Grilled Garden Vegetables

When the vegetables in the garden are fresh, they don't need much help to taste delicious.  I like to put them on the grill and dress and season them lightly. Most vegetables grill fairly well - as long as they're big enough not to fall through the grate.  Here, I'm using bell pepper, long beans and aubergine.

First, I like to coat everything lightly with olive oil and season with salt.  It tastes great and keeps things from sticking.  Then I like to get a good char on the peppers so that the skin slides off easily.  The beans and eggplant need to grill just long enough to become tender - not mushy.

Plate it up fancy!  So many vegetable dishes tend to be simply piled on the place.  Take a moment to arrange the ingredients to be visually appealing.  I like to serve it with fresh tarragon, basil and cherry tomatoes.  Then, drizzle a bit of aged balsamic and olive oil for extra flavour.  Happy Summer!

Gazpacho

Gazpacho has the reputation of being an awkward dish.  It's not always well received - after all, it's cold soup.  The first time I tried it, I was in Paris and decided, "I'm never coming back to this place!  They can't even heat up soup properly."Thankfully I got over my Parisian aversion and I learned to actually like gazpacho!

I started with tomatoes, red onions, bell peppers, chili pepper and basil - all harvested from the garden. First, peel, half and remove the seeds from a medium cucumber.  Then coarsely dice the cucumber, tomato, onions and pepper.  Be sure to very finely mince the chili pepper - any remove the seeds unless you're really a fan of spice. Pile it all in a food processor with the basil, a bit of salt, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Blitz it up until it's soupy, but not a fine puree.  There should be a bit of texture.

I find it's best to serve chilled, but not ice cold.

Pan-seared Polenta with Chèvre and Thyme

Polenta has a reputation of blandness.  It's a well earned reputation, so you have to build flavour into the dish.

First, bring salted water to a boil.  You can also use veg stock to provide more taste.  Polenta varies in terms of firmness.  Since this will be fried, this dish needs enough cornmeal so that it's not porridge.

Slowly add the cornmeal to the boiling water while stirring.  Or, if you're crazy enough to try to hold a camera and take photos while cooking, you'll need to whisk the mixture to remove the lumps.  Boil for about a minute or two, until it's thick and begins to "blurp."  Then allow to cool and set firm.

Once cooled, remove from the pan and slice into workable chunks.  (It helps to wet the knife before cutting.)  Sear both sides of the polenta in olive oil.

Garnish and serve with flavourful pairings.  I chose the creamy sharpness of goat cheese; the also tangy, yet sweet, aged balsamic; savoury, bright tomatoes and the mildly pungent thyme.

This can easily be made vegan by substituting or omitting the chèvre.  Mixed olives would be an ideal alternate.