Sorry for the lack of Q-view, blame it on the rookie status! Haha. I'll be sure to take pictures next time.
A week ago I decided to cold smoke a bunch of random stuff (whiskey, water, salt, ice cream, coffee, chocolate, butter, lox, and cream cheese) with some alder chips and cherry pellets and the other day I was sitting around deciding what smokey item to treat myself to, and how to use it. I figured clam dip is easy, delicious, and cheap, so if it turned out bad (like the coffee) it wouldn't be a big deal.
(The cream cheese was smoked for 4 hours with a very, very, light TBS.)
Here's what I did.
I used Ruffles original wavy chips for dipping but wheat thins are good also.
1 block smoked cream cheese.
1 block regular cream cheese. (Leave cream cheese on counter to soften while prepping everything else)
2 cans drained chopped clams. (Save the juice for later)
1/2-3/4 large yellow onion, finely diced. (Or to taste)
Fresh minced garlic to taste. (4-6 cloves for me)
Smoked sea salt to taste (unsmoked is fine also). (1-2tsp)
Black pepper to taste. (3-4tsp)
I added fresh squeezed juice from 1 lemon and started mixing. While mixing I slowly added in the reserved clam juice until I reach the desired chip dipping consistency. After tasting I ended up adding more fresh lemon juice (1/2) to taste.
It mixed up real nice and I could distinctly taste each ingredient, with the light smoke adding another great level of flavor!
I've had lots of clam dip but never a smokey one...it was dang good. The guys at work thought so also.
A week ago I decided to cold smoke a bunch of random stuff (whiskey, water, salt, ice cream, coffee, chocolate, butter, lox, and cream cheese) with some alder chips and cherry pellets and the other day I was sitting around deciding what smokey item to treat myself to, and how to use it. I figured clam dip is easy, delicious, and cheap, so if it turned out bad (like the coffee) it wouldn't be a big deal.
(The cream cheese was smoked for 4 hours with a very, very, light TBS.)
Here's what I did.
I used Ruffles original wavy chips for dipping but wheat thins are good also.
1 block smoked cream cheese.
1 block regular cream cheese. (Leave cream cheese on counter to soften while prepping everything else)
2 cans drained chopped clams. (Save the juice for later)
1/2-3/4 large yellow onion, finely diced. (Or to taste)
Fresh minced garlic to taste. (4-6 cloves for me)
Smoked sea salt to taste (unsmoked is fine also). (1-2tsp)
Black pepper to taste. (3-4tsp)
I added fresh squeezed juice from 1 lemon and started mixing. While mixing I slowly added in the reserved clam juice until I reach the desired chip dipping consistency. After tasting I ended up adding more fresh lemon juice (1/2) to taste.
It mixed up real nice and I could distinctly taste each ingredient, with the light smoke adding another great level of flavor!
I've had lots of clam dip but never a smokey one...it was dang good. The guys at work thought so also.
