Sometimes you just gotta smoke something
Sometimes I like to have something smoked, but don’t want to go to the hassle of breaking out the big smoker, get everything set up and then cook it. This is especially true when I want to cook smaller amounts or food that doesn’t take long to cook.
Many years ago, I discovered the “stovetop smoker.” “Stovetop” is a bit of a misnomer for me – I don’t like to use it in the house as we don’t have a great ventilation system. I have found that the side burner of my gas grill does a fabulous job and I don’t have the smoke in the house.
A few years back, I had the opportunity to participate in a smoking class with the BBQ Queens (Judith Fertig and Karen Adler) at the IACP Annual Conference. They used the stovetop smoker on several recipes including one of my now favorite appetizers – smoked shrimp.
The other night, I came home with a nice piece of Mahi Mahi and Lori suggested that we smoke it. No problem, out comes the stovetop smoker and away we go.
If you haven’t see one of these before, it has 4 pieces. First is the outside of the smoker. To set it up, you place about 1 to 2 tablespoons of the smoking chips (No, don’t put in more – this is one where more is not always better….) in the bottom of the smoker. Next you put the drip pan in the smoker and the wire rack on top. Now load what you are going to smoke and slide the lid most of the way on.
Parts of the smoker - the base and drip tray
Base with the applewood smoking chips
This is all of the wood chips you need
Load the drip tray on top of the chips, put the rack on top and the food to be smoked on the rack. Here are the Mahi Mahi filets.
Move the smoker to the burner on medium heat. Wait for wisps of smoke to start coming from the opening and close the lid. Depending on what you are cooking, now you just wait until it is done. For shrimp or the Mahi Mahi I had, about 13-15 minutes is all it takes. For the Mahi Mahi, I used applewood chips (and a little salt and pepper). I love to use cherrywood chips for shrimp.
It's hard to see (and take a picture), but wisps of smoke starting to come out of the opening of the lid.
Smoker going full steam - a little smoke coming out with the lid closed.
This is a great tool and you can have something on the table in less than the magic 30 minutes. For more information – check out Camerons website. (If you are interested, you can purchase at a lot of online retailers or from my store.
Dinner! It was very tasty!
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags: cameron, cooking, easy, fish, fridlin, recipe, smoking, stovetop
Cookingwithcc's Blog 
Love this, and I had no idea I could “smoke” inside. I’ve always got many things cooking at once so going out on the deck to tend the grill calls for planning. This is the Father’s Day present my family has been looking for. Or wait: hey! What about Mother’s Day? It’s sooner too….. Tea-smoked chicken? mmmm
Don’t use it as much as I should! Just a note of warning – I still use the Stovetop Smoker on the side burner of the grill – just don’t have good ventilation in the kitchen. When we were in Texas, I had a downdraft JennAir that was vented to the outside – worked great! Don’t want to be blamed for setting off any smoke alarms!