Fire Roasting 101: Flame Grilled Vegetables

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Amélie Rousseau, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

With this season’s glut of nightshades, hopefully we’re all getting our fill of succulent tomatoes and exotic hot and sweet peppers in all shades and sizes. When you don’t have time to fire up the grill, fire roasting provides that irresistible smoky flavor that takes a dish from good to “wow!” Meat doesn’t have to be the only thing you flame grill.

Fire roasting is easy. Oil your vegetable so it won’t stick to the burner and place on an open flame. With tongs, periodically rotate the vegetable so that all sides blacken. Whatever you do, don’t wander away from the stove! Char a few poblanos or a whole eggplant on the stove and wait for your panicked roommates to rush into the kitchen to put out the fire. Ventilation is key here, so crack a window for everyone’s sake. If you don’t have a gas stove, broil oiled veggies on a cookie sheet in the oven, turning periodically to blacken all sides evenly.

When the vegetable is cooked through, it will start to deflate and get very soft. Insert a knife to test for doneness. Carefully place the roasted veggie in a bowl of cold water to cool it down and loosen the skin from the flesh. After 5-10 minutes, scrape off the blackened skin over the sink, chop off the stem and rinse out the seeds (for peppers only). Done! The hardest part of fire roasting is cleaning the stove off. Pour a bit of hot water over the burners and let soak, then wipe the drippy scum away.

This juicy roasted flesh can be used in a variety of ways. Chopped in a fresh salsa, a smoked jalapeno adds a wonderful complexity or add fire roasted chilies in a grilled quesadillas. Roast a couple eggplants to make nourishing baingan bharta, a North Indian eggplant curry or the classic baba ghanouj!

Fire Roasted Salsa Violeta

To roast sweet tomatillos, remove papery hulls first and wash well. Skewer the fruits onto shish kebab sticks and roast over gas flame. After the tomatillos are blistering and black, scrape the blackened skin off with a spoon under the faucet. Add salt, fresh chilies, cilantro and garlic to taste and blend it up. To enhance the purple color, add a 1/4 cup of Japanese red shisho leaves. Use a 1/4 cup of red wine if shisho is unavailable. Serve with tortilla chips on game day. Also refreshing on a grilled skirt steak.

Baingan Bharta

Roast 3 large eggplants until they are very soft and deflated. Cool then in a bowl of cold water and scrape blackened skin off. Chop the eggplant flesh finely. Meanwhile, saute a chopped onion with a few chopped tomatoes until soft and mushy. Add a dash each of chili powder, coriander, and cumin powder. Add eggplant mush and stir well. Cook for another five minutes. Salt to taste. Add more chili powder for more of a kick. Stir in a handful of chopped cilantro and serve with hot naan and cool yogurt.