Smoked Heirloom Tomatoes

Finally got the BBQ working today. I thought I was out of gas but it turned out the regulator was being sensitive and cut off the flow of gas to the burners. Everything is fine now and we're getting ready to grill sausages and sweet corn for a late summer supper.

I also wanted to smoke something (I am sorry I should be clear. I wanted to smoke some food not a cigarette or a joint or anything like that). I haven't done it on the BBQ before. I have smoked some salmon in a covered pan on the stove and it turned out great.

I took some wood chips and soaked them in water for an hour and then I wrapped them in aluminum foil, leaving an opening on top for the smoke to escape. I placed it under the grill on top of the gas burner and set the temperature to medium. In about 15 minutes it started to smoke. At first just small puffs of smoke floated from the foil, but within a few minutes the BBQ was full of smoke and I felt like I was sitting around a campfire.

I laid the tomatoes on the far right side of the BBQ on the upper grill as far from the heat as possible and waited for about 10 minutes. They did not cook but simply absorbed some of the smoke.

Now I'll slice them and drizzle them with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. If I had some mozzarella I would have smoked that too, but not tonight.