Getting lump charcoal in Drayton is almost impossible, so when I saw some Royal Oak at Cdn Tire, I bought a bag--BAD decision. This weekend, Linda was out of town looking after her parents in Calgary (both are in a nursing home), so that gave me the chance to cook the food I like--hot and spicey. Our weather was cool, so perfect for cold smoking.
Planned to make my version of jambalya/goulash to serve on jasmin rice, with a pound of hamburger, precooked chicken, ham sausage, bacon, shrimp, a can of green chiles, some diced green tomatos (plus some to bread and fry up separately), half a dozen cloves of garlic, onion, diced red tomatos, a couple of cold smoked jalapenos from the freezer, and spices. Perfectly good opportunity to try out the lump charcoal. The plan was to cold smoke the meat and veggies for an hour to get a nice smokey flavor and then slow cook everything on the stove to meld the flavors.
So I lit the charcoal, and while it was getting ready, I sliced up the veggies and made up some stuffed mushroom to cold smoke and finish in the oven as an appie. Went out to check the charcoal (again) and it was just ready--looked great. Tossed on a split of birch (really like the mellow flavor) to burn off any remaining paper bark and get a TBS going before the food went in. When I put the wood in, the charcoal fell apart--just litterally disintegrated to a pile of ash--wasn't even enough heat to light the birch bark paper. JUST A TAD POed!!!! So EVERYTHING came back inside and onto the stove. Turned out great, but the only smoke flavor came from the jalapenos.
Just as a side note, I decided to make a side dish of frozen corn. Cumin, Chile powder, onion, a clove of garlic, butter, and a couple of the smoked jalapenos, and S and P--great taste, but on reflection, for a serving of one, only one jalapeno would have been QUITE sufficient LOL.
So, any thoughts on the lump charcoal?? I was careful and am pretty sure that I didn't simply "over-prepare" it. I usually use briquettes and burned off the lump in the same manner.
Now I have a bag of lump charcoal and have no idea what I'm going to do with it.
Sorry, no qview--still can't get the add picture icon back.
Gary
Planned to make my version of jambalya/goulash to serve on jasmin rice, with a pound of hamburger, precooked chicken, ham sausage, bacon, shrimp, a can of green chiles, some diced green tomatos (plus some to bread and fry up separately), half a dozen cloves of garlic, onion, diced red tomatos, a couple of cold smoked jalapenos from the freezer, and spices. Perfectly good opportunity to try out the lump charcoal. The plan was to cold smoke the meat and veggies for an hour to get a nice smokey flavor and then slow cook everything on the stove to meld the flavors.
So I lit the charcoal, and while it was getting ready, I sliced up the veggies and made up some stuffed mushroom to cold smoke and finish in the oven as an appie. Went out to check the charcoal (again) and it was just ready--looked great. Tossed on a split of birch (really like the mellow flavor) to burn off any remaining paper bark and get a TBS going before the food went in. When I put the wood in, the charcoal fell apart--just litterally disintegrated to a pile of ash--wasn't even enough heat to light the birch bark paper. JUST A TAD POed!!!! So EVERYTHING came back inside and onto the stove. Turned out great, but the only smoke flavor came from the jalapenos.
Just as a side note, I decided to make a side dish of frozen corn. Cumin, Chile powder, onion, a clove of garlic, butter, and a couple of the smoked jalapenos, and S and P--great taste, but on reflection, for a serving of one, only one jalapeno would have been QUITE sufficient LOL.
So, any thoughts on the lump charcoal?? I was careful and am pretty sure that I didn't simply "over-prepare" it. I usually use briquettes and burned off the lump in the same manner.
Now I have a bag of lump charcoal and have no idea what I'm going to do with it.
Sorry, no qview--still can't get the add picture icon back.
Gary
