Eggplant Disaster

[Loquitur]

I was given three large garden eggplants and decided to grill them as the base of a modified eggplant parmigiana. So I peeled them, purged them and grilled them on the KK direct, no smoke, until they had nice marks and were soft, and put them in the frig for a couple of days. Then I layered the grilled slices with seasoned ricotta, mozzarella, pecorino romano and fresh tomato sauce from my garden tomatoes and, due to inclement weather, baked it in my kitchen oven.

Yuk!!! It tasted like I was biting straight into the Wicked Weekend Warrior lump. I'm incredibly surprised by this because I like burny, charry flavor on grilled meats and I'm on my 3rd bag of this charcoal.

I'm wondering if I did something wrong or if this is just the propensity of an eggplant to absorb surrounding flavors. Or maybe my not using the grilled slices right away allowed the charcoal flavors to intensify to such a distasteful level?

All was not lost. I turned it into an 8 quart pot of soup with lots of onions, garlic, italian sausage, roasted red peppers, cannillini beans, spinach and chicken stock. Despite all these distractions, the heavy charcoal taste is still there though diluted enough now to be edible.

Other than baked potatoes, which I've done both direct and indirect and which have all come out terrific, this is the first veg I've done on the KK.

Susan

[mguerra]

Careful

I have found that you want to do a quick, fairly high heat grill, on vegetables. You just want a slight smoke taste, just enough to detect. This way your taste buds will know the veg was on a grill, but no more. If they spend any extended period on the grill, they get too smoky. Once I cooked some asparagus for a while with the lid shut, they were absolutely inedible, like pure smoke. And I love heavy smoke. Also on vegetables, cook with the lid open! Alternatively some veg you can foil while cooking to keep the smoke off. I haven't tried baked potatoes, not sure how to do them correctly.

[Firemonkey]

I've done eggplant on the grill many times, lots of other vegetables too, and they were good. You definitely dont want to add any kind of smoke to the fire, because as you have found, vegetables absorb much more than meat.

I do eggplant, zucchine and yellow squash all the same way. Roast it direct over a hot fire. Zucchini and yellow squash tend to get softer as they get more cooked, eggplant gets a golden, sort of crisp crust on the outside. I cooked them at about 425, until they were golden, then flipped and browned the other side too.

I cut them into about 3/4 to 1" slices, salt with kosher salt and leave on a rack for about 30 minutes to drain. Rinsed quickly, dried, lightly sprayed with olive oil from a sprayer, then lightly salt/peppered them.

I can think of 2 possible culprits for your issue...first, was your fire all the way hot before you added them? Charcoal smokes until its fully burning. I dont ever grill vegetables alone, so the fire has been going a while before they ever hit the grill. Also, I never have leftovers when I do an eggplant, but the refrigerator may have amplified your smokiness? I have noticed that left over squash has a slightly different taste than fresh off the grill. Its not a drastic as you describe, certainly edible, but something to consider. Maybe try a piece fresh off the grill next time?

What temp did you use? A hot fire or something lower?

Doc, baked potatoes are the BEST on the grill. Just wipe them with olive oil, shake some kosher or sea salt over them, and put them on a 400 degree grill until they are done - Anywhere from 45 to 60 mins depending on the size. You will have to roll them over half way through, and i like to use the outer edge of the fire basket for mine, not right over the red hot center, and not on the perimeter, just over the fringe of the fire.

Goes perfect with a nice steak off the KK!

[Loquitur]

Thanks Doc and Firemonkey. Being new to charcoal cooking, I had no idea veggies woud be treated differently from meats and thought my problem was particular to eggplant, which I know acts like a sponge. I would never have guessed this to happen to asparagus! I'm very glad to know!!

I guess I did about everything wrong. I had the fire at about 325 and put the eggplant on as soon as it came to temp. And I also had the lid closed alot of the time. I normally wouldn't be grilling veggies in advance but I had some extra time and wanted to take advantage of firing up the KK for steaks, so I thought I'd be efficient and do the eggplant first and put it away for later when I had time to do the whole dish.

One of my favorite veggie dishes for the gas grill is sliced zucchini and small button mushrooms tossed in EVOO, S&P and grilled in a grill pan with holes in the bottom. I will try that next over high heat with the lid open, after the steaks are cooked and resting.

Susan