Bob Hart's BBQ'd vegetables

BARBECUED vegetables work well. Or at least, some do. My two favourites are corn and asparagus. Here�s how they are done:

For corn, buy cobs still in their husks, and not interfered with by your green grocer. About an hour before cooking, toss them into a bucket of water.

To cook, simply put them, dripping wet and with husks still in place, on the grill, close the lid, and turn them from time to time, as the husk darkens, until they are evenly charred. They need about 20 minutes all up, or perhaps a bit more. Check by peeling back a corner of husk and peeping.

Take them off. Carefully roll back the husks to form handles and served with a drizzle of melted butter to which you add some lime juice and a pinch or two of cayenne. The quantities are up to you. Or as a variation, smear the cobs with mayonnaise. Sounds strange, I know, but try it. It�s great.

For the asparagus, use soaked bamboo skewers to pin sticks of asparagus, from which you have snapped the bottom few centimetres, into rafts of, say, four sticks each. This makes them easier to turn on the grill. Then, coat them well with EV olive oil and season with salt and pepper. They take 2-4 mins a side to cook on a hot grill.

Other vegetables worth grilling include eggplants, zucchinis, witlof and, my favourite, radicchio. In all cases, slice or simply split, brush with EV olive oil, season and grill.

And finally, big field mushrooms are brilliant: brush half a dozen of them clean, remove stems, place a dollop of snail butter (butter mashed with garlic, parsley and a squeeze of lemon) in each and cook, on the grill, butter side up. Ten minutes or so, or until the mushrooms begin to soften, should do. Lift them off and line them up on the base of a split, warmed baguette you have spread with Dijon mustard and a bit more butter, sprinkle with more chopped parsley, replace top and slice into four portions.