Do you smoke?

Who doesn’t love wood grilled food?

Firing up the grill for a plate of grilled vegetables may be a little labor intensive for a week day. What are the alternatives?

smoke I have been using a hand held smoker lately and have found endless ways to get smoky flavor into my food.

The chips are available in most of the woods used to smoke meats. My favorites are the hickory or mesquite.

This assortment by Breville is very nice and allows you to sample different flavors. They have quite a variety to choose from. The canisters are rather small but each has enough to smoke something a dozen times.

I can use my smoking gun inside the house with it sitting on my stove top with the down draft on. Of course I can use it anywhere outside. Maybe be the fire pit with a nice glass of wine.

A smoking dome is nice but a ziploc bag works well too. The dome does not hold in the smoke very long but a ziploc can be sealed as soon as it is full of smoke.

Here I am smoking chick peas! I used them in a pita sandwich that was divine. This should show the versatility of using the smoker.

Try smoking mushrooms, eggplant, butternut squash, cauliflower steaks, vegetable kabobs, tofu, beans or carrots for carrot dogs!

Check out my recipe for no-cheese wheels and try smoking it.

Smoking a product like this works well with the dome or the Ziploc.

The gun only runs a few minutes until the chips are burned but the object is to fill the dome or bag. A lot of smoke will escape which is why you want it by the vent or outside.

You may have to load and smoke it several times to your preference.

I like the ambience of the smoking gun. It’s fun! I’ve experimented with whole Japanese eggplants to serve like Bratwurst and carrots for carrot dogs.

If you don’t like the whole house to smell like a BBQ joint, you might prefer to use seasonings!

I’ve smoked eggplant slices using the smoker but found that marinating it in hickory salt overnight works extremely well. Actually a couple of hours works but the texture changes as it marinates over time.

Here is a salt I found from the San Francisco Salt Company! (Amazon).

It is pure sea salt smoked over hickory wood and not just flavored to taste like hickory. Salt has an ability to cure foods and is especially good on eggplant because it needs salt to draw out the bitterness.

When marinating with the salt be sure to rinse the excess salt from the food.

Certainly the salt can simply be added to the food as it is cooking. There are smoked spices that can give you a smoky flavor as well. Smoked paprika, Ancho chili and chipotle powders and smoked Serrano are some of my favorites.

Everyone has heard of Liquid Smoke. I was unaware that it was available in mesquite and hickory. It can be used for marinating but in a pinch a little can be used in the food.

Don’t limit your thinking! I’ve made some delicious creations using my smoker and seasonings. Check out my recipes tab.