Salt and Pepper Grilled Vegetables with Bi-Color Corn “Confetti”

By Bill St John

Serves 4-6, depending on portion size or use (for example, in a sandwich or atop steamed rice). The list of vegetables here is simply suggestive. You may choose as you desire; most any vegetable is grillable.

Ingredients

  • 1 each medium-to-large zucchini, yellow summer squash, and longish eggplant

  • 1 each red and orange (or yellow) bell pepper

  • 1 long hot chile pepper (such as Hatch or Pueblo, or a longish poblano or jalapeño)

  • 3 caps of Marczyk Organic Portobello Mushroom, each about 4 inches in diameter

  • 1/2 medium head radicchio

  • 1 large bok choy

  • 3 thick “Chinese large onions” or 6 thick scallions

  • 1 lemon

  • 1 ear Marczyk Bi-Color Sweet Corn

  • 1 1/2 cups Bonamini Valpolicella Extra Virgin Olive Oil

  • 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

  • 3 tablespoons medium-grained sea or kosher salt

Directions

  1. Be prepared to make a charcoal fire in the grill using the indirect method (i.e., with the mound of coals to one side of the grill). Or arrange a gas-fired grill for the same (i.e., save one region without direct heat underneath the grill).

  2. Prep the vegetables. Wash them all (except the mushroom caps), if necessary. Trim then slice the squashes and eggplant lengthwise into strips just under 1/2-inch thick. Trim then section the bell peppers at their natural folds and seed them. Trim then seed the hot chile.

  3. Trim off any stub from the bottom of the mushroom caps and brush or wipe off any soil or debris. Section the radicchio half into 8 wedges, keeping each wedge as one “book” of leaves by retaining in it some of the core. Trim the onions or scallions of any roots or thickened green leaves.

  4. Slice the lemon along its “equator” into 4 pieces, discarding the “pole caps.” If needed, husk the ear of corn and rub off all the silk. Set and separate the prepped vegetables onto 2-3 large baking sheets or trays lined with parchment paper.

  5. Pour the olive oil into a large bowl. Now dunk, bathe or otherwise generously coat each vegetable piece (including the entire ear of corn) and replace it on its baking sheet. Add more oil if called for.

  6. Grievously pepper and mercilessly salt each vegetable piece on both sides and replace it on its sheet. Have the grill fire ready.

  7. Cook the vegetables. Using long tongs, grill the vegetables in groups, about 3-4 minutes each side (replacing the grill top to smoke out any flareups, if necessary) utilizing the hottest zone first for 2-3 minutes, then the least hot zone for another 1-2 minutes. (Some vegetables, such as the mushroom caps, may take longer or finish cooking in the “cool zone.”) Slowly grill the corn cob off to one side of the hottest zone, turning it with the tongs as kernels darken and brown.

  8. As the vegetables finish grilling, place them back on their trays (or on freshly prepared trays), going on to the next group and so on.

  9. When finished, set the corn aside until the cob is cool enough to handle. Remove the kernels from the corn by slicing down along the cob with a sharp-edged knife (such as a filet knife) and set aside.

  10. Arrange and serve the vegetables as desired, with the corn kernels sprinkled atop as “confetti.”