So, today I took up smoking. I’ve wanted to for at least a year now; I’ve been researching the hows and whys and wherefores, and finally today I took the plunge.
Hot Smoking at Home.
Smoked tomatoes and smoked mozzarella.
First I skinned the tomatoes, by nicking them at the base and pouring boiling water over them, then after a minute removing them and placing them in icy water. Then I peeled the skins off.
I placed them on a plate with the bufallo mozzarella I bought at La Latteria.
Next I mixed the smoking mix, 1 cup rice, ½ cup tea and ¼ cup of brown sugar.
I placed about half a cup of this mix into a small foil pan which I placed at the bottom of my cast iron wok and turned on the heat.
After about 4 minutes the smoke gently started and I placed a steamer basket on top, put the plate in and put the steamer lid on. Then I placed the wok lid on top. It didn’t close, but that didn’t seem to matter.
I smoked the tomatoes and cheese for 15mins.
The tomatoes were just about right, smokey and delicious. They had firmed up a little, and lost a bit of juice. The mozzarella however changed colour like it should but it melted a bit. Next time I’ll leave it for less time, probably about 8 minutes. The mozzarella is quite strongly smokey.
As there was still some smoke around a put a small about of butter in a ramekin and placed it in the steamer, and a couple more slices of mozzarella. Then I turned off the heat and left them to it.
Both melted! The butter will be fine, but I think mozarella needs to be cold smoked perhaps?
Both the tomatoes and the mozzarella will be used in a little experiment tomorrow.
Have you smoked anything? How did it turn out?
