Mexican Street Corn Salad

Late summer is a predictable season around here. There are tomatoes on the counter, which we position strategically to keep fruit flies at bay. (I can't say we necessarily succeed - those fruit flies are such a nuisance.) There's a glut of second nectarines and peaches, perfectly ripe and 99 cents a pound from Toigo, which we consume somewhat recklessly and with pride. There are Italian plums, which find their way into this famed torte and this less famous but quite tasty cake. And then, of course, there is all the corn.

The corn is also from Toigo. It's the sweetest corn available - so sweet that Beth (wife of Jeremy, he of Andalusian gazpacho and fried squash blossoms) made a corn soup last week and fretted that it was too sweet, that it needed some lime to cut the sweetness. If you're into corn ice cream, you'll want to start with Toigo's corn.  But even if you're making something savory, as I typically do, sweet corn is a good place to start.

If you've ever ordered elote, the flavors of this dish will be familiar. Elote is Mexican street corn: a whole cob, coated in crema and chile, then dunked in cotija and finished with a squeeze of lime. It's addictive.

But sometimes you want the corn off the cob, ready to fork straight into your mouth. Enter elote salad, a chopped-and-ready version of the messier original.

Stateside versions often coat the corn in mayonnaise, which you know I despise. The salad renditions I found online also call for mayo, which makes an otherwise balanced dish look gloppy and gross. Why would you do that?  Here's my counter-proposal, cleaner and fresher and more suited to summer: sweet corn, a little butter, chile, cilantro, lime. Lots of cotija to finish. Enough forks for you and all your friends. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

And while you're bothering with 5 corn cobs at a time, save those stripped cobs. Simmer them in water for 30 minutes, and you have a killer corn stock - a perfect base for chowder and more.

Mexican Street Corn SaladServes 6 as a side dish, with leftovers

3 tablespoons butter 3 scallions, diced kernels from 5 ears yellow corn 2 teaspoons medium-mild chile flakes, or 1 teaspoon regular (hot) chile flakes (start small and add to taste) salt 1 large red tomato, diced juice of 1-2 limes (again, start with one and add if you need more acid; I used 1 1/2 limes) 4 oz. cotija cheese, grated 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Add butter to a large saute pan and set over medium heat. When butter sizzles, add scallions, toss to combine, and cook 5 minutes, until softened. Add corn, chile,  and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, just until very fragrant and starting to soften, 3 minutes or so; you want the corn to retain some bite. This is a warm salad, not mush.

Taste corn, and add more chile and/or salt as needed. Then add tomato chunks, reserving the accumulated liquid for another use. Stir to combine, and cook about 3 minutes more, just until tomatoes are warmed through.

Add lime juice to taste. Spoon into a deep bowl, top with cilantro and cotija, and serve warm.

Red Cabbage Slaw with Golden Raisins and Mint

Whew! It's been a while, hasn't? I could make excuses -- work, Passover, a drab, terrible winter that dragged on and threatened never to leave -- but I'd rather just get down to business. I hope you've been well these last few weeks, cooking all sorts of delicious things and enjoying the change of seasons. We've been busy, and also under the weather, which hasn't resulted in much cooking. But I'm back, and I've got a slaw to share today. I want to share it, so you can go and make it. There's no time to waste.

In my recipe browsing, I saw a recipe for red cabbage salad and thought, now whatever happened to red cabbage? I haven't touched it since sometime last year. It seems I'd forgotten about it. And while red cabbage brings braised, creamy joy in winter, it makes a fine base for a spring salad, too.

As you know, I dislike mayo and really don't use it, ever. Yogurt offered itself as a perfect substitute to make this slaw creamy. The dressing is tangy-tangy, from yogurt and lemon. It's got a healthy amount of black pepper, because I like a bright salad to have some lingering bite. And it's got plump golden raisins (which I soaked with some red onions in rice vinegar, to soften and season them), as well as fresh mint. So there's not much to it, but I tell you, when we served it for Saturday brunch, it got gobbled right up. The little leftovers were a late-afternoon snack, and by Sunday, I was off to the races again, fixing a fresh batch.

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I'm so, so happy it's spring. We've waited for this forever. The coming weeks will contain many un-frigid trips to the farmers' market, the glorious return of my beloved asparagus, cultishly obsessed hordes snatching up ramps and morels and fiddleheads, and yes, plenty more cooking. See you there.

