Holding your knife horizontally, insert into the thick end of each chicken breast and cut to make a deep pocket. Be careful not to pierce through the other end.
Stir the cream cheese with the mozzarella cheese, minced sun-dried tomatoes, salt, pepper, and oregano.
Spoon the cheese and sun-dried tomato mixture evenly into the pockets of each chicken breast.
Wrap each stuffed chicken breast with 2 slices of bacon. Place on your smoker rack.
Set the Smoker to 250°F (121°C) using Bradley Flavour Bisquettes of choice (Oak, Maple, or Hickory work great).
Smoke the chicken until they reach an internal temperature of 165°F (74°C).
At last we have sunshine and warmth, and what
better way to kick off the BBQ than some delicious dips? For vibrant colour and
flavour this one is difficult to beat…
For a more intense flavour, grill the peppers and
chilli prior to smoking – this means grilling to black, if you don’t grill as
harshly as this the skins will not come off. Also, if you fail to cover
completely in plastic, the skins, again, will not come off. This much I know
from bitter experience and I have explained the method at length below.
Whilst the vegetables are smoking, you can also smoke some sea salt to season this and for later use – keep in a separate, labelled, jar.
Meanwhile, preheat the grill to hot. Place the peppers and chilli on a roasting tray and grill until the skin blackens, turning occasionally until the entire surface is blackened and the peppers are collapsing. Transfer immediately to a plastic bag, loosely fasten and leave until cool enough to handle. Now remove the skin (it will come away easily) and then split the soft flesh to remove seeds and core, discard. After similarly removing the skin from the chilli you may wish to leave the seeds, or at least some of them, for a good heat to the dish. Place the flesh of the chilli and peppers in a shallow bowl.
Make a small incision through the skin of the tomatoes at the top, and bottom. Place in a bowl and scald with boiling water. After 3 minutes, drain the tomatoes and peel away the skin, which will by now be loosened. Cut each in half and push out the seeds with your thumbs, discard. Add the tomato halves to the red peppers and chilli, drizzle with some of the olive oil and transfer to a shelf in the Bradley Smoker. Smoke for up to an hour (I smoked mine for 30 minutes, but then I like a subtle smokiness to mine).
Place the smoked pepper, tomatoes and chilli into a small food processor and add the garlic, together with the lemon juice, salt, pepper and the remaining olive oil. Process to a thick paste then add chopped parsley and check the seasoning, adjust if necessary. The dip should be allowed to mellow for a few hours before serving with hot pitta breads and other mezze dishes.
Ok, so we’ve had the big meat fest, time to
lighten up – and this warm winter salad of smoked butternut squash and feta
cheese is just the job …
Smoking the squash & feta cheese
First prepare a medium butternut squash by
peeling, halving, removing the seeds and fibres (by scooping with a spoon), and
then cutting into 2cm cubes. Leave the feta in a block but patted it dry with
kitchen towel.
Cherry Bisquettes
Cold Smoke Adaptor
How smoky you want the cheese and squash to be is entirely up to you, if you want a light smokiness you can do this by placing all on a tray in the Bradley Smoker and Cold-Smoking them with Cherry Bisquettes for 40 minutes. Test the flavour by breaking off a small piece of cheese. Leave longer if you want the flavour to be more pronounced.
Smoked Butternut Squash & Feta Salad
It is best to serve the smoked butternut squash
warm, and if you’re toasting the seeds yourself you can add them to the plate
direct from the skillet too. The mixed seeds add a delightful nutty crunch to
the salad – but you might also like to add crispy bacon too!
Ingredients –
serves 4
diced, smoked Butternut Squash (see above)
Olive Oil for roasting
150g smoked Feta Cheese
50g Wild Rocket Leaves
50g toasted mixed Seeds
2tbsp light Olive Oil
2tsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt, Pepper
Directions
Preheat
the oven to 220°C
Toss the
diced, smoked squash in enough olive oil to lightly coat it and season
liberally with salt and pepper. Spread over a baking tray and transfer to the
oven to roast for 20 minutes, or until it is tinged with colour and is tender
when probed with the tip of a small, sharp knife.
Remove
from the oven and toss the diced squash in a large bowl together with the light
olive oil and balsamic to dress it. Add the rocket leaves and turn briefly with
your fingers. Divide between 4 plates. Crumble pieces of smoked feta over the
squash and sprinkle with toasted seeds. Serve immediately with warm, crusty
bread.
Make the jerk spice rub by mixing together the allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, garlic powder, ginger, black pepper and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Holding knife horizontally, insert into the thick end of each chicken breast and cut to make a deep pocket. Be careful not to pierce through the other end.
In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, mozzarella chesse and ¼ cup Apricot jam until well combined.
Spoon the cheese mixture evenly into the pockets of each chicken breast.
