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Grilling vegetables will bring out
qualities you won’t get any other way.
What you do for grilling vegetables outside
on the grill, whether charcoal or gas? How do you cut them,
how do you wrangle them, how do you prep them, do you like to
put sauce on them, do you sprinkle oil or paint it on? Perhaps
you like to cook them a little bit first in the microwave before
putting them on the grill to be sure they are actually cooked
through.
What technique to use? When vegetables
were just an afterthought, people would chop them up small and
put them on the grill, and that wouldn’t work well because they
would fall through. So you had to buy that strange contraption,
a piece of metal about a foot square that had holes in it. All
that really did when you lay it on top of the grill was give you
a skillet, so you were really just sweating the vegetables.
More recent techniques involve cutting the vegetables larger so
they can support themselves on the grill.
Prepping vegetables before putting them on
the grill: put a little olive oil on them, but season after
they are grilled.
We’ve gotten used to preparing bell peppers
by charring them on top of the stove, and you can do that just
as easily on the grill. Or, instead of charring a pepper, just
cut the pepper in half and turn it upside down and cook it from
the inside which will soften it up, then turn it over and char
the outside. It gives a different taste.
Why not do similarly with other
vegetables? Recently Paula Deen did a strange grill. She cut a
tomato in half, turned it upside down, grilled the bottom on the
grill, then turned it over and covered it with bread crumbs and
cheese and grilled it again from the bottom: very nicely grilled
provençale tomatoes.
Someone suggested taking a big potato, cut
it in quarter-inch slices, just grill it in slices. A recent
magazine article suggested grilling chunks of potato on a
skewer, a potato kebab! If you use a skewer, you can take these
items that take a little longer to cook. Slip some rosemary, or
a sage leaf, with the potatoes. Why not turnips? Or radishes?
Yes, grilled radishes. The grill isn’t only for meat any more.
GRILLED PIZZA
The
other night I roasted vegetables and then put those onto a
pizza, so it didn’t take so long to cook the pizza. When you
make pizza inside, you’ve got to fire up the oven really hot, so
it makes sense to use the grill instead. On the Food Channel, I
saw someone put raw pizza dough, squashed flat, right on the
grill. Cook it for 4 minutes on the grill, turn it over, then
put the toppings on it. I did that the other night, using a
pizza crust that’s already made, it comes in a tube, it’s
Pillsbury, and it worked perfectly. I was delighted to find
that dough, because making pizza dough from scratch takes me
five hours!
A
caller form Downs reported that it doesn’t have to take five
hours to make your own pizza dough, she can do it in 30
minutes. This is her quick recipe:
-
1½
cups flour (all-purpose)
-
1
tsp salt
-
2
tsps instant dried yeast
-
1½
cups hottest tap water
-
2
Tbsps olive oil
-
more flour
Place
the 1½ cups of flour, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a food
processor. Pulse the food processor just to mix. Pour in the
hot water until it mixes together, then turn off, do not overmix.
It will be a batter.
Add
the olive oil and process again a little bit Then start adding
flour just until it masses on the blade and turns into dough,
then stop. It will be very soft and gooey.
Turn
it out and knead it just to bring it together, then let rise for
half an hour. Makes two good-sized pizzas. You can use part
whole-wheat flour if you like. You can also use the same recipe
to make focaccia: give it a 10-minute rise in a really warm
place, take out and top it and then give it the thirty-minute
rise.
MANGOES AND OTHER FRUIT
A
caller from Urbana has a son who has started growing mangoes,
Kent mangoes with gorgeous orange flesh and almost no fiber.
Her son asked the caterer to grill mangoes as part of his recent
wedding reception; they sliced them alongside the pit and left
the skin on, and the fruit ended up quite soft and very tasty.
Grilling changes the texture and the taste. Now if only she
could persuade markets here to label what kind of mango they
sell, since mangoes, like apple, come in quite different
varieties. She cannot, by sight, tell the difference from the
outside, between the Kent and the Tommy Atkins varieties.
You
can grill almost any kind of fruit, especially using a skewer.
Pineapple slices would be great: the sugars will caramelize,
which will definitely change and enhance the flavor. Something
similar happens with grilled vegetables; there are some sugars
in them so you get some caramelization.
The
caller has also seen information about grilling avocado: use a
greener one so that it doesn’t turn into mush. Peel it and cut
it in half, don’t make it any smaller; or perhaps grill with the
skin still on.
