Smoked Vegetables & Smoked Garlic

I'm interested in trying to smoke some veggies such as eggplant and bell peppers, and other vegetables which may yield good results. I'd appreciate any commentary related to this which might give me some guidelines, techniques, and/or ideas concerning which vegetables seem best suited to the WSM. I put a whole eggplant into the smoker recently to see what would happen, and perhaps predictably, the results were not impressive. If anyone has any experience in this area that they'd be willing to share, I'd appreciate the advice very much. Thanks.

Tom,

Here is a page from the BBQ FAQ.
It gives a lot of info about smoking veggies.
Click Here

Jim C

Tom,

One of my absolute favorite veggies on the grill is Eggplant.

My mother has been making roast eggplants in a weber kettle since I was old enough to remember.

The way I cook them is as follows...

Take a whole eggplant, a large variety, and throughly rub the outside with olive oil.

I have my WSM or Kettle (with a baffle to get true indirect cooking) going at about 300 to 325 degrees. Toss a piece of dead dried grapevine on about 10 minutes prior to cooking.

I place the eggplants onto the grills in large "bowls" made of aluminum foil.

After about 30 minutes, I close the foil around the eggplants completely.

Cook until the eggplant has completely colapsed on itself.

Remove the skins from the eggplant...

At this point you have a roasted eggplant "base" from which several greek dishes can be made... from appetizers to salads.

I have 2 favorites...

Meligana Salata

Roast Eggplant (slightly beaten with a whisk or fork) to make it less clumpy or stringy.
Some nice ripe tomatoes diced.
Some green onion.
Add Parsley.
A touch of Oregano.
Oil oil and Red wine vinegar to taste.
Salt and Pepper.
Maybe toss in a few olives (I like green).

The other is an eggplant appitizer that goes by many names...

Roast Eggplant base(throughly beaten)
Add some crumbled feta.
Add fresh garlic.
some olive oil and a touch of lemon juice.
Salt and Pepper
Some people add a little oregano.
I like to substitute some of the fresh garlic for a little roasted garlic (garlic is very good smoked btw).

Enjoy,

SA

PS. I smoked a ton of home grown heirloom tomatos, garlic and chiles this year. They were fabulous. In fact, smoking tomatos was a method of preservation in Italy and Greece for centuries.

PSS. Try smoking some kosher salt as well. I use a fine mesh screen.

Those sound delicious.... maybe Chris should post those in the recipe section as well.

Jim - Many thanks for the link to the page with the info on smoking veggies. I have it printed out and will use it as a guide from now on. It'll be a great help to me; I appreciate it very much. Thanks a lot.

Spyro - Wow, all that I can say is that I'm glad it's Friday, as I intend to try out the tremendous recipes that you sent for smoked eggplant TOMORROW! I am certain that these recipes will be instant family "favorites" here (especially because we all love eggplant), and I'm grateful to you for taking the time to share them with me, and the rest of us on this site. I agree fully with Brad that Chris would be wise to consider posting these in the recipe section as well. If you read this reply, at the risk of pressing my luck, I am most intrigued with your comments about smoking tomatoes and garlic as well. Might I be able to wrangle any comments from you related to your technique with these as also? Again, many thanks!

Smoked garlic is a must, cut the bulbs at the stalk end exposing the garic. Pour on some olive oil and smoke until soft.

Potatoes will take on more smoke if you wash them the day before and let skin dry before smoking.
Jim

Jim knows his stuff about smoked garlic. Comes out like soft butter. You can spread it on anything.

Jim -
Just wondering....when you smoke the garlic, I'm assuming that it's splashed with the olive oil and then wrapped in aluminum foil. Should I seal it up tightly for the whole time, or leave it open for all/part of the time? Thanks.

Tom

No wrapping in foil is needed at all. If you find that the smoke flavor is too strong then you may want to foil for a period the next time. I use fruitwoods so overpowering smoke is not a problem.
Jim

Jim,

I have always just done whole un-cut bulbs because I do about a dozen bulbs at a time.

Do you just cut the tops for serving purposes or for another reason?

I cut them to introduce the oil and other ingredients (balsamic vinegars as an example), it does make them easier to serve.
Jim
PS: the eggplant is going to be a hit in my house.

Like Jim said. Also, it makes it easier to get the cloves out, they just pop right out with a knife. I just unwrap the foil, toss the whole thing on a plate and you can serve with a sliced baguette as an appetizer.

Brad & Jim,

the reason I was asking was to see if Jim was seasoning from the cut top.

Garlic is cheap in California... most folks just do a couple of them. They just cut the top 1/4 off, roast the other 3/4ths and just squeeze the garlic out.

There is a lady in Malibu... the garlic lady... that sells tons of smoked garlic at all the Farmer's Markets on the westside of Los Angeles. She does hers whole bulbs, un-oiled and uncut. I just copied her technique.

Wierd thing about the Garlic lady is that her Garlic comes from one of the richest zip codes in america. From what I understand, at her home on the Malibu bluffs (think Johnny Carson, Movie Stars and the like), she has about 2 acres that she farms garlic on.

If you re-read Jim Minion's post, he says he cuts off the stem end. Makes sense-- more area exposed for oil and seasonings, and easier to squeeze out when done.

Spyro
When the garlic lady does her's does she take the outer layers off and expose the bulbs flesh?

I like using smoked soft garlic, jalapeno jelly and apple juice reduced for a glaze on lamb.

Jim

nope... you just take a bulb like it comes out of the ground/bag, clip any vegitation and toss it in the smoker...

when it is done, it looks like this...


Figures the garlic lady has a web page... Darn, she is expensive too...