Even though I’m still dreaming of yachts and stingrays, it feels good to be back home and standing in front of the stove again.
I guess two weeks off of cooking made me a little over ambitious though, and I took the “standing in front of the stove” a little too literally with this side dish. Let me explain.
When pondering over the contents of our CSA this week, I was pretty excited with the idea of grilling the large Japanese eggplants and various zucchinis. Our grill, however, is lodged in the back corner of our garage and is covered in sawdust (project reveal coming soon), and thus I decided to go with the second best option: using our cast iron grill pan on the stove.
I meticulously sliced the eggplant and zucchini, thrilled to taste that even raw, the eggplant had absolutely no bitterness to it. I oiled up my grill pan, and put a single layer of eggplant pieces drizzled with more olive oil for good measure, on top. And then I waited the appropirate 5-7 minutes until the underside was nicely charred before using my tongs to flip each piece individually. And then another 5 minutes passed while the remaining side indented itself with grill marks. These pieces got transfered to a bowl.
That was batch number one. Looking over the heap of eggplant and zucchini that remained, I realized I was in for about an hour worth of individually placing and turning and grilling each lovely vegetable slice. Was it worth it? Yes.
Did I do yoga inbetween while I waited for the next flip? Absolutely.
What’s more important than the labor that went into the cooking of these vegetables was that we got to share the meal with our good friend Sean, who lives in New York but finally made it back to Madison after a year of being MIA. So that’s that. No complaints.
- 2 medium-sized Japanese eggplants, sliced into ½ inch rounds
- 3-4 medium-sized zucchini and/or squash, sliced into ½ inch rounds
- olive oil
- Kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons za'atar
- Whether you're using a grill or just a grill pan, the key to getting the vegetables nice and tasty is lots and lots of olive oil. If using a pan, you can heat the oil in the pan before placing the slices on top. With a grill, make sure you brush the vegetable slices generously with olive oil before grilling.
- Grill vegetables in a single layer, working in batches if needed, until they're soft and nicely charred. Salt the vegetables as you go. Flip and cook on other side. Transfer to a bowl and continue until all slices are cooked.
- In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients for vinagrette. Drizzle over vegetables right before serving.
Recipe adapted from David Liebovitz.
Worth the effort! Such a delicious looking plate of veggies. : ) Thank you for sharing!
writes Crystal | Apples & SparkleThanks Crystal!
writes Vicky[…] preparations. Since we’ve been getting so much of it in our CSA lately, I’ve been grilling them, or making terrines, or just roasting them and pouring sauces on top. In all these meals, the […]
writes Eggplant Fries with Marinara Sauce | Things I Made Today[…] been getting so much of it that I’ve had to. There’s been the eggplant fries, the grilled version with za’atar, and roasted with yogurt tahini sauce. And that’s just in the last two months. There’s […]
writes Japanese Eggplant with Ginger and Scallions | Things I Made Today[…] have imagined. When we hit that point in the summer, you’ll have so many options. You can grill them, bake them, make them into fritters or terrines, or cook them down into […]
writes Zucchini Gazpacho - Things I Made Today