Smoked Vegetable Salsa Food

SIMPLE SMOKED SALSA

Steps:

• Preheat the smoker to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C). Add wood chips according to manufacturer's directions.
• Place tomatoes, onion, jalapeno pepper, and garlic inside a disposable foil pan and place on the smoker rack. Smoke vegetables for 90 minutes.
• Transfer vegetables into the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add cilantro, lime juice, and salt. Pulse several times until vegetables are finely chopped; do not over-process. Serve at room temperature or refrigerate to let flavors meld.

SPICY BARBECUED RIB-EYE STEAKS WITH SMOKED VEGETABLE SALSA

Steps:

• Mix first 7 ingredients in medium bowl. Using fork, mash in garlic. Using 3 tablespoons spice mixture for each steak, rub spices onto both sides of steaks. Whisk corn oil into remaining spice mixture; set oil rub aside. Place steaks in two 13x9x2-inch glass dishes. Cover; chill steaks and oil rub at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.
• Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Brush steaks with some of oil rub. Grill steaks to desired doneness, brushing occasionally with oil rub, about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare; let stand 5 minutes. Serve with Smoked Vegetable Salsa .

SMOKED SALSA

Steps:

• Preheat a smoker grill to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Add wood chips according to manufacturer's directions.
• Combine tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and jalapeno peppers in an aluminum grill pan. Place on the grate of the preheated smoker grill; smoke for 3 hours.
• Remove vegetables from the smoker and place in a blender. Blend to desired consistency. Mix in lime juice, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Add fresh cilantro for decoration.

SMOKED VEGETABLE SALSA

Steps:

• Combine first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Add oil; toss gently to coat. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
• Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Arrange hickory chips in foil pie pan; place directly atop coals. Allow chips to begin smoking, about 10 minutes. Grill vegetables until tender, turning frequently, about 10 minutes for tomatoes, 20 minutes for chilies, onion, and bell pepper, and 35 minutes for garlic. Transfer vegetables to cutting board. Cool. Remove any loosened peel from tomatoes, chilies, and bell pepper. Peel garlic. Coarsely chop all vegetables; transfer to medium bowl. Mix in cilantro and cayenne pepper. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature before serving.)
• Also known as California chilies. Available at Latin American markets and many supermarkets.

SMOKED TOMATO SALSA

Steps:

• Make an aluminum foil "basket" to hold the food and fit in your smoker. You should have clearance on all four sides and the top.
• Place the tomatoes, garlic, jalepenos, and onion into the foil basket. If you like hotter salsa, leave the seeds in the jalepenos. Otherwise, take them out.
• Load your smoker with 2 to 4 tablespoons of wood chips. I use apple, but that's me.
• Assemble your smoker according to factory directions. The foil basket goes on top of the wire rack.
• Start the smoker on high, close up and turn to medium low. Same as always for the Cameron smoker.
• Cook for about 45 minutes. The tomatoes should soften, but not be mushy. It takes somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes to do this.
• Turn the smoker off and leave it closed. Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.
• Pour the liquid that accumulated in the foil basket into a small work bowl. Reserve for later. (Don't throw it out, the flavor is too good to toss.).
• Remove the garlic. If you didn't peel it, squeeze the garlic paste out of the peel. Mash.
• Reserve 1 tomato, all the chiles, and 1/4 cup onion. The chile flavor has infused into the tomatoes, so proceed with caution.
• Process the garlic, most of tomatoes and SOME of the onion until it reaches the desired texture (use food processor, batches in the blender, or immersion blender depending on what you have). If the mixture seems stiff, use some of the reserved cooking liquid to thin it down.
• TASTE. Add the smoked chiles in small batches to reach the desired heat level.
• TASTE. Add cilantro, lime juice and salt to taste. This is personal, and it will vary from batch to batch depending on how ripe the veggies were.
• Take the reserved vegetables and chop them finely. Add them to the processed salsa. This gives you 2 textures. If you want only one, then blend away.
• Add additional fresh chopped jalepeno and chopped green onions to taste. Or, leave them out.
• If the salsa turned out too hot, add about 1/2 tsp sugar. This will make it less hot tasting.
• Serve hot or cold with crispy tortilla chips and a cooling beverage.