Vegetable Grilling Sauce
For years now Indalita has been a pescetarian (or pesky-tarian!). In addition, she would probably like for me to grill everything outside. That way her kitchen stays clean, cool and orderly and I go in and out a hundred times.
Over the past several years I have learned to grill all kinds of things outside including Portobelo mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, new potatoes, corn, yellow squash, and garlic. It is hard to give good instructions on grilling vegetables. I have one word of advice - it takes about twice as long to cook the vegetables as it will take to cook the meat. Even when I am cooking chicken hindquarters, which take about 1-2 hours, I will start the vegetables 30 minutes to an hour before we intend to eat.
I usually like to baste the vegetables in a simple sauce to keep them moist and give them interest at the meal. I have had a ton of complements on the following “secret sauce” which is so easy it is almost embarrassing. Baste vegetables (and chicken or fish) every 5-10 minutes with the sauce.
Yield: about 1 cup of basting sauce
Ingredients:
1/4 cup soy sauce (make the trip to the local Asian market and buy the stuff you cannot read the label of - it makes an enormous difference - Down with Kikkoman!!)
1-2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs lemon juice
herbs - my favorite is fresh tarragon - it is easy to grow, a perennial, winter hardy and pleasant to look at. 1/4 cup of fresh, or 1 tbs dried, is a good place to start. Dill is also good (1/4 cup fresh, 1 tsp dried) or oregano (particularly when Italian sausage is on the menu.)
3-6 clv fresh garlic, crushed (or 1-2 tbs dried)
2 tsp cardamon (This is the secret ingredient. Most people will not recognize the spice, but it is outstanding here. You can buy it ground or if you go to the Indian grocery you can get it whole and grind it yourself in your coffee mill.)
2/3 cup very hot water (don’t stress on the amount, just get about a cup of finished material.) The hot water will help extract the herbs.
Instructions:
Allow the entire mixture to sit for about 10-15 minutes before you start grilling. Brush onto vegetables (split squash or eggplant in half and brush on the fleshy part.)