Niagara Visitor wrote:I went to my son's house for dinner. He's experimenting with a smoker that he bought. I guess the memories of sitting by a smoking firepit are engrained in him. He did chicken, sausages and ribs. Ribs were a little dry but tasty. I made potato salad to go with the meats.
There's NOTHING as good as smoked meat, IMHO. What type did he get, Lore? We have two of the bigger Weber water smokers -- I think they're easier to use than the offset smokers, but Norm sure is a master at that type!
Here's one of my absolute FAVORITE smoker recipes you can give him. And though it doesn't involve meat, if the red bell peppers aren't on sale, they'll end up costing the same as meat! We've been making this soup about 25 years. The original recipe used whole bone-in chicken breasts poached in water to make the chicken stock, and then used the breast meat chopped up in the soup. I made it again using "real" chicken broth in it and it's a rich soup so I decided to serve it without pieces of chicken in it. It's fine with purchased chicken broth too, as long as you use the reduced sodium type.
Smoked Red Bell Pepper SoupRecipe by me, adapted from Bon Appetit.
3 lbs. red bell peppers (about 9 large)
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 stalks celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed
3 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)
1 bay leaf
6 cups homemade rich chicken stock, heated
2 cups whipping cream or heavy cream
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Croutons (for garnish) (I usually make my own butter croutons from French
bread)
1. Prepare smoker and soak 4 hickory blocks for one hour. Once a whole chimney of coals are ready and smoker is hot, arrange red bell peppers on two grills, leaving a bit of space between each pepper. Add hickory to coals and smoke peppers for approximately 2 hours, or until skin is very puckered and peppers collapse a bit, which sometimes takes 2.5 hours.
2. Put peppers in freezer bag to sweat and cool them. (Peppers can be held overnight in refrigerator prior to peeling.) Remove peel, core, seeds and ribs inside each pepper. Chop peppers fine, reserving any juice that accumulates while chopping.
3. Melt butter in heavy large soup pot over medium heat. Add celery and onion and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding crushed thyme. Add chopped peppers with any reserved liquid and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add heated chicken stock, fresh thyme sprigs if using, and bay leaf and simmer for 1 hour to reduce, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove bay leaf and fresh thyme sprigs (if used) from soup. Puree soup in blender in several batches (or use immersion blender in soup pot). We like it completely smooth so we usually use the blender and do it in batches. 5. 5. Return pureed soup to soup pot, and add whipping cream, stirring until well blended. Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, making sure soup is not sticking to bottom of pot. (If sticking, reduce heat slightly and stir more often.)
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into warm soup bowls and sprinkle with croutons.
These smoked red bell peppers are super to keep in the fridge too for use in other dishes and for sandwiches. They're perfect to use on sandwiches in lieu of tomatoes, especially in winter when tomatoes are tasteless. A turkey sandwich with a big piece of smoked red bell pepper on it is divine!
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Don't get run down Deb. Take care of yourself ..... take a rest now and then.
