Hot tips for live flame
Time to set your vege cooking skills alight
WORLD-FAMOUS CHEF Francis Mallmann, known for his live-fire meat cookery, transforms vegetables and fruits with fire in his first book of vegetarian recipes. Green Fire is an extraordinary vegetarian cookbook, as Mallmann brings his techniques, creativity, instinct for bold flavours, and decades of experience to the idea of cooking vegetables and fruits over live fire. Blistered tomatoes reinvigorate a classic Caprese salad. Eggplants are buried whole in the coals—a technique called rescoldo—then dance that fine line between burned and incinerated until they yield an ineffable creaminess made irresistible with a slather of parsley, chile, and aioli. Brussels sprout leaves are scorched and served with walnuts; whole cabbages are sliced thick, grilled like steaks, and rubbed with spice for a mustard-fennel crust. Corn, fennel, artichokes, beets, squash, even beans—this is the vegetable kingdom, on fire.
RESCOLDO EGGPLANT with PARSLEY, CHILE, and AIOLI
There has always been a precarious balance between burnt and incinerated in my recipes. This is a fine line to walk, but I am a devotee of pushing ingredients to this perilous point, because something magical happens when smoke, char, and fire meet. Nature must have had this in mind when she created eggplant. I particularly like to cook them until their skins are black and wrinkled and the smokiness of the burnt skin permeates the eggplant’s soft flesh. Embercooked eggplant are as creamy as a carefully stirred custard, and they drink deeply of the flavours in this simple recipe.
Ingredients
4 medium globe or large Italian eggplants
A handful of fresh parsley leaves Crushed red pepper flakes Extra-virgin olive oil Best-quality red wine vinegar 1 cup Aioli
Method
Prepare a fire and let the charcoal burn down to a bed of embers, coals, and ashes for rescoldo.
Bury the whole eggplants completely in the glowing embers, coals, and ashes. After 10 minutes, part the embers with long-handled tongs, turn the eggplants, and roast until blackened and charred all over, about 5 minutes longer. They should be very tender all the way through when pierced with a long bamboo skewer. Remove from the fire and brush off the ashes, leaving most of the charred skin.
If cooking indoors, roast the eggplants on a foil-lined sheet pan under a hot broiler or over gas burners, turning occasionally, until the skin is charred and blackened on all sides and the inside is very tender, about 15 minutes.
To serve, slice open each eggplant lengthwise and arrange on a platter. Scatter with the parsley leaves and red pepper flakes to taste, then drizzle lightly with olive oil and a few drops of vinegar. Serve the aioli alongside.
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