Freeze Marinated and Grilled Excess Vegetables For a Gloomy Winter Day

This weekend my bell peppers finally started to turn red. Barb has warned me that this is also a sign that the pepper is about to rot off the plant (and I discovered she wasn’t wrong). So, I’ve even started to take half-red peppers and let them turn red while sitting in a bowl of tomatoes in my kitchin. If you don’t catch the pepper just as it turns red in its entirely, chances are it will be too late for you to eat it. I’ve already lost a few peppers this season because I didn’t notice it until too late. (We also have the problem at Stoddart of nocturnal visitors stealing our green bell peppers before they turn red or yellow).

In any event, I’m writing this as an excuse to post a marinade for grilled vegetables. My friend IcedLatte has been begging me to post the recipe and I can refuse her nothing. There is a story behind this recipe, however. The Montrose School in Bexley held a fundraiser a few years ago and neighborhood kids always hit up the gardening-fool for sales of all types because I obviously am not going to buy things from children of my own. One of the things I bought was Backyard Entertaining, which is cookbook for all things grilled. Lots of nifty recipes. You all should buy one if a Bexley student hits you up this Fall.

Anyway, this is the recipe for Grilled Vegetables al Fresco:

2 large red bell peppers
2 medium zucchini
1 large eggplant

Marinade:
2/3 cup white wine vinegar
½ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons minced ginger (although I often cheat with ginger powder)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 large cloves minced garlic
2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce

Seed and cut the peppers into quarters. Cut the zucchini into ¼ inch strips. Slice eggplant into ¼ inch rounds.

Combine the marinade ingredients in a 13x9 baking dish.

Place the veges in the marinade and toss well.

Cover and refrigerate for 2-24 hours. (I’ve sometimes marinated them even longer than that.).

Turn occasionally.

Gill the vegetables at least 4 minutes each side. You can also broil them, but I’ve never tried that.

The marinade keeps for subsequent rounds.

The best part: once they’ve cooled, you can freeze the leftover grilled veges and they will taste almost as good when you reheat them months from now. Especially roasted red peppers. Of course, I rarely have leftovers when I serve these to guests. (I won’t tell you how many IcedLatte had when she visited).

You can visit IcedLatte’s blog at http://foodiemamas.blogspot.com/.