Thank you for smoking

I have always loved anything that's smoked - nuts, garlic, pork, beef, cheese and particularly seafood. Originally used as a way of preserving food, smoking remains a technique for adding flavour. And what fabulous flavours they are - dusky, complex and exciting. The tar-like substances from wood smoke are deposited on the food and the flavour penetrates. It's particularly useful for fatty foods as a resistant layer is formed, sealing it from the air and averting rancidity. The smoky flavour also cuts through the richness of fatty foods.

The discovery is likely to have resulted when meat or fish was hung over a fire to accelerate the drying process, with the pleasant flavour a lucky side effect. Smoking has been practised in many parts of the world and goes back as early as 3500BC. Smoking over an open fire is effective but better results are achieved by using an enclosed space to concentrate the smoke.

Fish can be cold-smoked (usually in temperatures not above 29 degrees Fahrenheit) or hot-smoked (temperatures can be well above 100 degrees) when the fish is partly or entirely cooked.

Many choices of wood are available (hard woods are best), with each lending a different flavour to what is being smoked. Jeremy and I use a small electric smoker for trout or kingfish. It's incredibly easy to use and allows great control. A simple smoking box filled with wood chips and sitting in an enclosed barbecue is another type of apparatus suitable for domestic use.

There's an easier way.

The Chinese are renowned for tea smoking and in some provinces it's an everyday feature of the diet. The method is very simple - all you need is a wok, cover, steaming rack, foil, rice, brown sugar and, of course, tea.