WHAT TYPE OF GRILL?
When we talk about grilling, I assume we mean outside on the
charcoal or gas grill. But Emeril does it in his studio on an
indoor grill. See
http://store.foodnetwork.com/shop/product.asp?product_code=MER5183
A
caller from Gibson City has a charcoal grill at the end of its
life and is debating whether to go with charcoal or gas for the
new one. Any suggestions? Doyle recommends a charcoal grill,
using real charcoal, not briquettes. A good old Weber grill is
hard to beat, and is not expensive. Real charcoal is available
at Menard’s and at Schnuck’s. It burns beautifully, clearer.
Real charcoal is just chunks of wood that are burned; some
people make their own. Do NOT put lighter fluid on it.
A
caller from Champaign County offered this technique for lighting
coals without using lighter fluid: take an old-fashioned coffee
can and punch a couple of holes in it, crumple up one sheet of
newspaper and put briquettes on top of it, so you’ve got a
chimney to start the charcoal. The holes go in the bottom so
air can come in, in the lower edge around the side. Hold it
with a pair of pliers. Or go to Menards and get one with a
handle for $7.50. A caller from Champaign clarified the
technique: take both the top and bottom off the coffee can, so
that it’s a tube. Before you take the bottom off, take a
regular beer can opener and punch holes around the lower side
edge. You can attach a hanger to it to use as a handle. You
set it down on the grill and put in the newspaper and coals.
When the coals are hot, just lift the tube off. This chimney
works faster than lighter fluid.
A
caller from Woodford County reports that he also grills with a
Weber kettle and has started using an electric starter. After a
while it just burns up and you need a new one, though.
A
caller from Downs loves roasted pepper, and uses a chimney
starter this way: she puts a pepper on top when it’s starting,
which concentrates the heat and cooks the pepper quickly.
The
cooking technique that does well is “two-level”: put fire on
one side of the grill, leave the other side with no fire. Sear
items over the fire, then move them over to the other side to
cook by indirect heat. If you use a gas grill, you can do the
two-level cooking with one burner turned to high and the other
to low.
OKRA
A
caller from Orfordsville, IN asked about grilling okra. She
loves raising okra because it never gets too hot for it, but not
everyone likes okra. Grilling might make it more appealing to
those who don’t think they like it. Doyle thinks it should work
well, and suggests looking in Indian cooking magazines because
they use okra a lot. You want to get rid of the ropy taste, but
that could be done on the grill.
Try
this recipe:
http://www.foodfit.com/cooking/archive/recipe1_sept01.asp#recipe1
which uses twin bamboo skewers to hold the okra. Or here is an
Indian-style recipe using garlic and cumin
http://www.ivu.org/recipes/extras/grilled.html , which is
called bindi.
MUSHROOMS
A
caller from Champaign County uses a “cheater” recipe he
discovered when grilling chicken using Walkerswood Jerk Paste.
Take some mushrooms and follow the directions on the can for a
marinade: use cider vinegar and oil and soy sauce or
Worcestershire and just throw them on the grill; it doesn’t
taste like anything else.
SWEET POTATOES
A
caller from Woodford County reports grilling sweet potatoes: we
cut them in half, put a pat of butter in them and roll up in
aluminum foil. While waiting for the grill to get hot enough
for hamburger and steaks it’s time enough to cook them.
CORN
Corn is a great grill food. In Mexico they grill and char it a
little, and top it with a mixture of cream and shaved Parmesan
cheese with a sprinkle of chile powder. Another technique is to
soak the corn in cold water and put unhusked ears on the grill
and let the husk burn. When you pull it off you get a very smoky
but steamed ear of corn. The sugar in the corn caramelizes.
BEETS
A
caller from Urbana says that grilling beets is fantastic.
People who don’t like beets will like it. Slice them about ¼
inch to 3/8 inch thick, toss with olive oil and salt and pepper,
and put them on indirect heat, low and slow. After they’ve
cooled, use them in a salad with mixed greens, roasted pecans,
feta cheese, and mustard vinaigrette, it’s very nice.
IDAHO POTATOES
A
caller from Lafayette, Indiana prepares Idaho potatoes on the
grill. You parboil the potatoes about 10 minutes beforehand,
then cut them longways into 3/8-inch slabs, brush with a mixture
of oil with crushed garlic, dried oregano, dried basil, and a
little cayenne. Sear it up and you’ve got flavorful slabs. |