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Red Cabbage Slaw with Golden Raisins and Mint serves 4-6

Half a red onion, sliced into thin quarter-moons 1 cup golden raisins 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar Half a medium-large head of red cabbage, shredded 1 cup fresh mint leaves, coarsely chopped

For the dressing: 1/4 cup yogurt 1 tablespoon mustard (I like either grainy or smooth dijon) 2 teaspoons honey 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil juice of 1 lemon 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a small mixing bowl, combine onions, raisins, and rice vinegar. Stir to coat, and set aside 30 minutes. (This step is nice, but not essential; if pressed for time, cut the vinegar in half, toss the ingredients together, and let sit while you prepare the rest of the salad.)

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing: combine all ingredients in a jar with a tight lid. Shake for 10 seconds until fully emulsified.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cabbage, onions and raisins (with whatever little vinegar remains in the bowl), and 3/4 cup of the mint. Pour half the dressing and toss the salad. Taste, and add more dressing as needed.

Sprinkle remaining mint on top of salad and serve. Salad can be made and mixed up to 1 hour in advance.

Barley Salad with Green Olives, Walnuts, and Raisins

The latest installment of my Weekday Lunch series, making midday meals the best part of your work week.

This time of year, our house is mostly a calm shade of grey. The scarce daylight hours feel like borrowed time, where after lazing around for a few two many minutes, I suddenly freak out that the sun is half gone, and drag my sluggish, slippered feet into the kitchen to bask in what little brightness is left before dusk. Hey there, January. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

As winter has tightened its hold, I've taken comfort in the various components of meals I've stowed away in our freezer. There are bags of cooked barley and brown rice, blanched green beans, and even kabocha squash braised in coconut milk. There is plenty of stock -- some poultry, leftover from Thanksgiving, and some vegetable, made from my carrot peelings and celery and leek scraps. These bits find their way into dinners and lunches: the stock becomes soup, the rice gets tucked under my new favorite aloo muttar (recipe soon!), and that kabocha -- I ate it alone, because it was perfect.

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Just before we left for Berlin, I took half a bag of the frozen barley and made this lovely salad that Heidi shared in the December issue of Food and Wine. Yes, I'm talking about salad. In January. Pick that jaw up off the floor.

Barley salad mise

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In my neck of the woods, non-kale greens are many months away. If a girl is gonna eat salad in January, she needs some variety. That's why I took a page from Heidi's playbook: Heidi is the queen of "grain bowl"-type dishes that combine all sorts of grains with whatever vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fruit are in season. I've been inspired by many of her concoctions, and this one is no exception. It's the sort of salad that flexes to meet the needs of your pantry and the occasion. You could double the barley and have a nicely-flavored grain side dish, or increase the amounts of the other ingredients to make it heavier on the fresh stuff. If I were doing that, I might add some diced celery, which would fit right in.

On substitutions: Heidi calls for farro, which I love, but man, is it expensive. I use it from time to time, but barley is a more economical choice. She also calls for Pecorino cheese. I rarely have it in the house, but I always, always have Parmesan. As tempted as I was to swap, I didn't, and I'd recommend you don't either. The Pecorino brings a clean, bright saltiness to this salad - one that doesn't overpower the olives and goes so well with the walnuts. Stick to Heidi's guidance on that one; she won't steer you wrong. Ditto on the Castelvetrano olives. Castelvetranos are juicier and fruitier than other olives, and much less salty and briny than the ones with pimento tucked inside, for example. They sound exotic, but they're actually quite easy to find: they're the big forest-green ones with taut skin. You can find them (pitted and ready to go!) at the Whole Foods olive bar, and TJ's also carries jars of them on occasion. Go forth.

Make it vegan: This salad becomes vegan in a snap. Skip the pecorino, add an extra quarter-cup or so of olives, boom.

it's a beaut

Barley Salad with Green Olives, Walnuts, and RaisinsAdapted from Heidi Swanson's recipe in Food and Wine

1 1/4 cups farro or barley (1/2 pound) Fine sea salt 1 cup walnuts (3 1/2 ounces) 2 1/2 cups pitted Castelvetrano or other green olives, chopped (11 ounces) 4 scallions, white and light green parts only, finely chopped 1/3 cup minced chives 2 tablespoons golden raisins 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon honey Shaved Pecorino cheese, for serving

Combine the farro or barley with 4 cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer, partially covered, until the grain is tender, about 20 minutes for farro and 45 minutes for barley. Drain, and spread it on a baking sheet to cool.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spread the walnuts on an unlined rimmed baking sheet, and toast for 7-9 minutes, until very fragrant. Let cool, then chop coarsely.

