HALLIE EPHRON: Drumroll: It's CORN TIME! My summer staple...
The corn in my local produce store isn't LOCAL-local. But it's not frozen. Or canned. And it can be the base for a bunch of cold healthy meals.
My favorite is a corn salad with tomatoes, feta cheese and basil. It's a grab and go lunch. Or dinner. Or whenever you need something fast.
I make a batch every two weeks or so and keep it in the fridge.
Starting NOW. When our corn is from nearer-by, even if not truly *local*.
STEP 1: Buy FRESH ears! Peel back the husks enough to be sure the kernels aren't dessicated or deformed.
My basic dish starts with 2 ears of corn, boiled and cut off the cob.
Mix cooked corn kernels with...
- Fresh basil, chopped (growing in a big pot in my garden)
- Chopped tomatoes (good tomatoes aren't here yet so I stick to cherry tomatoes which are more reliable)
- Lots of crumbled fetah cheese (or blue cheese if you prefer)
- Dress with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard (Dijon is my preferred), S&P
- Extra treat: throw in a few chopped up steamed shrimp It's a complete meal. Lasts for days and still tastes great.
Do you have a go-to summer salad-y meal?? I'd love to hear about it...
This sounds amazing, Hallie . . . The corn salad I usually make has corn, bell pepper, scallions, tarragon, feta cheese, lime juice, a dab of sour cream, olive oil, salt and pepper . . . .
ReplyDeleteTarragon!! Lime!! Sour cream!!! Sounds like a great combination... Wondering if you grow the tarragon because I rarely see it in the market. Or do you use dried?
DeleteI've been growing tarragon on my deck in the summer, and it's not hard. Just be sure to get real French tarragon--not bland "Russian tarragon", which garden centers have been palming off on us in recent years! (Can you tell this is a pet peeve?) Taste a leaf before you buy. When it's good, it's incredible. Penzey's and other places have dried tarragon too.
DeleteWhen I was living in England, I tasted stuffed peppers for the first time. That was in the Summer.
DeleteBecky, it's not easy to find the good French tarragon! I had a couple false starts, but for the last three years I now have a thriving patch of the good stuff. It's a perennial, and overwinters easily, planted straight in the ground. Best of all, nothing else eats it.
DeleteIt's growing in my herb garden . . . .
DeleteI've been buying fresh corn since it began to appear in our market. It has been delicious. My grocery store posts the name of the farm as soon as the local fruits and vegetables begin to arrive. I haven't seen those hand - made signs very much yet, but I love when I see them.
ReplyDeleteI put corn in all kinds of summer salads and also for sprinkling on tacos and sometimes on chili. It adds a natural sweetness. Irwin loves corn on the cob and it makes a perfect side dish for most meals.
Our favorite summer salad has rotini pasta, marinated in Italian salad dressing as soon as it is drained and then cooled in the fridge. We add chic peas, olives, corn, some greens (spinach or romaine lettuce), broccoli, green beans, cherry tomatoes and sliced chicken or beef. It is one of our favorite summer meals. I make enough pasta to put some in a couple of salads.
I just printed your recipe out... I'm going to try making it. Sounds great.
DeleteOMG, this sounds fantastic! I'll definitely be trying it as soon as I get to the store to buy some feta (which I LOVE.)
ReplyDeleteIt is the most versatile cheese! Probably because it's so salty it goes well with just about any mixture of other salad-y ingredients.
DeleteLove Feta. Despite my allergies to dairy, I never seem to have a problem with goat cheese. Feta is goat cheese. When I was in Paris, France, I noticed that the cheese shops sold lots of goat cheese.
DeleteAnd FRENCH goat cheese is sublime. It's really different from domestically produced goat cheese. More a first cousin to camembert.
DeleteOur local corn started appearing in the farmers market and grocery stores this week and I bought some.
ReplyDeleteI have made a corn & zucchini saute with red onion, garlic and feta. Another corn / tomato salad similar to yours is on regular summer rotation. I added fresh thyme & scallions from my balcony garden + lime juice. Sometimes I add avocado or bell pepper.
I love red onion. Even just sliced thin and let it soak a bit in vinegar...
DeleteEverything sounds delicious!
DeleteWe have a farm in Salisbury, just a few miles from here, who always has the earliest and best corn, and I got some last week (I won't eat fresh corn unless it's local-local). I usually buy six or seven - we'll eat three and then I have more for salads. I never peel back any of the husk - I can feel if it's a fat, heavy ear. When I cook it, I steam it for only a few minutes.
ReplyDeleteYour salad sounds yummy. I sometimes put black beans with the corn and tomatoes, or add cucumber chunks. Definitely fresh basil (my plants are having a good year), and feta is a great idea.
Edith, you should give us corn-judging lessons. I don't need to peel back the husk either but every once in a while I get stung.
DeleteThis salad sounds great. I love fresh corn kernels in salads. (well, fresh corn any way it's fixed, including plain old corn on the cob, with butter, salt, and pepper.) Your salad is similar to what is popular in restaurants here in Portugal, as well as Galicia - except they also add shredded purple cabbage (raw) and shredded carrots (also raw).
ReplyDeleteSounds like great additions. I wonder what their dressing is.
