Paula Disbrowe - Thank You for Smoking : Fun and Fearless Recipes Cooked with a Whiff of Wood Fire on Your Grill or Smoker

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my intrepid agent, Janis Donnaud, for helping me hatch this book and demanding my best for so many years.

Deepest gratitude to my friend Amanda Hesser, her co-pilot Merrill Stubbs, and the team at Food52 for asking me to write Any Night Grilling . That delightful project ignited my passion for live fire cooking, and set me on a path that led to this book, and continues to unfold.

Thanks to the entire team at Ten Speed Press, especially Julie Bennett, Emma Campion, Lisa Ferkel, and Ashley Pierce for enthusiastically embracing this project, and improving it with their sharp filter and killer design.

Thanks to my stellar photo shoot team, who braved a week of triple digit temperatures to make this book so beautiful, including photographer Johnny Autry, his assistant Nick Iway, and the abundantly talented Ali Slagle.

Thanks to Keith and Courtnery Langford and David and Myrna Langford for the gracious gift of unfettered work time at the Camphouse. Muchas Gracias Rebecca Rather, for the same gift in Fredricksburg.

Thanks to the team at PK Grills, especially my friend (and partner in orange jumpsuits) Scott Moody.

Thanks to Stacy and Aaron Franklin, for generously sharing your expertise, friendship, and delicious meals that get to the heart of good food, family, and fun.

Thanks also to our friends who came for meals to offer feedback and support, especially Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher, Amy Brotman, Greg Lane, Pat Sharpe, Charles Lohrmann, Amanda Eyre Ward and Tip Meckel, Claiborne Smith and Tomas Rivera. Nettie Patterson, Tammy and Eddie Young, Clayton Maxwell and Scott Sloan, Abigail King, Melissa and Craig Garnett, Danny and Celina Leskovar, Rachel Zindler, Paul Newman, Joshua and Jaime LaRue, Scott Foster, Nancy Mimms, and Rodney Gibbs.

Thanks to my parents, Mike and Julie Disbrowe, for always cheering me on, and for enduring the rollercoaster of recipe testing that my crazy profession requires.

Thanks to Fran Norman, Jana Norman, and Paul Turley for love and support from Pensacola and Adelaide.

Most of all, thanks to my family: My wonderful children, Flannery and Wyatt, for being so cool about all the time that mom spent racing through grocery stores, schlepping charcoal, and cooking out back. Thanks to my husband, David Norman, for being my most trusted sounding board and letting me take over the backyard shift. The moment when the three of you pull up a seat to our dinner table will always be the best part of any day.

PAULA DISBROWE writes about the endless adventure of food andtravel, from vanilla plantations in French Polynesia to single-malt distilleriesin Scotland, olive groves in Spain, and salmon boats in Alaska. She haswritten or co-written seven cookbooks, including Food52 Any Night Grilling;Cowgirl Cuisine; Crescent City Cooking with Susan Spicer; New York Timesbestseller Down Home with the Neelys with Patrick and Gina Neely; JamesBeard Awardwinner Real Cajun with Donald Link; and IACP AwardwinnerDown South with Donald Link. Disbrowe is a contributing editor to TexasHighways. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Bon Apptit,Southern Living, Food & Wine, The Local Palate, and Delta Sky, amongother national publications. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Recipe Course Index

Breakfast

Snacks and Sides

Starters

Cocktails

Soups

Salads

Mains

Beef and Lamb

Chicken, Duck & Turkey

Fish and Seafood

Pork

Vegetarian

Dessert

Larder

CHAPTER ONE

THE SMOKED LARDER

Even though Im a fan of firing up my grill any night of the week, its typically not realistic to tackle two cooking methodssay, smoking lentils and then simmering them for a saladbefore a family-friendly dinner hour. Thats why I rely on a larder of smoked ingredients that inspire and expedite meals. The process of building that larder is actually quite time efficient: devote a couple of pleasant hours to smoking a variety of items (e.g., dried beans, grains, seeds, spices, and nuts) all at once, and then be armed with an enticing array of options to pull from all week or month long. The thick cast-aluminum body of my PK Grill holds heat extremely well, so one chimney of charcoal (and a few additional wood chunks to keep the smoke streaming) typically provides enough heat for two 30- to 40-minute bulk smoking sessions that produce a bounty of options for the recipes in this book or your own inspirations.

The ability to reach for fragrant condiments, like Smoked Arbol Honey (), that instantly elevate a simple grilled chicken breast or lamb burger, makes menu planning more fun. The smoked components bring so much character that you dont need much else to make the dish shineone bite of smoked chickpeas dressed with nothing more than extra-virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of salt, and youll know exactly what I mean.

This chapter is devoted to basics with a shelf life that complement everything from cocktails to dessert. Ive given you recipes that rely on the smoked larder ingredients, but youll also have leftovers that can be incorporated into your go-to meals. You can crumble smoked rosemary in tomato sauce, or use smoked cumin and fennel seeds in beef or vegetarian chili. Flavor enhancers like smoked condiments, salsas, syrup, and dried fruits are great to have on hand for granola, baked goods, charcuterie platters, and more.

SMOKED SPICES, HERBS, SALTS, DRIED FRUIT & DRIED CHILES

Depending on their weight and density, most larder ingredients will smoke for 10 to 40 minutes over a drip pan of water that provides humidity to mitigate heat and help the smoky flavor stick. (Note: Smoking dried chiles is really a matter of toasting them over a wood-infused fire for as little as 5 minutes, because they will darken very quickly.) Once your grill or smoker is at temperature, the process is mostly unattended, although youll want to stir and/or rotate the ingredients after 5 to 15 minutes to ensure all items (every dried bean, for instance) receive a uniform level of smoke.

Note that foods with a higher fat content will react to heat more quickly, so keep a close eye on them toward the end of the process and continue to stir as necessary (items around the perimeter of the pan will darken first) to prevent them from becoming too dark and tasting acrid. Fresh herbs like rosemary, with its essential oils and sticky, finger-coating resin, can do the same, so you may need to pull them off the heat sooner than dried spices like fennel seeds or peppercorns. In other words, for the best results, pay attentionto the temperature and the way the process is playing out (see the before-and-after photo on ).

USE THIS METHOD TO SMOKE:

Dried chiles: ancho, arbol, guajillo, pasilla

Dried fruit: cherries, coconut, cranberries, dates, figs, nectarines, peaches, pears, prunes, raisins

Herbs (hearty sprigs or branches): bay leaves, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, thyme

Salts

Spices

Vanilla beans

To smoke spices, herbs, salts, or dried fruit, prepare a charcoal grill for two-zone cooking and build a medium-high fire, or heat a gas grill to high.

When the coals are glowing red and covered with a fine gray ash, use tongs to remove the cooking grate and place a drip pan with 1 inch (2.5 cm) of warm water on the side with no coals, and add your smoke source (chips, chunks, or log). Return the cooking grate to its position, allow it to preheat, and then carefully wipe the preheated grates with a lightly oiled paper towel. Using a grill brush, scrape the grill grates clean, then carefully wipe with a lightly oiled towel again.