Grilled Courgette, Aubergine & Other Summery Things

My favorite day of the year, now that I'm an ex-pat, might be the first day that it's actually warm enough to sleep with the window open. Where we need to sleep with the window open because it's that hot outside. There's something about the cold, damp weather in the UK that seems to get under my skin more expertly than the cold & damp in Oregon or New York.



I get so happy about the warm weather that I feel inspired to do whimsical things like photograph my sheets drying in the sun. But the hot, sunny weather never seems to last that long in these parts...


The meal that I was totally hooked on last week when it was summer was a simple feast of roasted Mediterranean vegetables: zucchini (courgette), eggplant (aubergine) and tomatoes (toe-MAH-toe) - piled onto a slice of wholemeal bread with a slab of grilled halloumi cheese. You can grill these in the oven, but doing it over an open flame is ten times better. We rarely get to cook with fire, the way we've done since the dawn of time, and I'm an old-fashioned kind of girl who loves her caveman-style meal prep.

Halloumi is a fresh cheese made from goat and sheep's milk, originally from Palestine. It has a high melting point, so you can grill it. Don't salt it, though, as it has plenty on its own. In fact, you might want to take some of the salt out: take the cheese out of its package, rinse, and set in a bowl of cool water to cover for 15 minutes; then discard the water, rinse and repeat; do this soak several times to help remove some of the salt. As someone who's into eastern medicine, and who's predominant element is fire, I shouldn't eat too much salt, so this trick helps (salt is heating).



Roasted Summer Vegetables and Halloumi

You'll need:
1 package of haloumi cheese, sliced into pieces 1 cm thick
1 or 2 eggplants/aubergines; 1 or 2 zucchini/courgettes; 2 tomatoes; other nice vegetables to use: large shiitake or portobello mushrooms, onions, corn on the cob, asparagus...
Herbal oil: 1/4 cup good olive oil, into which you can put: 1 minced or crushed garlic clove; salt and fresh ground pepper; and herbs of your choice. We had sage, thyme and oregano.

Make the herby oil ahead of time so the flavours infuse. Instead of slicing the tomatoes and having the juice go everywhere, I cut out the tops so as to make a little funnel into the centre of the tomatoes for the herbal oil. Slice the eggplant and courgette in long strips from end to end, about 1 cm thick, and lay them out on a baking tray or flat plates. Brush them on both sides with the oil (I don't soak the veg in the oil the way one might do with some meats; they'll soak it up and become little grease bags) and let them sit for a while, maybe 30 minutes while you get the grill going.

The next part, Colm did, so this is guesswork; but basically, once the fire has died down and the coals are nice and hot, put your veggies on the racks and grill them until they start to blacken a bit but not too much; you know, barbecue them.

Grill the haloumi until it gets the nice grill lines and starts to brown. Slice some bread, put a tomato on it (or half of one), smoosh it on the bread and put a piece of haloumi on top. As for the other veggies, I just eat them straight: this, to me, is perfect.

Note: the herbal marinade contributes essential flavour and moisture to the vegetables here, so don't skimp on the herbs, garlic, minced shallot or spring onion...whatever you like. Basil would be lovely in there too. If you don't eat cheese, or bread, then just take that part out and enjoy what you can eat here - all elements were amazing on their own, but some make great combinations.

Tomatoes, garlic, halloumi and eggplant are too heating and/or oily for Pitta, so Pitta-types shouldn't have this all the time. But the courgettes, asparagus, corn on the cob and shiitake mushrooms that we also brushed with oil and grilled were absolutely amazing, and those are fine for Pitta.