Smoked Chicken.

This dish started off being Julie Sahni's Tandoori Chicken recipe. It still is to the extent that the chicken pieces are marinaded in a brew of yoghurt, coriander, cumin, ginger and kari leaves but the meat is smoked slowly at a low temperature. I have experimented with different smoking materials and have settled on two: cherry wood for its gentle, fruity flavor with very little tanin, and more recently, the shells from pistachio nuts. When I make pesto, I use pistachio nuts instead of pinoli. The shells are saved and soaked in water before a smoking session. Being wet and starved of oxygen in the smoke box, they just smolder instead of burning up in an instant, providing lots of flavorful smoke. Not surprisingly, they impart a gentle, nutty flavor to the meat. So Julie Sahni's recipe has taken on a whole extra dimension. It takes about three hours to do a batch at 150 degrees F. The snap peas were coated with oil, hot pepper and a little rice vinegar and seared briefly over the coals in a perforated tray so the smoke could flavor them too.