My friend Cam asked me to do a post on unusual grilling options for Memorial Day. Being me, I slacked off until the day before I needed to post and then panicked. When I’m short on ideas I tend to scroll through my Google Reader, which is loaded up with amazing foodie and ag blogs. I have an NPR food feed in there and this is how I discovered the delightful blog Sporkful.
I, in my newly vegetarian state, was considering such passe grilled foods as cumin eggplant, teryaki portobello caps, or cayenne and olive oil corn. The fine folks at Sporkful were being much more creative. Here is their take on a vegetarian barbecue:
Here are two vegetarian barbecue options that go well beyond veggieburgers and grilled vegetables. Oddly, I first tasted both on a meat-filled trip to Argentina. — Mark Garrison, TheSporkful.com
Jason Gardner/TheSporkful.comYes, you can barbecue an egg.
Barbecued Eggs
Argentine engineering makes it possible to cook an egg over the coals without a mess, and you’ve never tasted eggs so smoky and delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 large bell pepper, the bigger the better
- 2 eggs
- Hot sauce, salt and black pepper to taste
Directions
You’ll need the bell pepper to sit stably on the grill, or else the raw egg will spill out and make a tragic mess. Place the pepper flat on your cutting board and slice in half parallel to the board. Scrape out the seeds and placenta (yup, that’s really what it’s called), being careful not to pierce the outer wall.
Crack an egg into each half of the pepper. Try to distribute the egg into the whole cavity.
Place the filled pepper over the hottest part of the grill. It tastes best with the pepper’s skin charred. Close the grill. If you’re going to eat it with a knife and fork, cooking it to over-easy is fine. But if you’re going to serve it as finger food, cook it a bit longer, so you don’t have a runny yolk. It’s great on its own, but better still with hot sauce, salt and a little black pepper on top.
Grilled Provolone
Ingredients
- Provolone cheese, sliced about ¾ inch thick
- 1 Tbsp oregano
- 1 Tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
- Olive oil
Directions
Let the cheese slab sit and come to room temperature. Rub a thin layer of olive oil on it. Then press in oregano on both sides, adding red pepper flakes if you want a bit of heat.
The fastest and smokiest way would be to put it directly on the grill over the coals. But if you’re a minute late pulling it off, you’ve got a gooey mess all over your grill. Best bet is to put a layer of aluminum foil over the grill, or watch it very carefully.
Cook it until it’s a hot, gooey puddle of melty, cheesy joy. No need to flip it. Serve it hot with crackers, crusty bread or all by itself.