Fast, Fresh & Green (23 page)

When I cut broccoli florets for a stir-fry, I first cut the florets away from the stem where they naturally separate from it. Then I take those florets and slice most of them in half (or even thirds). This does two things: It gives the floret one flat cut side, which will brown well, and it helps the floret to cook more quickly since it’s thinner.

Once you’re prepped, this is a quick one, so be sure the rest of your dinner is in the works before turning the burner on. I’d like some nice crispy chicken wings and legs with this, but this could be a great vegetarian entrée with some thick rice noodles.

1 TBSP OYSTER SAUCE

1½ TSP HOISIN SAUCE

1 TSP SOY SAUCE

1 TSP RICE WINE

¼ TSP CORNSTARCH

2 TBSP PEANUT OIL

1 SMALL ONION (
4 to 5 oz/115 to 140 g
),
cut into 1-in/2.5-cm dice or wedges

KOSHER SALT

6 OZ/170 G BROCCOLI FLORETS,
halved lengthwise

4 OZ/115 G CREMINI (
baby bella
) MUSHROOMS,
quartered

1 TBSP FINELY CHOPPED GARLIC

1
In a small bowl
, whisk together the oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, 1 Tbsp of water, and the cornstarch.

2
In a large (12-in/30.5-cm) nonstick stir-fry pan
, heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and turn the heat up to high. Cook, stirring, until the onion is broken up and the smaller pieces are just beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the broccoli, the mushrooms, and a pinch of salt. Stir well. Cook, stirring only occasionally, until the vegetables are all shrunken and browned in spots, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant and just beginning to brown lightly, 30 to 40 seconds. Take the pan off the heat and let it rest for 30 seconds. Using a silicone spatula, stir well as you add the sauce. Continue to stir as the sauce thickens and coats the vegetables, 10 to 20 seconds. Immediately transfer the vegetables to a serving dish to prevent the sauce from scorching.

Serves 3

It may seem strange to stir-fry, rather than sauté, Swiss chard, but I think the stir-fry pan is handy for cooking both the stems and the leaves (as well as for browning the nuts). Often recipes will call for just the leaves of Swiss chard, but I think it’s a shame to waste the stems. After separating them from the leaves, I slice the stems thinly. Then I cook them for about 5 minutes before adding the leaves, which only need a brief time in the pan. It makes me especially happy when those stems are the colorful orange, yellow, pink, and white ones of the Bright Lights variety of chard. I’m completely charmed by this colorful vegetable (which is now widely available), and I also like the slightly different flavors of the various colored leaves (yellow and orange are milder than red).

Chard can sometimes harbor a lot of grit, so unfortunately, you’ll need to take the time to wash it well and spin the leaves dry before cooking (though you can do this ahead and store the leaves in zip-top bags). One thing about this dish, cooked chard begins to release liquid as it sits—this isn’t a bad thing, as that liquid, enhanced with butter and balsamic, is delicious. It does mean, though, that I serve this in a bowl (either one large serving bowl or individual serving bowls) or with rice to soak up the liquid.

Like all greens, this dish would be delicious with polenta or a grain pilaf, but the deep, earthy flavors here would marry particularly well with a juicy steak.

1 TSP BALSAMIC VINEGAR

1 TSP SOY SAUCE

½ TSP DARK BROWN SUGAR

12 OZ/340 G BRIGHT LIGHTS SWISS CHARD
(do not trim)

1 TBSP PEANUT OIL

3 TBSP PINE NUTS

KOSHER SALT

2 TSP FINELY CHOPPED FRESH GARLIC

1 TBSP UNSALTED BUTTER

1
In a small bowl
, combine the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar.

2
Pull or cut the stems away
from the chard leaves. Cut or rip the leaves into 2- to 3-in/ 5- to 7.5-cm pieces and wash and dry them well. Rinse the stems and slice them crosswise into ¼-in/6.5-mm pieces.

3
Heat the peanut oil
in a large (12-in/30.5-cm) nonstick stir-fry pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot (it will loosen and spread out), add the pine nuts and cook, stirring almost constantly, until they’re all lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Watch carefully, because they brown quickly. Remove the pan from the heat and use a slotted spoon or spatula to transfer the pine nuts to a heat-proof plate or pan, leaving behind as much fat as possible.

4
Return the pan to the heat
, add the chard stems and a pinch of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until they’re shrunken and beginning to brown lightly, about 5 minutes. (They will begin to crackle in the pan as moisture evaporates.) Add the garlic and stir-fry just until fragrant, a few seconds. Add the chard leaves and 1/2 tsp salt and, using tongs, toss the chard leaves in the pan just until wilted (30 to 45 seconds). Scrape the balsamic mixture into the pan, stir, and remove the pan from the heat. Add the butter and toss and stir until it’s melted. Fold in half of the pine nuts. Transfer the chard (including all of the stems and liquid) to a small serving bowl and garnish with the remaining pine nuts.

