GoodEating: Grilled Bread Salad
Author: Kenji Lopez-Alt (41 Articles)
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is a contributing editor for Cooks Illustrated Magazine, runs a private chef business, KA Cuisine, and writes a weekly column on burgers and food science for SeriousEats.com. He is also an occasional co-host of America's Test Kitchen . Kenji holds a BS from MIT and lives with his wife in Harlem.
This is my favorite kind of recipe: the non-recipe recipe. It’s the kind that – like never getting involved with possessed people – is more of a guideline than a rule.
The idea is simple: take some stale bread, a few of the best vegetables you can find, grill it all, and toss it with an herby dressing to make a warm, fresh, tany salad. Like in a good panzanella, the bread soaks up all the wonderful juices from the vegetable, and inevitably ends up as the most flavorful part of the dish.
To start with, you’ll need some bread. Any good, sturdy kind will do, including a baguette, a big sourdough loaf, or even a nice chewy flatbread, like pita, or the homemade naan you made last week on the grill and cleverly stored well-wrapped in foil in the freezer for just this type of occasion.
Additionally, you’ll need some vegetables. Again, and good, sturdy, grillable kind will do. This is late summer, so I’m going with zucchini, red onions, and red peppers – all cheap, easy choices at the farmers market. Small firm eggplants, sweet onions or scallions, large meaty mushrooms, and even some cabbages like baby bok choy, are all good contenders as well. Anything that will become tender, but keep its shape on the grill. Go to the farmer’s market, talk to the farmers, and take their advice on what’s best that day.
Finally, for the dressing, I’m using a simple vinaigrette that I keep in my fridge at all times: a three to one mix of olive oil and vinegar (I use a mix of red wine, balsamic, and sherry vinegars), with about a tablepoon of dijon mustard, a tablespoon of water, and a clove of microplaned garlic for every cup of dressing, seasoned with salt and pepper. Stored in a squeeze bottle in the fridge, it’ll keep forever, and be ready at a moments notice to shake and squirt.
The process is as simple as the ingredients list.
Firstly, cut your bread into slices thick enough that they won’t fall through the grill grates, but not so thick that you wouldn’t want to put them in your mouth. If you’re using a flatbread, you’re already good to go. For the vegetables, the normal procedure is to cut them into cubes to grill, but I find that method rather clumsy. Instead, I prefer to cut them into large, flat pieces to make them easier to handle on the grill, and cut them smaller only after they’ve come off. Here’s a basic guide:
Eggplants, zucchinis, squashes: Cut them lengthwise into 3/4 inch planks.
Lettuces/cabbages, like radicchio, endive, or bok choy: Cut them into halves or quarters (removing the core), then hold all the leaves together with skewers inserted horizontally.
Onions: Cut them parallel to their equator into 3/4-inch slices. Keep the slices together with a couple skewers.
Peppers: Stem and seed them, then cut them lengthwise into two or three pieces so that they lay relatively flat.
Mushrooms: Stem, and keep whole.
When your veg and bread are prepped, light a full chimney’s worth of coals. When they are hot, spread two-thirds of them over one side of the grill, and the remaining third on the other side. If you are using gas (and why would you be?), turn half the burners to high, and the rest to medium-low.
Brush all of your bread and vegetables with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Place the bread over the cooler side, and the vegetables over the hotter side, then keep a careful eye on everything. The goal is to get the bread lightly charred, and the vegetables tender, and nicely colored. You may have to work in batches if you’ve got a lot of veg.
Transfer everything to a large cutting board as it finished, where your best chum, armed and ready with a sharp knife, will proceed to chop everything into large, bite-sized chunks, and toss them into the large bowl that your second-best chum is standing by with.
Shake up your dressing, and add it to the salad until everything looks well-lubricated. Toss, taste for seasoning, and eat.
Editor’s Note: As with most things edible, a few fancy touches don’t hurt none, so if you have the pantry or the inclination for it, you could do worse than to add a handful of chopped fresh herbs of your choice, some leftover meat (shredded or cut into small cubes), some cheese, or some good cured meat like prosciutto, chorizo, or a salame, cut into little chunks. Leftovers were created for a reason. Make use of them.
Fri, Oct 23, 2009
Food Enjoyment, Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes