Grape Jokes

My readers of a certain age will recall grape jokes - silly little riddles of my teen years that were riffs on the word "grape." 

"What has a Queen and Beatles?" "Grape Britain."

Or 

"What is purple and conquered the world?"  "Alexander the Grape."

I know, major groans!  But they were fun, they didn't belittle anyone, and they made us smile. 

Here's something else that made me smile last week - grilled grapes. And this is no joke. My friend Bonbon brought to lunch a bag of grapes as a hostess gift. I like grapes as a snack but I knew we'd never eat all those before they went bad if I didn't also use some for cooking. When the idea of grilled grapes popped into my mind, I went looking on the interwebs to see what to do. There wasn't a single "recipe" that used grilled grapes on my favorite site, nor could a quick search turn up any others. So, I decided to wing it.

I pulled several grapes off the stems and put them into this grill pan that I bought at a garage sale but never before used. It was perfect as the holes allowed the smoke from the barbecue to pass through but kept the grapes from dropping into the fire. Less than a minute over a pretty hot fire charred the grapes on one side, then I rolled them around and replaced them over the flame to get the other side colored, as well.

We ate them as garnish for a pork tenderloin that I cooked over the same fire with grilled corn - a summer feast and I didn't have to heat up the kitchen. The outside of the pork was dark and smoky while the inside was pale pink perfection. The fire turned the grapes into little nuggets of intense sweetness, softened the skins so the warm insides popped out in a liquid rush, and left a whisper of smoke behind the sweetness. Oh, baby! A terrific accompaniment to pork.

Grape jokes have gone out of fashion - I haven't heard one in years! - but this idea of serving pork with grapes is a classic, worth repeating even if it gets a sigh of pleasure rather than a chuckle.