Recipes of the Week: Grilled Mushrooms with Tarragon Vinaigrette and Smoked Devilled Eggs

Grilled Mushrooms with Tarragon Vinaigrette

Makes 24 individual portions or 4 to 6 skewers

This is great as a hot starter, or cooled and served as part of an appetizer platter. If you want to get fancy, alternate the mushrooms with chunks of veggies on skewers for a nice side dish.

1/2 cup | 125 mL extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp | 45 mL white wine vinegar or tarragon vinegar
1 Tbsp | 15 mL Dijon mustard
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, smashed or finely minced
1 tsp | 5 mL dried crumbled tarragon leaves
1 Tbsp | 15 mL fresh lemon juice
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
24 medium-sized white or brown button mushrooms


Optional for skewers:
chunks of mixed vegetables, including red onion, zucchini,
Japanese eggplant, red, green or yellow bell peppers,
cherry tomatoes, etc.)

Preheat the grill on medium-high for 5 or 10 minutes, or until the chamber temperature rises above 500°F | 260°C. Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, shallot, garlic, tarragon, and lemon juice. Season the vinaigrette to taste with salt and pepper.

Toss the mushrooms or veggies in the vinaigrette. If you’re making kebabs, place the veggies on the skewers. Place them on the grill and leave the heat on medium-high. Cook the vegetables for 6–8 minutes, turning them once or twice, or until they are heated through and starting to brown around the edges.

Remove them from the heat and transfer them to a serving dish. Squeeze more lemon over the mushrooms or veggie kebabs and season them with more salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil, if you like.


The Deviled Eggs Went Down to Georgia

Makes 2 dozen deviled eggs

You don’t see much of this old-school appetizer, but smoking the eggs makes it modern again.

12 eggs
1/2 cup | 50 mL Chipotle and Roasted Garlic Aïoli (see recipe below)
1 Tbsp | 15 mL Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp | 25 mL finely chopped cilantro
1 lemon
1 tsp | 5 mL paprika
sprigs cilantro, for garnish

Choose eggs that are at least a few days old (fresh eggs are harder to peel). Put them in a pot of lukewarm water with a bit of vinegar added.

Bring the water to a boil and at the moment the water starts boiling, remove the pot from the heat. Cover the post, and leave the eggs in the water for 15 minutes. Cool the eggs under cold running water and peel them. Prepare your smoker for barbecuing, bringing the temperature up to 200–220˚F |  95–100˚C.

Place the peeled eggs on the cooking grate and smoke them for about half an hour using hickory, maple, or oak as the flavoring agent. Sprinkle them lightly with dry rub if you want a little more flavor. The eggs will turn an amber color. Let them cool.

Slice them in half lengthwise and remove the yolks, setting the whites aside. In a nonreactive bowl, mash the yolks with a fork and add the aïoli, mustard, and cilantro, along with the juice of half the lemon. Mix these ingredients together thoroughly and spoon or pipe the mixture back into the egg whites. Sprinkle the deviled eggs with paprika and garnish them with cilantro sprigs and lemon slices.

Margie’s Chipotle and Roasted Garlic Mayo

This invention of Calgary caterer Margie Gibb is particularly good as a dip for pieces of smoked or grilled sausage, but it’s also great on just about anything.

11/2 cups | 375 mL mayonnaise
1 whole head roasted garlic, cloves squeezed
out of their skins
1 tsp | 5 mL finely ground cumin (preferably made
from toasted cumin seeds)
1 Tbsp | 15 mL chopped chipotles in adobo sauce
(add more chipotle if you like it hot)