Sprinkle the jerk seasoning all over the stuffed chicken breasts and gently rub spice into the meat.
Make the glaze by blending the remaining ¼ cup apricot jam, scotch bonnet pepper and rum until smooth. Set aside.
Set the Smoker to 121°C (250°F) using Wood Bisquettes of choice (Oak, Maple or Hickory work great).
Place the chicken breasts on smoker rack and put the rack in the Bradley Smoker. Smoke the chicken until they reach an internal temperature of 73°C (165°F), about 4 hours.
Midway through the smoking session, brush some of the glaze on the chicken. Brush them again when the chicken comes out of the smoker.
Make the brine: Combine 2 quarts of water, the honey, salt, curing salt, orange zest and juice, cloves, allspice, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and peppercorns in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil over high heat, whisking to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from the heat and add the remaining 2 quarts water. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Rinse the turkey drumsticks in a colander under cold running water. Prick the skin on all sides with a fork or needle.
Add the turkey drumsticks to the brine, making sure they’re completely submerged. You can hold them down with a dinner plate or a resealable plastic bag filled with ice. Brine the drumsticks in the refrigerator for 48 hours.
When you’re ready to smoke, drain the drumsticks and discard the brine. Pick off and discard any clinging spices. Blot the drumsticks dry with paper towels.
Place the drumsticks on the wire grates in the smoker. Smoke the turkey legs until darkly browned and very tender (3 to 4 hours). You’re looking for an internal temperature of 76°C (170°F) on an instant-read thermometer.
Do not be alarmed (on the contrary-be proud) if the meat under the skin is pinkish: That’s a chemical reaction to the cure and the smoke. Serve hot or at room temperature.
I’ve got a great idea! Smoked ice cream! I know what you’re thinking, “puddles of sooty cream in the bottom of my smoker…great idea…”, but hear me out. It’s amazingly delicious!
When making ice
cream, I prefer to use the custard method, it’s smoother and creamier and best
of all, it can even be made without an ice cream maker. The custard method
lends better to freezing without the constant churning of an ice cream maker.
The basic idea is to warm a mixture of egg yolks, sugar and heavy cream to a
temperature of 170°F and then slowly cool the mixture, stirring when possible,
until frozen.
Now the trouble is:
how to get the smoke into this frozen treat? Can’t very well smoke a tub of Ben
& Jerry’s now can you? So instead we have to smoke part of the custard
base. Since we want a hint of smokiness in the ice cream we’re not going to
smoke the whole shebang. Instead let’s just smoke some of the cream.
Cold Smoke Attachment
It is important
that the cream stay cold while being smoked, so clearly cold-smoking is the
route to go and on top of that we need to keep the cream in an ice bath. Just
as you shouldn’t leave a litre of cream out on the counter, you shouldn’t leave
it in your smoker at ambient temperature.
Once you’ve got
your cream smoked and cooled then channel your inner alchemist and make the
right blend of fresh cream and smoked cream to your taste. In my
experimentations, I’ve used anywhere from 15% to 40% smoked cream. The amount
of smoked cream that I choose to use depends on the flavour I’m making. If I’m
making something more on the delicate side than I use less smoked cream than if
I were to make something with a stronger flavour like coffee or chocolate.
When adding flavours
the possibilities are endless, just keep in mind that you don’t want to add too
much liquid to the custard or else it will freeze into ice crystals. Some of my
favourite flavours to add to smoked ice cream are:
– caramel
– dark chocolate
– spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves & ginger (think a smoky gingerbread
cookie)
– espresso
– maple
– whiskey or bourbon (remember that alcohol doesn’t freeze like water, so you
can be a little more generous)
Here’s one of my
biggest hits so far:
Smoked
Bourbon Ice Cream
Ingredients:
¾ cup heavy cream
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
8 egg yolks
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup whole milk
2 Tbsp bourbon
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
Directions:
Setup Smoker and Cold smoke ¾ cup of heavy cream with Hickory Bisquettes for 1.5 hours. Smoke the cream in a disposable aluminum baking pan placed inside of a larger baking pan filled with ice to keep the cream at a cool safe temperature
Remove cream from smoker and allow to cool in a sealed container in the fridge
Combine smoked cream with fresh cream to taste until you have 2 cups of cream (I ended up using ¾ cup smoked cream and 1 ¼ cups fresh cream for this recipe)
Whisk yolks and sugar together in a saucepan then add cream and milk and combine
Heat on low-medium until the custard reaches 170°F, stirring frequently
Remove from heat, stir in bourbon, vanilla & salt
Strain custard and refrigerate covered until temperature is lower than 45°F, preferably overnight
Add custard to your ice cream maker (follow your ice cream maker’s instructions!)
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can simply place the cold custard into a container in the freezer and stir vigorously every 30-60 minutes to get a similar consistency
