Grilled Eggplant Burger with Grilled Corn, Potatoes, and Zucchini

I had good luck grilling almost two weeks ago (time flies!) and I had two frozen Dominex eggplant burgers left from the box that I picked up for cooking at the beach this past weekend. So I thought that I would grill the burgers and also further experiment with grilling vegetables.

Like last time, I started the grill with the bottom vents open and no top cover after having hickory wood chips (less than last time as it had contributed too strong a flavor; I used perhaps a half handful) and rosemary soaking underwater for 20-30 minutes. Once the pyramided charcoal was white hot, my wife spread the charcoal across the grill; I drained and then tossed in the herbs and wood chips and covered with the top vents open.

I let the heat build up for a few minutes, then added several Yukon gold potatoes that I had first marinated (I had sliced the potatoes to maybe 1/3" thicknesses and marinated them for at least a half hour in Drew's rosemary balsamic dressing/marinade), as well as a zucchini that I had cut longitudinally into approximately a 1/2" thickness. I had also marinated the zucchini in a combination of maybe a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of canola oil.

I let the potato and zucchini cook for about 12 minutes, then flipped them. About ten minutes later, I removed the potato - surprisingly, it was done while the zucchini was not. I mixed into the potato maybe 1/2 teaspoon of dried dill and a little salt, then it in a bowl in a low heat toaster oven to keep it warm.

At the same time as I removed the potato, I put in the eggplant burgers after spraying olive oil on both sides. I bought some corn today and thought that I would experiment with one cob; I shucked it (removed the greens and silk) and put it on the grill, . I thought that it would cook quickly, but left it in for 15 minutes, turning it once, and found the corn kernels had become brighter yellow, but there was no browning yet. I also noticed that the grill wasn't as hot as it probably should be; next time I should use more charcoal (I used maybe 16-20 pieces). I also put in buns for about 7 minutes (I had sprayed a little olive oil on the inside surfaces) and ended up letting the burgers cook for about half an hour, flipping once in the middle (the manufacturer suggested an 8-minute grill, so surely the grill was not very hot by now).

I decided to prepare the corn differently than usual. I stripped it and added salt and Earth Balance margarine, but no lime/lemon juice. The corn ended up being good, with firm kernels and a nice mellow hickory smoke flavor, though neither my wife nor I thought it was better than how I usually make it.

Here is a summary of the grilling timeline.

• Probably around 8p - Start wood and rosemary soaking in water
• Probably around 8:30 - Light charcoal in grill
• Probably around 8:40 - Spread white-hot charcoal and cover (vents open)
• 8:50 - Put in potato and zucchini
• 9:02 - Flip potato and zucchini
• 9:15 - Add burger and corn
• Around 9:22 - Turn corn
• 9:30 - Remove corn, flip burger
• 9:32-9:37 - Buns in
• 9:47 - Take out everything left (burgers and zucchini)

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After checking out of our beach condominium on Monday morning, we enjoyed our last day of our long-weekend vacation exploring, and ended up in Wilmington, NC. We ate at Old Chicago, a pub-style restaurant specializing in Chicago pizza, pasta, and beer. It turns out their deep dish pizza crust has animal products (as I recall, egg or milk) mixed in each morning, but the thin crust and stuffed pizza doesn't. Neither of us has ever had a stuffed pizza, and it sounded appealing. It was! We had a pizza without cheese, of course, but with artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, and spinach. They served additional sauce on the side, which I enjoyed putting on top of the pizza. Yum!

What's for dinner tonight? I don't yet know ...