Today begins the fall semester! I’m really excited about the global cuisine class I’m taking. I’m still with the CNM Chronicle as copy chief and food writer, but it looks like instead of spending my own money to do reviews, I’ll be writing a monthly or twice-monthly food column. I will post all those here the week after they are published.

The really exciting news is that I have applied to be an Instructional Technician for the Culinary Arts program at CNM. It’s sorta like a TA position and a bit like a high-powered go-fer. I would be helping the Chef with mise en place, ordering and demos. Plus (yay!) inventory. I’m really hoping I get it. It would make life so much easier having a job that automatically works with my school schedule.

Wish me luck!

We would all love to have a dedicated smoker, but those things are either super expensive, or a giant pain to make. You can get a quick smoke using nothing but a multi-zone propane grill.

It’s pretty simple. So simple a metal-head could do it.

1.  Choose what ya wanna smoke.

2. Get some trimmings from a hardwood tree. I love apricot, but apple or pear works wonderfully too. I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of Hickory or Mesquite, which are traditional further east, but any kind of hard wood will do.

3. Cut the wood to lengths small enough to fit in the grill. 8 to 12 inches should do. The wispy branches are great, but need soaking. The best stuff is half an inch to one and a half inches thick.

4. If you have a new-fangled grill with the super hi-tech heat diffusers, you will have to remove them as they prevent the wood from actually smoking without cooking the hell out of your product.

5. Get some piece of metal to keep the ashes from falling through the grilles. I use an old fajita plate

and it seems to work pretty well. It will also keep the smaller bits of wood from bursting into flame.

6. Turn on all zones of the grill on high to cook off anything left over, then clean the grilles well.

7. Turn off all but one burner (or two if you have more than 5 zones) Turn the heat down to low. Place the wood on the sizzle plate and put it on the burners you left on.

8. Put your product on the bottom of the side furthest from the burner(s)

9. Allow to go for a while, checking occasionally that the wood is beginning to smoke.

10. This is not a “fire and forget” process like using a real smoker, so crack a beer, turn on some loud-ass punk and take care of some other things, remembering to check progress every 10 or so minutes.

11. If your grill gets too hot, wedge something to keep it open. We are smoking, not cooking.

12. If the wood won’t smoke, set some over the edge of your sizzle plate. If it burns too quickly, spray it with water or beer to keep it from flaming up.

13. Continue to check and fiddle with the wood. Every grill, each type of food, each type of wood will give different results, so this is a fun way to experiment.

14. The food will take anywhere from an hour for thin strips of meat, to several hours for large pork roasts or beef briskets. Whole chickens will take anywhere from 2 to 4  hours to cook through.

15. Have fun with this and let me know how it works for you.

I’m making a sample Green Chile Stew for Ken and Jess’ wedding. I will post the actual recipe later, but my “secret” is to smoke the whole chickens before I do anything else. I’m using apricot wood, but any hardwood will do. Fruit is best.

Does anyone have any cool tips or hints on Green Chile Stew? Post in the comments.

Now that I know what I have to do… I’ll post my list of required baked goods and my firing list.

Required products:

3 dozen Croissants

2 dozen eclairs, filled, chocolate covered and garnished

2 Tres Leches scratch cakes, soaked, filled, decorated and garnished with strawberries

2 Frangipane apple tarts, garnished.

Here’s my firing list.

I finished everything on “Day One” in four hours. Tomorrow I have three.

Day One

Mix and laminate Croissant Dough.

Mix and retard Short dough for tarts.

Make and chill Pastry Cream.

Mix and chill frangipane filling.

Mix, bake and store Tres Leches Cakes.

Mix Tres Leches brandy mix.

Cook pate a choux. Pipe and bake éclairs. Store.

Mise for Ganache

Day Two

Roll out tart dough and place in shells. Retard.

Roll out croissants, make up, proof, eggwash and bake.

Peel, slice and cook apples for tarts.

Fill tarts with apricot filling, frangipane filling, apples and bake.

Make stabilized whipped cream for Tres Leches cakes.

Soak, fill and assemble Tres Leches cakes. Chill.

Pipe pastry cream in éclairs and dip in ganache. Garnish with shaved white chocolate.

Decorate Tres Leches cakes with whipped cream and strawberries. 

Piece of cake eh?

I’ll post a gang of pics manana.