Memorial Day weekend! A perfect time to get out of town. My roommate from college came for a visit so we went to the coast and spent the days hiking and eating. Nature and food: two of my favorite things! Plus sharing them with a good friend makes it all the more enjoyable!
Before leaving town, Kelsey and I walked to the farmers market to to peruse the seasonal produce. Part of me wondered if we were going overboard when we left with a whole array of spring fruits and vegetables. We had bags filled with cherries, zucchini, asparagus, apricots, peaches, snap peas, cilantro, cucumber, shallots, avocado, kale, and kiwi. In all honesty though, I was showing great restraint by not getting the strawberries or almonds.
What's that you say? This haul is a lot of food for two people? Well, we ate it all in our three day excursion. The first night at our hostel by the beach, we grilled zucchini, asparagus, and peaches along with some polenta we picked up from the store. We lacked some foresight with the seasoning so we were at the mercy of what spices past hostelers left behind!
We were fortunate to find that there was just enough herbes de provence to lightly coat the zucchini and the asparagus with some vegan butter we found in the fridge. For future grillers, I would def recommend the herbes de provence but would switch the oil to some nice extra virgin olive oil for nicer flavor.
This was the first time I was in charge of the grill so there are a few things I learned from this first experience.
+ Grill Longer. Generally, I prefer to cook my veg al dente. Non-mushy vegetables are a definite plus. So I ran into an issue with the grill: take the veg off the grill with the typical "cookedness" I enjoy or cook longer for the nice char-grilled taste. I ended up choosing the first option and pulled them off too soon and found that I would have like to leave them on to have more of that smokey flavor I so love about cooking out.
+ Spices and Marinade. The herbes de provence was an excellent addition to our cookout. I would like to experiment more with fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme as well as vinegars and sauces.
+ Polenta. The polenta grilled fantastically! It got a nice crispy exterior and did not leave a messy clean-up job later. I have just found that I prefer the homemade, non-tube variety.
+ Peaches. Peaches are sweet, tender, and juicy so I placed them further away from the fire thinking that they would not respond well to such high heat. In the end, despite leaving them over the fire for a longer period of time, I wanted them warmer and more of that great grilled flavor. They were so delicious! It's like cobbler! I would recommend it with chocolate and ice cream!
Despite all these modifications listed above, this was still a very delicious meal. We had just finished eight miles of hiking in fantastic and sitting on a beautiful beach. Being outside with the setting sun with marvelous company and a hungry belly only enhanced the enjoyment of the fresh produce we picked up that day. I look forward to many more cook-outs this summer to perfect my skills as a master griller!
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