Summer smoke: With wood chips, fire and the right technique, home cooks can make magic

For The Union-Tribune

Here’s what I’ve learned about smoking food. You don’t need a big ol’ smoker (unless you’re smoking a turkey or rack of ribs or the like). You don’t even need a grill, although you can use even a gas grill for smoking. Got a stove? Got a cast-iron pan and some aluminum foil? Can you buy a box or bag of wood chips?

If so, then you, my friend, can take up smoking everything from vegetables, steak, pork chop or fish to — get this — chocolate chip cookies.

I spent an afternoon recently with chef Andrew Bent to learn how he does it. Bent, who was raised in San Diego, started his career at Chive and continued with stints at Chez Panisse, Searsucker and other Brian Malarkey fabric restaurants, Tender Greens, Tiger Tiger and Lola 55. He took up Sonoran-style barbecue with his La Mesa restaurant Papalo Kitchen, now closed.

“I went off on this couple-year journey of taking all the wood-fire knowledge, all the charcuterie and really applying it to the barbecue world and launched Papalo on my own,” he recalled. “I was driving to the desert, and I smelled the desert after it had rained, and all of a sudden I started smelling barbecue, and I was like, I gotta make flavors of barbecue that taste like these smells.”

Eventually, all those grinding 100 hours a week on the job over the years took their toll, but after a three-month hiatus, Bent took up less grueling restaurant consulting and barbecue pop-ups at Aero Club. He’s also opening a new restaurant called Bangers Barbecue in Escondido.

Bent was the perfect person to get a smoking primer from.

Now, you may have some misconceptions about smoking — like it’s an all-day experience. Like you need a ton of wood and an equal amount of smoke. But Bent has a very different approach, at least with the small stuff.

“Smoking should be treated like salt,” he explained. It’s a seasoning, and if you look at it just like salt, you can do too much, or you can go really gentle and restrained. I don’t want my food to taste like an ashtray.

“That’s really why pitmasters, in a lot of ways, are like artists because you really have to tame the smoke,” Bent added. “I want to encourage readers to play around with it a little bit. Do it a few times. Try the recipes out more than once. If it’s too smoky, or maybe you think you could use a little more, try it again.”

Bent offered three recipes for smoked dishes that are delicious in their own right but also show the spectrum of what a home cook can do with minimal equipment. And he added some easy and delightful accompaniments for them.

He started with a summery, gooey Smoked Tomato Toast, which he served with Calabacitas Gratin. Smoking vegetables is one of those low-effort, high impact dishes. This is the perfect high-summer appetizer, especially if your garden is exploding with both tomatoes and summer squash.

For all of Bent’s smoked dishes, he takes the same approach: Soak wood chips in a bowl for 30 minutes — he’s a fan of hickory — drain them and place a handful in a foil-lined, hot cast-iron pan. Depending on how much food you’re cooking in the pan, you can place the chips along the side in a pile or spread them out and place a rack over them for the food. Add the food and tightly cover the pan, leaving a small opening on the side to let some smoke escape. This process lasts only five to eight minutes because you’re not actually cooking the food, you’re just infusing it with smoke.

So, soak chips or not? While some chefs smoke with dry chips, Bent is a soaker smoker.

“There’s two schools of thought,” he acknowledged. “One is, with soaking you’re going to release moisture, and it takes longer to smolder in the pan, which is not wrong, but it also softens the smoke. Smoking dry puts off more smoke all at once and brings in bitter notes. Soaking chips also helps prevent home cooking fires.”

And he added, when you’re done with the chips, let them totally cool before you throw them out, again to prevent a fire.

For the smoked tomatoes, he soaked the chips, placed them in the cast-iron skillet on his stove, topped halved Roma tomatoes with olive oil, salt, fresh thyme leaves and garlic, then placed them in the skillet, covered it and turned down the heat so they could smoke for just five minutes or so. Then he took them out and placed them on a pan and slow-roasted them at 200 degrees for six hours. By the time I saw them, they were soft but not collapsed and very jammy, imbued with the soft scent of smoke. He smashed them on toasted bread that he had rubbed with raw garlic cloves. Then he finished the toasts with flaky salt, olive oil and basil.

But that wasn’t enough. Bent also made a rich but easy gratin with onions, a poblano pepper, zucchini and yellow squash, garlic, corn, Monterey Jack cheese, Parmesan cheese, heavy cream and fresh oregano. Once all the ingredients have been cooked and blended, they go into a baking dish and it comes out 20 minutes later, bubbly and with an irresistible cheesy crust. You can eat it as a side dish, but here, Bent slathered it on his smoked tomato toast. It was a breathtaking mouthful — sweet, smoky, cheesy, crunchy and juicy.

Smoking is also for steak. Bent showed me how to smoke an 18-ounce ribeye using the same method as the smoked tomatoes, reminding me that he wasn’t actually cooking the steak. After smoking briefly, you’ll cook it in a low oven until they reach about 118 degrees. Then heat the pan, add beef tallow, then the steak and sear on one side. Then flip it and add some butter (I know, but it’s so worth it!), top the second side with whole garlic cloves and fresh thyme sprigs and baste for a minute. Remove and let rest.

Bent made Roasted Asparagus with Sauce Gribiche — a cold egg sauce — to accompany the steak. The asparagus can easily be substituted through the seasons with other veggies. The Sauce Gribiche, with its hard-boiled eggs, mayo, mustard, cornichons, capers, tarragon and other banging ingredients, is perfect year-round on broccoli, Brussels sprouts and boiled potatoes, as well as poached or fried fish.

