A journalist in this month’s Gourmet Traveller already called spherication dead. But there is a little trend to smoke unfamiliar ingredients these days. Betroot, for example, appeard in Masterchef Australia and I swear I have seen it somewhere else before. Smoked butter, smoked duck and what else?

This is an easy way to impart an extra layer of flavour to food. Place the food you want to smoke on a large plate. Heat up a small stainles steel pot to very hot. Warm a small ramikin with hot water and wipe it dry. Place the ingredients you want to turn into smoke in the ramikin and place it all on the same plate our food it sitting. Pour 50ml of grape seed or peanut oil in the hot pan – it should smoke immediately. Pour the oil into the ramikin and then cover the whole plate with a large glass bowl turned up-side-down. Let it sit for a few minutes.

I tried using some chinese tea the other day. I think traditionally you can use fine wood chips made for smoking. Asian flavours also call in a mix of rice and tea leaf. You can play around with pepper, coriander seeds and pretty much everything else that can burn.