In a large bowl, combine the farro, walnuts, olives, scallions, chives, raisins, crushed red pepper, olive oil, lemon juice and honey and season with salt. Toss well. Transfer the salad to a platter or serving bowl, garnish with the cheese, and serve.

Heidi says the salad can be refrigerated overnight - just bring it back to room temperature, and add the cheese just before serving.

Kale Salad with Pickled Radishes and Pomegranate

We've officially overdosed on turkey. As is: in sandwiches, in hash with an egg on top (twice), in soup. I think we're done. Momentarily ignoring that fact that I can't really handle more poultry right now, I'm also mulling over some quasi-ambitious plans for Christmas Eve involving a whole duck with all of its pieces. It's cold out, though not as cold as it's going to get, and I'm trying to steel myself for a blustery, dark December.

But first, before it gets too cold to think about salad, I wanted to share this little number from our Thanksgiving table. It's pretty straightforward: curly kale, simple picked radishes, pomegranate seeds. A dressing made with plenty of really good mustard. That's about all.

At Thanksgiving, the kale was merely a prelude to a feast, so I kept things simple. That said, I think this would make a lovely bed for a piece of simple roasted salmon. Or you could bulk it up by adding slices of roasted chicken and some croutons.

I'm serving it tonight, alongside roasted fish with harissa and a farro salad from F&W that I can't wait to share with you. Dessert is baked apples, but just in case any of our guests are less finished with Tday than we are, there will also be leftover chocolate pecan pie.

Have a great weekend, folks.

Giveaway alert: In case you missed it, we're doing a giveaway of a lovely Nudo Olive Oil gift pack. Four 8-oz. canisters of olive oil (lemon, basil, chile, classic). To enter, leave a comment here by midnight on December 8th. Good luck! ~

Music to cook by: When my buddy Carol Blymire cookedthrough the French Laundry cookbook and the Alinea cookbook, she always shared the music that kept her jammin' to the end of the dish. I generally keep a pretty silent kitchen (clanging pots and splattering oil excepted), but today I listened to a new-to-me band called St. Lucia, and it may just become my new cooking jam. The musical kind - you know what I mean. ~

One year ago: Cocoa-Rye Raisin Bread Two years ago: Maple-Roasted Pears Three years ago: Mozzarella in Carrozza Four years ago: Cauliflower with Brown Butter Five years ago: Winter Salad with Pears and Manchego Six years ago: Saffron-Nutmeg Rice Pudding

Kale Salad with Pickled Radishes and Pomegranate Radishes adapted from David Lebovitz Serves 6-8

For the salad: 3/4 lb. (about 8 cups) curly kale, torn into pieces Seeds of one pomegranate (about 1 1/2 cups) 1/2 cup pickled radishes (recipe below) 1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds, optional

For the dressing: 1 1/2 tablespoons grainy mustard (choose one that you really enjoy) 2 tablespoons white wine or champagne vinegar (or substitute rice wine vinegar) 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

For the pickled radishes: 8 round red radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced 1 cup water 1 cup white vinegar 2 teaspoons sea salt 2 teaspoons honey 1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced 1/2 teaspoon cracked peppercorns 1 bay leaf 2 cloves 1 dried chile pepper, optional

Make the pickled radishes: In a small saucepan, bring the water, vinegar, sea salt, and honey to a boil, stirring until salt and honey have dissolved. Off the heat, add garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf, clove, and chile, if using. Pack the radishes into a pint jar, pour the hot liquid overtop, cover, and refrigerate. Pickes will be ready to use in 24-48 hours.

Make the dressing: Mix all ingredients in a jar, seal, and shake until combined.

Assemble the salad: Put kale in a large, wide bowl. Dress lightly, then massage kale with your hands to work the dressing into the leaves. Taste, and add more dressing as needed. Add and distribute remaining ingredients, toss to coat lightly with dressing, and serve.