« Have a great Fourth of July!!! | Main | Friday Funny- Hillbilly Mirror »
July 06, 2007
Grilled Summer Salad with Shrimp and Eggplant
I hope you all had a great Fourth of July!
My menu planning for yesterday was dictated by the 116º scorcher we had. You know me- I love to take a day to smoke a big ol' hunk of meat, but after a day outside sunnin' and funnin', the last thing I wanted to do was spend a lot of time over a hot grill.
So... with operating parameters set, what to make? On hand- shrimp, leftover brown rice, tomatoes, a red onion, cilantro and a globe eggplant. Easily obtained at the market- red bell peppers, anaheim chiles, lemons, and jalapenos. Aha! I have a plan...
I cut the eggplant in wedges, removing about half the skin and salting them fairly liberally, then cut the peppers into wedges, too. Into a one gallon ziploc bag they went with the red onion, with an obscene amount of crushed garlic, some Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, a spash of Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco, and some kosher salt and black pepper. I left them at room temperature to marinate while I tossed the shrimp into another bag with some more garlic (okay, a lot more) and plenty of Survival Spice™, which absolutely rocks on grilled shrimp.
All that was left to prep was to concasse some roma tomatoes, and clean some cilantro. Into a work bowl they went.
I built a hot fire with pecan wood, and let it settle down a bit. Once everything was marinated, I emptied the bag of veggies onto the hot grill, then went about getting some serious color on the veggies. The eggplant got special attention, blackening the skins and filling the eggplant wedges with tons of pecan flavor.
Once the veggies had great color, but were still between al dente and fully cooked, I took them off the grill, chopping them coarsely and adding them to the cilantro, brown rice and tomatoes already in the work bowl. I added a glug of Tibrtini Novello, about half a lemon's worth of juice, and seasoned to taste.
While that sat, I grilled off the shrimp at high heat just long enough to change the color, and squeezed some lemon juice on them before I took them off the grill.
Plated it up, and man did it hit the spot. Light, but huge flavors, and just the right temperature on a scorching day.
Try this technique with whatever you have on hand. It's the perfect summer meal.
Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at July 6, 2007 09:01 AM
Filed under: Recipes/Techniques
| Salads
| Seafood
| Survival Spice™
| Vegetables
Comments
That sounds really really tasty.
Posted by: Ana at July 8, 2007 07:15 PM
It was great, Ana. I'm a big fan of creating dishes with what's on hand, and the eggplant grilled up a lot better than I thought it might.
Posted by: the pragmatic chef™ at July 8, 2007 07:55 PM
Your on-hand dishes have come a long way since the days of glop!
Posted by: Mark VanKirk at July 10, 2007 12:56 PM