices thicken. If the onions aren't smoky enough, stir in the smoked paprika.

To serve:

olive oil
sliced cheese (optional)
Hamburger buns
mayonnaise
roasted poblano or red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
avocado slices

Heat a bit of olive oil in a large skillet and add mushrooms. Cook on both sides for a couple of minutes to heat through. Top with cheese in the last minute or so of cooking, if desired, and cover pan.

Spread a bit of mayo on each side of a hamburger bun and add a few strips of pepper. Place one large or two small portobello caps onto the peppers. Top with avocado (tomato is nice, too) and a spoonful of onions.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Salmon Lessons

The stovetop smoker has been making a regular appearance on this blog, hasn't it? Its latest adventure has been to smoke a slab of skinless salmon. While the results were pretty decent - smoky at the very least - there's a lot I could have done to make it better. 

1. I probably should have started out with a piece of skin-on salmon, just because the stuff from Neopol still has the skin. And if it's good enough for them, it should be good enough for me. Might have helped it stay moist, dunno. (Neopol's smoked salmon, while pricey, is outrageously good.)

2. I probably should have brined it in a mixture of salt, pepper, and brown sugar. And water, duh. I did rub on some sugar/pepper/salt before smoking, but the flavor didn't permeate the meat at all.

3. I probably should have cooked it for a shorter amount of time. I looked at various recipes that gave times from 15-40 minutes and settled on 30. The heat was very low, and the meat was on a rack within the smoker, but it was still a bit overcooked and dry. I have a hard time getting salmon to cook properly, so it may well have been me. 

Still - it was really very easy. Brining it can't make it that much more difficult, can it? 

Has anyone else tried smoking fish on the stovetop? Would love to hear from you.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Smoky Eggplant Dip

I whipped up a batch of babaganoush the other night and thought that it would be even better had I smoked the eggplant first. So while the smoker was still not put away (weeks later!), I cut an eggplant into thirds lengthwise and popped it in with some hickory chips and a quarter of an onion, roughly chopped.

I still had babaganoush in the fridge, and I wasn't about to make another similar batch, so I winged it with stuff hanging around the pantry. I dumped a small can of chopped green chiles in the food processor with the smoked eggplant (which also needed 5 minutes in the microwave to make it tender), lime juice, tomato paste, the smoked onions, and a big pinch of Penzey's Arizona Dreaming spice mix. It was pretty good, but needed a little more sumpin' sumpin'. In went a squeeze of agave syrup and a dollop of almond butter. And salt and pepper of course.

Now we were talkin'. A Southwest-ish babaganoush that goes just as well with pita bread as the standard, but with a new twist. I know most folks won't have a stovetop smoker, so just fake it with some smoked paprika.

Smoky Southwest Eggplant Dip

1 medium eggplant (yielding about 2 cups of cooked pulp)
1 3-4 oz can chopped green chiles
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoons agave syrup, or to taste
2 tablespoons almond butter
2 teaspoons Arizona Dreaming seasoning
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
chopped scallions and cilantro for garnish

Slice off blossom end of eggplant and discard. Cut the eggplant in half horizontally and place it, cut side down, on a microwave-safe plate. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 10 minutes, until it collapses and is very tender. Set aside to cool. When cooled enough to handle, scrape pulp into the bowl of a food processor. Add the next 8 ingredients and process until pureed. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with scallions and cilantro.

Posted on Minxeats.com.