BBQ pt 2 - Mechouia

At S's bbq I also made a version of a Tunisian classic, mechouia. This is a salad of grilled/roasted vegetables and there seem to be as many versions of it as there are days of the year! The basic principle is that vegetables are roasted or grilled and then dressed with a dressing incorporating North African seasoning. You need to get a good smokey flavour into the vegetables so if you could cook them on a blisteringly hot bbq then so much the better. I couldn't so grilled them under a very hot grill until blackened and then ran the larger veg through the oven to cook out.

I suppose that one could use whatever was at hand but I used a couple of aubergines an onion and several large new spring onions, blackened and then roasted, a couple of red peppers, a few courgettes and some cherry tomatoes. The aubergine and onion take the longest so these were grilled first and then put in the oven. When done they were peeled and roughly chopped. The peppers similarly, although the blackening process under the grill was sufficient to cook them and these were also peeled and roughly chopped. The courgette was sliced and grilled until lightly browned together with the tomatoes.

For the dressing grind a teaspoon each of caraway and cumin to a powder with a teaspoon of salt and half of cayenne pepper (I suppose this depends on how you like it, you could use paprika for a milder effect). I did this all in a pestle and mortar and added a peeled garlic clove to the spices and ground that to a paste then ground in a nice spoonful of harrisa - I have a lovely home-made version that incorporates plenty of heat with the wonderful unique flavour of preserved lemon - and some olive oil to loosen it all off. I dressed the vegetables lightly as each was ready, building up the dish and then liberally dressing at the end. I think adding the dressing to the hot vegetables and then allowing them to cool in the liquid adds to the flavour and allows all the different flavours to really come together. If you wanted you could eat this warm, although we ate it at room temperature and it was absolutely delicious. Serve with some fresh coriander if you have it.