If you live somewhere that gets particularly hot in the summer — and that includes more and more of us, as July has been declared the hottest month in modern history — you may wonder why anyone would suggest that now’s the time to go outside and grill.
The calculation between indoor and outdoor cooking depends on how effective your air conditioning is (if you have any at all), how airtight and efficient your oven might be, and just what heights outdoor temperatures have hit. Where would you rather be?
In Washington, D.C., where the temperature as I write is 96, with a heat index of 108, the answer is clear. I’d rather stand over or near my stove, and save most of my grilling for the spring and fall — or a rare stretch of mild summer weather if we get it. But that doesn’t mean I want to crank up the oven to 500 degrees for an hour. Instead, I gravitate toward recipes that require little or no cooking, of course, but also toward those where the oven use is mercifully brief.
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This bruschetta, from the Jane Goodall Institute’s new book of vegan recipes, employs some smart strategies to keep the oven from overheating your kitchen. You toast hazelnuts at a moderate 350 degrees, then turn on the broiler for a few minutes, just long enough to cook eggplant slices and toast bread.
After it’s broiled, the eggplant gets a dip in maple syrup and balsamic vinegar, and you pile it onto the bruschetta after smearing it with one of my favorite condiments: skordalia. This chunky Greek puree is traditionally made with potatoes, but here you make use of the ends of the bread instead, blitzing it in a food processor with those toasted hazelnuts, plus garlic, lemon juice, vinegar and water.
It’s a freewheeling dish — you can top the bruschetta instead with broiled bell peppers, zucchini or other summer squash; or, for something even simpler, ripe in-season tomatoes. And if your heat tolerance differs from mine — maybe you live somewhere cooler outside and/or hotter inside — feel free to cook the eggplant, or anything else, on the grill. I’ll meet you there in September, maybe October.
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