The Ultimate Easy to Prepare Vegetarian Recipes Cookbook - Grilling

Grilling

Whether you have a charcoal grill, an electric grill, or a gas grill, grilling is one of the best cooking methods if you’re after a big hit of flavour. To grill properly, you will need a basting liquid (usually oil-based), a clean grill, and tongs.

To clean the grill, allow it to warm up then clean it with a damp towel. This is a cook’s trick. It is impossible to get a grill completely clean if it isn’t hot or at least warm.

Grilling is a cooking method that puts your food at risk of losing too much moisture which is why the basting liquid is an essential part of grilling. With a kitchen brush, you need to regularly coat your ingredients with the basting liquid as they cook to create a barrier around the food which keeps the moisture from evaporating. Your basting liquid can be as simple as olive oil but it’s also a good way to add a little flavour. Get a little creative and throw in some lemon juice or even some soy sauce.

Proper grilling is an art and involves separating your grill into parts with different temperatures. One part should be the high heat part and should be around 220°C while the other half of the grill should be at 180°C. To start grilling, place your ingredients on the high heat part of the grill to sear them and to get those nice grill marks. When they are seared or when their outer parts are cooked (which shouldn’t take long), transfer them to the low heat part of the grill so that they can continue cooking. And voila, you are now a grill master!

Grilling has a distinct advantage than the cooking methods we’ve mentioned above, and that’s the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction is the process where certain cooking temperatures encourage amino acids and sugars to interact and cause what is mostly known as ‘flavor reactions’. It’s that brown, delicious crust that you get from grilling or frying your food and it applies to fruits and vegetables as well as meat.

A lot of people say that cooking with water stops the Maillard reaction which is why you don’t get the same flavor range from food that are poached or simmered or boiled but it’s not actually the water that’s stopping the browning. Water and most other liquids can only be heated up to 100°C; not enough to brown your food and get the Maillard reaction going.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The Ultimate Easy to Prepare Vegetarian Recipes Cookbook