Fall is here, but don’t put that grill away. With so much fresh produce at the market right now, you’ll want to be cooking and eating often, taking full advantage of the season. And one of the best ways to do that is over an open flame, aka wood-fire cooking.
This time of year, you can find everything from fresh carrots and beets to zucchini, squash, kale, and Romanesco broccoli. And they’re all better cooked in that age-old instinctive way over some flickering flames.
Tyler Fenton is the chef at BATA, one of the most exciting restaurants in the West, if not America. The spot specializes in wood-fired vegetables and is part of a rich culinary tapestry in Tucson. Chef Fenton was generous enough to offer some tips on wood-fire cooking, especially where produce is concerned.
Fenton grew up grilling, but really came to appreciate the approach his first year at school. “In my freshman year of college, I bought an offset smoker and grill combo, and that is when my love of wood-fire cooking really took off,” he said. “For me, the flavor of foods cooked over a live fire is just so much more delicious than any other preparation. I think there is an attachment to the flavor of smoke ingrained in us on an evolutionary level.”
Wood-fired vegetable cooking tips
Wood type
“Wood type is important because it will impart flavor into your final product, and different wood types burn longer, smoke more or less, etc.,” Fenton explained. “Wood type for grilling is less important than with smoking because of the total time spent in contact with smoke. I am a big fan of oak for both grilling and smoking. It has a nice balanced flavor and burns well. Pecan is also great. In Arizona, mesquite is abundant, and in my opinion, is a great choice for quick-cooked items.”
Ingredients
As Fenton said, fall is stacked, full of so many great and grillable options. “Cabbage is one of my favorites,” he said. “I like to cook them whole, slowly cooking the exterior until it’s completely charred; this will take a few hours. You then peel back the charred leaves to reveal a tender, smoky core, which you can serve as-is or grill again to get deep caramelization.”
Something he’s always wanted to cook with? Cetluce. Also dubbed stem lettuce and asparagus lettuce, this Asian veggie is a bit like a cross between cucumber and romaine. “We had one of our favorite farmers try growing celtuce for us, but it bolted early, and we didn’t get the opportunity to try it out,” Fenton explained. “I also have never gotten my hands on matsutake mushrooms, though I have had the pleasure of eating them and would love to get to work with them someday.”
Check out his cabbage recipe below to get a taste of what he’s talking about.
Approach and tools
“While many vegetables are great cooked 100% over a fire, many items benefit from a pre-cook,” Fenton said. “Mushrooms, for example, benefit from a quick steam before grilling, which adds some moisture and allows them to take a hard sear while remaining juicy and tender without going dry. Other items, like large carrots, also benefit from a pre-cook.”
The right tools can make or break a meal, too, but they don’t have to be complex. Fenton opts for a grill basket and tongs. “A mesh grill basket allows you to cook nearly anything over the fire, acting like a saute pan but allowing you to get smoke and char from a fire,” he said. “And long tongs because with a hot fire, there’s no need to be uncomfortable.”
There are mistakes to avoid as well, so often involving the nature of your heat source. “A lot of people start using their fire too quickly, using the fire before you have any coals formed,” Fenton said. “You really want to burn your first logs down to embers and then add fresh logs before you start cooking.” As he said. cooking over barely ignited wood is far from ideal.
Grilled cabbage with browned butter and herbs
This dish can take an hour or two, but it isn’t very involved and yields and some beautiful charred produce. The chef said you get bonus points if you add a little miso to your brown butter.
Ingredients:
- 1 head of cabbage
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Butter
- Herbs (dill, parsley, and mint are suggested)
- Sea salt for finishing
Method:
- Take a whole head of cabbage and place it over a medium-strength fire.
- Allow to char completely while rotating until the entire cabbage is black (this should take 1-2 hours, depending on the strength of the fire, distance from the flame, and size of your cabbage).
- Allow the cabbage to cool slightly, then remove the outer burned leaves.
- Half or quarter the cabbage (depending on size), brush the cut side with oil and season very liberally with salt and place over a high-heat grill.
- Rotate the cabbage until it’s deeply caramelized.
- Remove from the grill and garnish with a liberal amount of browned butter.
There are many ways to cook over a flame, of course. Check out our features on cooking over a campfire and some of our favorite camping grills. And if you end up in Tucson, be sure to dine at BATA and load up on baked goods in the morning at Barrio Bread, the work of a James Beard Award-winner.