DeleteELIZABETH: Do they have Olive trees in Portugal or is it only in Spain or Greece? I asked because I wondered if the olive oil was local or imported from another country. My guess is that the dressing includes olive oil and balsamic vinegar. As I recall, the Mediterranean diet includes salads with olive oil and balsamic vinegar?
DeleteWe are having our first feed of crab (snow crab – big legs) this weekend. One time to stretch the meal out, I made a Thai rice – that’s what I called it. It was a combo of several recipes and used rice (forget which kind - think it was mostly jasmine with a bit of parboiled), jalapeno that I may have cooked in the rice, removed and then added some small cut up fresh bits) other peppers as in the fridge, onions red and yellow, celery, and fresh corn, beans and peas – garden was producing that year. Cooked in coconut cream. Salt and pepper. It was delicious – almost better than the crab.
ReplyDeleteOften requested – NEVER reproduced (any guess why while reading the recipe). Will try again this weekend. Have the fresh (sort-of corn – we don’t get it here until late August), and no peas or beans.
I like the look of that corn salad!
In really good news, our first monarch arrived 2 days ago and has been busy either slurping from the flowers of the milkweed or hopefully laying eggs. Surely in spite of a very long flight, no one can just drink for 2 days!
Yay Monarchs! I saw one here the other day. Applause!
DeleteOh Hallie,c your salad sounds great! Fresh corn, tomaatoes and basil-summer in a bowl! We love tomato bread salad with lots of basil and a drizzle of olive oil. Fresh cooked corn kernels and maybe some black beans-yum!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds great - and a complete meal.
DeleteI've probably shared this story many times but I think it's still good enough to share again. My grandfather had a huge garden, actually it was the entire field between their house and ours. He insisted that sweet corn had to be absolutely fresh or just forget about it all together. So his advice was put a pot of water on to boil, then get a fast boy to run to the garden and pick the corn, husking it on his way back to the house!
ReplyDeleteClassic!
DeleteThat's our rule with lobster purchased from a store that's on a pier with lobster traps that they haul up from the ocean beneath the pier, throw them into a bag, and when we get home the water's boiling and I have to run around and recruit someone to dump them in. I'm a good cook, lousy executioner.
DeleteHALLIE: Thank you for the tips! Corn on the cob is a delicious summer food. One of my favorite summery salads is the Caprese salad. There is also the Avocado and Tomato salad. There are lots of tomatoes now, including Dry Farmed Tomatoes (aka Early Girl Tomatoes). I think Early Girls Tomatoes is the name of the farm that grows these wonderful tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteIn Scandinavia, they celebrate Strawberries. I love Strawberries. We have delicious Strawberries and Blueberries here in California.
Tomatoes! Strawberries! This time of year I'm so sorry that I"m not more of a gardener.
DeleteI feel like such a negative Nellie with this comment, but I can't help it. I love fresh corn, too, but when it started appearing this year I was shocked at how much inflation has affected this treat! The going price I have encountered several places is a dollar an ear. I would almost swear that just last year, it was two for a dollar. (Maybe 60 cents each? Certainly no more than that.) Now, I get it, a dollar an ear certainly isn't going to break me. But it's the principal of the thing! Somehow this particular bit of inflation just seemed to smack me in the face.
ReplyDeleteThe price goes up the closer to us that the corn has been grown. And have you noticed what's happening to the price of steak?? And I paid $7 for a dozen eggs. A blog for another day.
DeleteI'm here for the corn on the cob, not really salads. I love a fresh sweet corn on the cob that has been microwaved for four minutes. Cut off the stem end and pull the husk and silks off in one tug from the other end leaving that beautiful cob of corn ready to be consumed any way that makes you happy. Yummy! -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteYUM!
DeleteSo agree! Once you figure out this method, I posted it below as well, it’s amazing!
DeleteVictoria, my sister-in-law gave me that tip last month, and I will never again cook corn on the cob any other way! It makes dinner prep go so fast!
DeleteDebRo
Such a healthy salad to keep on hand, Hallie. Thanks for the suggestion.
ReplyDeleteFor a crowd I like to make cowboy or Texas caviar, which is a fresh corn, bean and blackeye pea salad with chopped peppers and red onion, and a vinegar-based dressing. It's especially good in the summer, because it can take sitting on the counter better than mayonnaise-dressed salads can. 5gr protein, too, if you're trying to add protein to your diet, as I am. There are lots of recipes online.
The other salad I love in the summer is tuna Nicoise, especially when both the tomatoes and green beans are plentiful in the garden, and I keep black olives ready for it. Not this year, though. It's been a really strange summer in the garden. My early green beans didn't germinate, and the late ones are barely 4" tall. The tomatoes got drowned and are now getting scorched.
I love all corn salad but especially like Ina Garten's version: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fresh-corn-salad-recipe-1914351
ReplyDeleteAll of these recipes sound absolutely great! Corn is the very best in the world, and I sometimes make it by taking off all the husks except the very inner ones, then pop it in the microwave, husk and all for a minute or two. It comes out all steamed and hot, then I take off the husks when it’s cool enough, and put it on the grill outside. Just enough to mark the kernels and make them super sweet. Then we eat it off the cob with salt and butter, or cut it off the cob and add to salad.
ReplyDelete