Boy, was this a great night for grilling! The air – which had been humid all day – crisped up a bit, the temperature dropped into the 80s, and the sky clouded over just enough that my sunburn from last weekend’s beach trip didn’t reemerge for round two! And to top all of that off, we had a ton of fresh veggies to grill, courtesy of our CSA and our local farmer’s market!
This week’s CSA box from Great Country Farms brought with it the first half-dozen cobs of corn for this summer – a joyous occasion indeed! The first corn shipment of the summer is so full of hope – the kernels are crisp and sweet, the cobs are bright yellow, and we still have such excitement at the thought of grilling enough corn to last us three days. (Later in the summer, we tend to lament the onslaught of corn, boiling it and cutting the kernels off and freezing them for wintertime, at which point we once again welcome the corn with open arms. Ah, the circle of culinary life!) We wrapped each of this week’s six cobs in a foil wrap along with a pat of butter and healthy dose of chipotle powder and grilled the cobs for about 20 minutes.
At the farmer’s market yesterday, we came across some beautiful okra from Mr. Lopez’s stand, and I knew I had to include it into this evening’s meal. I teased to this over on Instagram earlier today, so let me just be clear here: Grilling okra in foil packets takes away the majority of its sliminess. I know that for many people – LeeLee included – the sliminess of okra is hard to swallow (so to speak), so I figured I’d pass this note along to you. The trick is to cut the okra into coins, then add some salt or other salty seasoning (we used Tony Chachere), then wrap the okra and seasoning up into a foil packet and cook for half an hour. Don’t add butter. Don’t add oil. You want the okra to cook in its own liquid and then cook some of said liquid off, removing the sliminess! The longer the better.
Finally, we grilled some Gardein vegan beef tips in a foil packet for about half an hour, turning it (and the other packets) every 10 minutes or so. It was a foil-packet sort of night, I guess! But we had a great time cooking out – and not cleaning a lick after the fact, save for putting the foil in the garbage and the plates in the dishwasher. And with the cooler weather this evening, dining al fresco was a delight!
And so was the meal, quite frankly. We loved the Cajun seasoning atop the (now un-slimified) okra, and the chipotle-kissed corn was crisp-tender to perfection. The beef tips anchored the meal, giving a punch of protein to our plates, and the beer on the side was simply the cherry on top.
Hooray for local vegetables! And hooray for grilling out!
:)