Serves 2 to 3

METHOD: Grilling

EQUIPMENT: Gas grill, long-handled tongs, metal grill basket, trays or sheet pans, mixing bowls, foil

HEAT: The gas grill, cranked up

RECIPES:
Foundation Recipe for Grilling •
175

Grilled Green Beans with Thyme-Dijon Butter •
177

Grill-Roasted Bell Peppers with Goat Cheese and Cherry Tomato Dressing •
178

Sesame-Ginger Marinated Grilled Shiitakes •
180

Grilled Baby Potatoes with Creamy Lemon Dressing •
182

Grilled Asparagus with Grilled Prosciutto, Lemon, and Parmigiano •
184

Foil-Grilled Corn on the Cob with Maple Butter •
185

Grilled Broccoli Rabe with Lemon and Parmigiano •
187

Grilled Eggplant “Sandwiches” with Goat Cheese, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and Fresh Herbs •
188

You’ve got to love the grill. Once I cooked an entire meal on mine in the middle of a hurricane, because the electricity had gone out and I had a huge family gathering on my hands. I stood outside in my foul-weather gear and had a dandy time, even managing to find a spot on the grill to finish baking a vegetable gratin (it was delicious). But even under ordinary circumstances, I love how easy and fast the grill is, and that I don’t have to wash a pot or pan.

By grill, of course, I’m talking about a gas grill. I learned to grill on hardwood charcoal, and I still love it, but for speed and convenience (two things we care about in this book), the gas grill is it. Also, the slightly gentler, more moist heat of the gas grill is kinder to vegetables. And I like that, because I want you to get friendly with grilling vegetables. Over the years, a lot of folks have told me they get stuck in a grilling rut—all chicken breasts and hamburgers, all the time. Learning to cook a variety of vegetables on the grill will not only give you one more convenient weeknight vegetable-cooking technique, but it will also liven up your repertoire, including your entertaining menus.

Okay, here’s the skinny on grilling vegetables:

• First, get to know your grill. All grills have their own personality. Get to know where the hot spots are and just how hot the grill is when your knob is pointing to medium-high. One grill’s medium-high is another grill’s medium, which is why you might have to make slight adjustments to the timing in these recipes after making them once or twice. They’ve all been tested on at least two different grills, but yours may still run much hotter or cooler. When cooking a recipe for the first time, make a note in the book or on a piece of paper if, for instance, your zucchini slices aren’t well marked in 3 to 4 minutes on your medium-hot grill.

• Keep in mind that gas grills function best when covered. The lid allows the hot air that’s being generated at the burner level to convect all around the inside of the grill, helping food to cook evenly. Even though you will be cooking the vegetables in this chapter over direct heat (as opposed to indirect heat with a burner turned off), the vegetables will still benefit from hot air circulating around them.

• Be prepared before you start grilling. Have a grilling kit ready: good spring-loaded, longhandled tongs (I like Oxo’s), sheet pans on which to spread out sliced vegetables, a timer, an old dish towel or pot holder for handling hot stuff, a good wire-bristled brush for cleaning the grill before you start, and a grill basket (see below).

• For some veggies, a grill basket works best. These handy wok- or bowl-shaped containers are available in most housewares and kitchen stores. Cooking in one is a little like having your stir-fry pan on the grill. The baskets allow you to cook vegetables like green beans) that would otherwise fall through the cracks.

• Give your veggies their best shot. Slice or cut vegetables on the diagonal (so they’re longer and won’t fall through the grates) and to a thickness (often between 3/8 and 1/2 inch/9.5 mm and 1.25 cm) that will cook through in the same amount of time it takes to brown both sides. If you cut veggies too thick, they will still be unpleasantly raw on the inside when the outsides look done.

• Remember this trick for finishing vegetables (especially large mushrooms, onions, and eggplant) off the grill: Stack and wrap them in foil and let the residual heat cook them through. Grilled vegetables are not going to be crisp anyway, and the moist heat of the foil package simply allows for a much more tender, pleasant texture.

• No matter how you cook the veggies, make sure they’re well coated with olive oil. My grilling-guru friend Elizabeth Karmel puts hers in a zip-top bag to mix them with the oil—a great idea. I use one of my stainless-steel mixing bowls. Don’t worry if it looks like a lot of oil going on. Just toss the vegetables well and lift them out of the bowl; excess oil will be left behind. (And you can use that to toss with another veggie.) The purpose of the oil is to carry the heat around and through the vegetable. Without it, you will have a dry, undercooked, crispy critter.

Now to the good stuff—the recipes. In this chapter, you’ll learn a great way to grill corn on the cob, how to make delicious grilled potatoes, and how to turn grilled peppers into lovely salads or starters. You’ll also get recipes for grilling some more unusual vegetables, like broccoli rabe. Last (or first), this chapter presents you with a chart of grilling times and cuts for some popular vegetables, so you can improvise on a weeknight, if you like, or put together a platter for a party.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve put out a platter of grilled vegetables for a party, or taken one to a potluck, only to see them disappear before anyone digs into the potato salad nearby. People love grilled vegetables. This foundation recipe will allow you to assemble one of these platters, if you like, or it will just help you grill one of your favorite vegetables on a weeknight.

The key to this recipe is the table on
page 174
. The table provides prepping directions, temperatures, and approximate times for grilling ten popular vegetables. To keep things simple, all of these vegetables are ones that cook best directly on the grate. For vegetables like beans and broccoli raab that benefit from the grill basket, follow the recipes on
page 177
and
page 187
. I’ve included plum tomatoes in the chart, though I have to caution you that grilling tomatoes takes some getting used to, and they have their own karma. Relatively firm plum tomatoes that have been seeded will brown up nicely if cooked, cut side down, for several minutes. Then, when flipped over and moved to low heat, they will give off a lot of their remaining moisture and become very tasty. Sometimes, however, they just plain stick and fall apart, so cook them when you have a little time to mess around and not a lot of guests coming over.