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"I'm super finicky about my pickles,"Mark Bittmanwrites in the headnote for the pickle recipe in his newestHow to Cook Everythingbook,How to Grill Everything.When I asked him to elaborate, he emailed that he prefers "the big three Ks: kimchi,kosher dills, and kraut. Fermented foods are just naturally more nuanced than things soaked in a vinegar brine."
Of course,Bittman being Bittman, the guy found a way to add nuance toregular old pickles: grilling them.
"Grilling before marinating changes the game because you lay down the char and smokiness first, then add brightness," Bittman says. Charring your vegetables directly over the fire before adding that powerful pop of acid means that you'll get complex, sweet caramelized flavor. And the vegetables themselves will be more flavorful, because "a concentration and intensifying happens when you cook the water out of the vegetables first."
提出这个想法是那么简单了food that's a staple accompaniment to grilled food, and giving it the grill treatment as well. It's not an unprecedented way to treat a vegetable. Bittman explains: "There’s a longtime tradition of marinating food after cooking—escabecheandgiardiniera, for example, both of which I make frequently."
If you're thinking that this sounds like a complicated effort, don't worry—the vegetables are quick-pickled, so they only need to marinate in the brine for about 3 hours, and no special equipment is required.
Do this with any vegetable or vegetable combination: broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, kohlrabi, daikon, onion, and/or jicama. Cucumbers hold up well on the grill when cut into spears and charred; so do melons, radishes, green beans, okra, carrots, and corn, which you can slice into pieces after grilling. "The only trick is to avoid vegetables that soften quickly, like summer squash, because they need to char but retain some crunch for the brining step," Bittman says.
About that brining step: Bittman's recipe calls for mustard seeds, peppercorns, garlic, bay leaves, and coriander seeds, but he encourages experimentation. "I’d suggest thinking of the main recipe as a springboard to all sorts of seasonings. Curry would be a good one, particularly with green or wax beans or okra; smoky chiles like chipotle with cantaloupe is another good combo," he says.
Bittman likes to eat the pickles—well, like you'd eat any other kind of pickle. His list includessandwiches, slaws,bruschetta and crostini,, noodle andgrain bowls, and roughly chopped as a relish for...grilled meats orchicken. Because the only thing better than one grilled food is two.
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