Then came dessert: Smoked Tallow Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yes, this works. Think “your very best chocolate chip cookie” but with an indescribable hint of smoke. The cookies themselves aren’t smoked. Beef tallow is, just briefly. Same technique, only a couple of tablespoons of tallow are placed in a dish in the skillet with the soaked chips for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then it cools and congeals so it can be added to the butter and sugars (granulated and brown) in a stand mixer to be mixed and added to the rest of the cookie ingredients. You can make the dozen cookies Bent made, which come out to about 4 inches in diameter and divinely thick — or make more, thinner cookies. They are sweet, crunchy (also thanks to toasted walnuts) and, yes, just a bit smoky.

Since all the smoking and some cooking was done in cast-iron pans, Bent also offered advice on cleaning them: Wash your pan with soap and water and get all the stuck-on stuff off. Place it on the stove on some heat to evaporate the water, then wipe it out.

“And then I throw like a tablespoon of fat, like a tallow or extra-virgin olive oil, and then wipe that in, and then let it polymerize,” he said, noting the process in which individual molecules bond to form the equivalent of a seal. Because these pans are porous, the heat sends the fat molecules into the pores and seals them.

“Do it right and your cast iron should be nonstick,” he said.

Smoked Tomato Toast

Makes 4 to 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup hardwood chips (apple, oak, or cherry)
• 12 to 14 Roma tomatoes (about 1 3/4 pounds), halved lengthwise
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
• 4 slices rustic sourdough bread
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cloves garlic
• Flaky salt, olive oil and basil to finish (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1: Smoke the tomatoes: Soak hardwood chips in water for 30 minutes. Top tomatoes with olive oil, salt, thyme and garlic. Heat a foil-lined cast-iron pan and place a small handful of damp chips inside. Set a rack over the chips and arrange tomatoes cut side up. Cover tightly with heavy-duty foil, leaving a small spot open to vent and smoke over medium heat on a grill or stovetop for 5 to 8 minutes.

2: While tomatoes are smoking, preheat oven to 200 degrees. Transfer smoked tomatoes to a baking dish or pan and discard chips.

3: Roast for 6 to 8 hours, until concentrated but still juicy and jammy. If you’re not using it immediately, refrigerate.

4: Complete the dish: Toast bread until crisp. Rub lightly with garlic. Top generously with smoked tomatoes. Finish with flaky salt, olive oil, and basil, if desired. Serve with Calabacitas Gratin.

Calabacitas Gratin

Makes 4 to 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium white onion, diced
• 1 large poblano pepper, diced
• 4 cups diced zucchini (about 1 pound)
• 2 1/2 cups diced yellow squash (about 10 ounces)
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/4 cups corn kernels
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano

DIRECTIONS

1: Cook onion in butter until softened. Add poblano and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Add zucchini and squash and cook until just tender. Stir in garlic. Fold in corn.

2: Pour in cream and simmer 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in Monterey Jack.

3: Transfer to a baking dish. Top with Parmesan. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, until bubbly and golden with a crispy crust. Spread spoonfuls generously over Smoked Tomato Toast.

Reverse-Seared Ribeye

Makes 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

• Two 18-ounce bone-in ribeye steaks
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 cup hickory chips
• 1 tablespoon beef tallow
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 5 garlic cloves
• 6 to 8 sprigs fresh thyme

DIRECTIONS

1: Season steaks with salt and pepper at least 1 hour ahead of dining.

2: Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Soak hardwood chips for 30 minutes. Drain and wrap chips in foil. Place in cast-iron smoker and add steaks. Cover and smoke for 5 minutes.

3: Remove chips and transfer steaks in pan to oven. Cook uncovered until the internal temperature reaches 118 to 120 degrees.

4: Meanwhile heat cast-iron skillet to very hot. Remove steaks and add beef tallow to skillet. Add steaks and sear. Flip and add butter. Top steak with whole garlic cloves and thyme. Baste about 1 minute.

5: Remove from heat and rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Roasted Asparagus With Sauce Gribiche

Makes 4 to 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

For the Sauce Gribiche:

• 2 hard-boiled egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 hard-boiled egg whites, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup diced cornichons
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 2 tablespoons minced shallot
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

For the asparagus:

• 1 pound asparagus
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1: Prepare the sauce: Mash egg yolks with Dijon and vinegar. Slowly whisk in olive oil until emulsified. Fold in remaining ingredients.

2: Adjust seasoning and chill.

3: Prepare the asparagus: Toss asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 425 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

4: To serve, place asparagus on plate and spoon sauce over the vegetables.

Smoked Tallow Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 10 to 12 4-inch cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons beef tallow
• 1 cup hickory chips
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

DIRECTIONS

1: Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Soak hickory chips in water for 30 minutes. While they’re soaking, place beef tallow in a small bowl and render slowly until completely melted (or use store-bought rendered beef tallow). Strain through cheesecloth.

2: While still liquid, drain and wrap chips in foil, place in cast-iron skillet and add bowl of tallow, placing it on folded foil. Cover and smoke gently for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool tallow completely before using.

3: Cream smoked tallow, butter and both sugars in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium speed for about 5 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.

4: Portion into approximately 1/4-cup (80 gram) scoops. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack. Serve with ice cream.

Recipes by Andrew Bent.