Foodporn: Grilled Veggie Sambo
I have a soft, gooshy spot in my heart for "Charlie Brown" things, a la the "Charlie Brown tree", the scraggly little scrap of evergreen he and his friends turned into a holiday inspiration. I feel the need to adopt the "Charlie Brown" stuff, and make it ultimately useful, probably because I was one of those ugly duckling children and feel an affinity for things that are not immediately gorgeous. I had one of those experiences at the Central Market today, at my favourite produce stand, which is run by the Dietz family.
smarriveurr had asked me to pick up some carrots for a carrot cake, and once I had those in hand, I noticed punnets of aubergines and peppers for $1. Being the sort of person who likes interestingly-coloured veg I was poking happily at the stripey purple aubergines and the mottled red-and-orange-and-green peppers when the girl behind the counter noticed my interest.
"Oh, those are that price because they're #2. Some of them look a little scary. If you want to pick and choose, they're 25 cents each."
One of the aubergines had a spot where an enterprising bug had taken its dinner, and there were tiny black spots on the rest. They looked better than some of the stuff I've taken out of my own garden and made into perfectly edible meals.
"No, I'll take this box. It shows me you don't use fungicides or pesticides. I'll just cut around the bits."
She seemed satisfied by this answer (probably glad to get rid of some of the "scary" veg) and while I finished picking up cod off the boat from the Chesapeake and sausage made from local pigs, I planned happily to myself what I might do with odd bits of veg. By the time I'd gotten home I'd formulated a Plan--which admittedly involved going out again for a loaf of sourdough--that was amazingly good. Huzzah for Charlie Brown veg: dead cheap and still delicious.
Grilled Veggie Sambo
olive oil
large yellow onion, sliced thin
three small sweet peppers in various colours, diced
aubergine slightly bigger than my fist, diced
fistful yellow wax beans, trimmed and cut into bite-size lengths
3 cloves garlic, minced
three plum tomatoes, diced
salt
butter
mayo
sourdough bread, sliced as thickly as you like
I put all the veg into a large frying pan with a couple turns of olive oil and a small pat of butter, in the order above, for as long as it took to cut up one item, dump it in the pan, and move on to the next, and let it cook. After the aubergine went in, I gave it a liberal sprinkling of salt, but I never put in the paprika I'd been considering and it never seemed to need it. Once the tomatoes had cooked down a little and the veg was all tender, I removed the mix into a big bowl and sprinkled on a little fresh ground peppercorn. I sliced the sourdough pretty thickly, spread the insides with mayo, added a thick layer of veg mix, buttered the outsides, and put the sammich back into the frying pan to grill up a little. I mooshed it with the spatula a couple times after turning to make sure it'd stay relatively cohesive and cooked it until it was "golden brown and delicious".
This was a fabulous lunch, and I have lots of leftover veggie filling. I may try this again tomorrow, too.
smarriveurr had asked me to pick up some carrots for a carrot cake, and once I had those in hand, I noticed punnets of aubergines and peppers for $1. Being the sort of person who likes interestingly-coloured veg I was poking happily at the stripey purple aubergines and the mottled red-and-orange-and-green peppers when the girl behind the counter noticed my interest.
"Oh, those are that price because they're #2. Some of them look a little scary. If you want to pick and choose, they're 25 cents each."
One of the aubergines had a spot where an enterprising bug had taken its dinner, and there were tiny black spots on the rest. They looked better than some of the stuff I've taken out of my own garden and made into perfectly edible meals.
"No, I'll take this box. It shows me you don't use fungicides or pesticides. I'll just cut around the bits."
She seemed satisfied by this answer (probably glad to get rid of some of the "scary" veg) and while I finished picking up cod off the boat from the Chesapeake and sausage made from local pigs, I planned happily to myself what I might do with odd bits of veg. By the time I'd gotten home I'd formulated a Plan--which admittedly involved going out again for a loaf of sourdough--that was amazingly good. Huzzah for Charlie Brown veg: dead cheap and still delicious.
Grilled Veggie Sambo
olive oil
large yellow onion, sliced thin
three small sweet peppers in various colours, diced
aubergine slightly bigger than my fist, diced
fistful yellow wax beans, trimmed and cut into bite-size lengths
3 cloves garlic, minced
three plum tomatoes, diced
salt
butter
mayo
sourdough bread, sliced as thickly as you like
I put all the veg into a large frying pan with a couple turns of olive oil and a small pat of butter, in the order above, for as long as it took to cut up one item, dump it in the pan, and move on to the next, and let it cook. After the aubergine went in, I gave it a liberal sprinkling of salt, but I never put in the paprika I'd been considering and it never seemed to need it. Once the tomatoes had cooked down a little and the veg was all tender, I removed the mix into a big bowl and sprinkled on a little fresh ground peppercorn. I sliced the sourdough pretty thickly, spread the insides with mayo, added a thick layer of veg mix, buttered the outsides, and put the sammich back into the frying pan to grill up a little. I mooshed it with the spatula a couple times after turning to make sure it'd stay relatively cohesive and cooked it until it was "golden brown and delicious".
This was a fabulous lunch, and I have lots of leftover veggie filling. I may try this again tomorrow, too.