Corn Off the Cob

As a kid, I wasn't big on vegetables, except for corn. (When I was about eight or so, I had a favorite dish: I cut a broiled steak into bite-size pieces, mixed it with some corn -- the Green Giant Niblets variety-- and  voila! Corn Beef! ) But it was corn on the cob that I loved best of all. My father's passion was gardening. Vegetables and fruit trees, mostly. Corn especially. Starting in mid-July, about every other day, we'd put a big pot of water on the stove and go out in the garden and pick that evening's corn. By the time the water was boiling, the ears were shucked and ready to cook. It didn't matter how often we had it; I never got
tired of it.

Today, I think corn on the cob is still my favorite summer vegetable. But now, I also like to find interesting ways to make it off the cob. Last fall, I was searching through some of Mark Bittman's old Minimalist columns in the online version of The New York Times. His recipe for Sauteed Corn and Tomato Salad caught my eye, but it was too late in the year for the best corn and tomatoes. So I filed it away for another year. Fortunately, I found it again recently, just in time to enjoy it with this season's crop.

There's a whole lot of  flavor going on in this delicious dish. The corn gets sauteed until its almost brown, so it has a nice, semi-caramelized taste. There's a little bit of bacon to give it a smoky depth, some lime juice, which combines with the bacon for a tangy vinaigrette, and avocado that adds a cooling texture. There are even some Thai bird chilies to provide a little heat.

Sauteed Corn and Tomato salad makes a great side for just about any meal. If you have any leftover, put it between some corn tortillas with a little cheese and you have yourself a mighty fine quesadilla.

Pan-Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad
Mark Bittman, The New York Times
August 19th, 2009
Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1/4 pound bacon, chopped (I used some of my brother-in-law's home-cured bacon, but any tasty slab bacon should do.)
1 small red onion, chopped
4 to 6 ears corn, stripped of their kernels (2 to 3 cups)
Juice of 1 lime, or more to taste
2 cups cored and chopped tomatoes
1 medium ripe avocado, pitted, peeled and chopped
2 fresh small chilies, like Thai, seeded and minced
Salt and black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, more or less.

Instructions
1. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it begins to render fat; add onion and cook until just softened, about 5 minutes, then add corn. Continue cooking, stirring or shaking pan occasionally, until corn begins to brown a bit, about 5 more minutes; remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Drain fat if you wish.
2. Put lime juice in a large bowl and add bacon-corn mixture; then toss with remaining ingredients. Taste, adjust the seasoning and serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 4 servings.

Adios Tomatoes!

Here in Portsmouth, the swamp maples are turning red. Our winter feeder birds—juncos, bluebirds, and white-throats—have arrived. Migrating warblers are passing through. Signs of deepening fall are everywhere, but I can’t stop thinking about tomatoes.

Earlier this week in Boston, when a timely flyer on my car windshield reminded me that the Farmers Market at Prudential Center was still open, I'd headed right over. Immediately, my eye was drawn to the colorful selection of beautifully ripe heirloom tomatoes at the stand run by MacArthur Farm of Holliston, MA. That's when I realized I’d yet to make one of my favorite summer recipes: tomato paella.

I first discovered this dish two years ago, thanks to Mark Bittman’s Minimalist column in the New York Times. Because it's so simple, the quality of the ingredients is key here, especially the tomatoes. Don’t try it with tomatoes you find in the supermarket, unless they’re local, farm grown. The recipe itself is pretty straight forward. You core and cut the tomatoes into wedges, season them, and put them in a bowl, so you can capture all the wonderful juices.

Next, you fry up some minced onion, garlic, and a chili pepper (my addition), then saute with saffron and smoked Spanish paprika. The recipe says these are optional, but to me, they form a deep, essential flavor base.

For the rice, a quality short-grained rice is a must. This time, I used a Carnoroli "risotto-style" rice, but I've successfully substituted short-grained brown rice as well.
I also prefer the richness provided by homemade chicken stock, but if you don't have any, you can use water.

You’re welcome to turn this into a traditional paella, adding meat and seafood like shrimp, mussels, or clams. But I love it this way, as a main course on a hot summer night, or as a side to roast pork or chicken on a cool October evening. It’s a great way to say “via con dias” to last of the season’s tomatoes.

(By the way, the Prudential Center Farmers Market is from 11 to 6 on Thursdays through the end of October, on the Boylston Street Plaza.)

Mark Bittman's Paella With Tomatoes
The Minimalist, New York Times, September 5, 2007

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups stock or water
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into thick wedges
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 small minced hot pepper (optional)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Large pinch saffron threads (optional)
2 teaspoons Spanish pimentón (smoked paprika), or other paprika
2 cups Spanish or other short-grain rice
Minced parsley for garnish

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Warm stock or water in a saucepan. Put tomatoes in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle them with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss to coat.

2. Put remaining oil in a 10- or 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic (and chili, if using), sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, saffron if you are using it, and paprika and cook for a minute more. Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is shiny, another minute or two. Add liquid and stir until just combined.

3. Put tomato wedges on top of rice and drizzle with juices that accumulated in bottom of bowl. Put pan in oven and roast, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Check to see if rice is dry and just tender. If not, return pan to oven for another 5 minutes. If rice looks too dry but still is not quite done, add a small amount of stock or water (or wine). When rice is ready, turn off oven and let pan sit for 5 to 15 minutes.

4. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with parsley. If you like, put pan over high heat for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust before serving.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Behold The Mayo

When my brother-in-law Dave fantasizes about making a meal from scratch, he means literally from scratch. Like the BLTs  we concocted for lunch last Saturday. Actually the project (yes, at our house, lunch can sometimes be a project) began the week before when Dave began curing a pork belly he had purchased from Tim Rocha at Kellie Brook Farm near Portsmouth.

First, Dave cured the pork belly in the fridge for five days, using a blend of pink salt, kosher salt, dark brown sugar, and maple syrup, a recipe from Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Then he smoked the pork over maple wood for six hours in his electric Bradley Smoker, one of the top ten best inventions of all time.

Now that we had a beautiful hunk of bacon, we were ready to head off to the Seacoast Grower's Market in Portsmouth in search of the rest of the ingredients for our ultimate summer sandwich. In anticipation, Dave had already prepared the dough for his special sourdough bread, which was rising in a warm spot in the sun room.

At market, we chose arugula from Nelson Farms and bought some green zebras from Garen of Back River Farm. When the time came to make lunch, we washed the lettuce, sliced the tomatoes and just-baked bread, and fried up the bacon. Then came the final task: whipping up some homemade mayonnaise, made with an organic egg purchased that morning from Charlie of Stone Wall Farm.

While I know all about the dangers of eating uncooked eggs--and only recommend that you do so with eggs you can trust--until you behold the taste of homemade mayonnaise, you won't believe the astonishing difference it makes with any sandwich, even if you haven't gone to the trouble of making the bread and bacon yourself.

Best of all, it's easy.We used the recipe for instant mayonnaise from Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, also by Michael Ruhlman, a fabulous reference book that every devoted home cook should own. Though we used the immersion blender, we whisked it at the end to incorporate just a little more air.

Michael Ruhlman's Instant Mayonnaise

(Works best with ingredients at room temperature)
1 large egg yolk, preferably organic or farm-raised
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil (or more as you need it, adjusting the lemon juice accordingly)

Combine the yolk, water, lemon juice, and salt in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring glass. Buzz it once with an immersion blender to mix. Add a few drops of oil, holding the blender to the bottom of the cup and blending until an emulsion forms, 2 to 3 seconds. With the blade running, pour the remaining oil slowly into the cup, beginning to lift the immersion blender up and down to incorporate all the oil. Once you start blending the process should take 15 to 20 seconds.

If you don't have an immersion blender: whisk the mayonnaise in a large bowl, with a dish towel twisted around the base to stablize it. Begin whisking the yolk, then drizzle in a few drops of oil, while whisking until the emulsion forms. Then whisk continuously, adding the remaining oil in a thin stream.

If the emulsion breaks: simply pour the mixture back into the oil cup, add a teaspoon of water to the empty bowl and a little more egg yolk, if you have it, then pour the broken mayonnaise drop by drop into the water, while whisking or blending to reform the emulsion. Continue to add the broken mayonnaise in a thin stream.

Makes 1/2 cup

.

The First Ratatouille of Summer

I stopped by the farmer's market in Boston's Copley Square the other day, in search of some baby golden cauli-flower. I was looking forward to making this delicious pasta sauce that gives your mouth the sensation of a creamy alfredo, but without the fat and calories. I believe this dish was created by George Germon and Johanne Killeen of Al Forno fame--I think it was from a Boston Globe article about what chefs make for Valentine's Day--but I long ago lost both the article and the recipe, so now I have to make it up as I go along.

Anyway, I stopped by Siena Farms, one of my favorite stands. (It's owned by Farmer Chris, husband of Oleana's Ana Sortun.) I didn't see any cauliflower, but there were some beautiful San Marzano tomatoes, which got me thinking about another one of my favorite summer dishes: ratatouille.

The thing that makes this recipe so special is that instead of stewing everything in a big pot on top of the stove, you first roast the eggplant, onions, squash, and peppers in the oven, then mix
it with a quick-simmered sauce of plum tomatoes seasoned with garlic, minced chilies, and some thyme. It has a deep, rich flavor and a hearty texture the stove-top versions lack.

The recipe, which I found in Gourmet, is actually a sauce for pasta, but I've never served it that way. Usually, I use it as a side with grilled lamb from the Chestnut Lamb Co-op stand at the Seacoast Grower's Farmer's Market in Portsmouth, NH, which is what I'm going to do this time. Oh, and as soon as I find that cauliflower, I'll share that recipe with you. too.


Ratatouille with Penne -- from Gourmet, September 1999
Active time: 1 1/2 hours; total time: 1 3/4 hours

2 eggplants (about 1 1/2 lbs) cut into 1/2" cubes
4 onions, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
coarse kosher salt to taste
4 yellow squash (about 1 1/2 lbs) cut into 1/2" cubes (I sometimes use a mixture of yellow and zucchini)
2 large red peppers (cut into 1/2" cubes)

1 hot pepper, minced
8 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
7 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 lbs penne rigate (with ridges) (if serving with pasta)
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste (if serving with pasta)


Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Stir together eggplant, onion, 1/4 cup olive oil, and kosher salt in a large roasting pan, then roast mixture in middle of oven, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Stir in squash, bell peppers, 2 T olive oil, and more salt, and roast, stirring occasionally, until peppers are tender, 25 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, simmer tomatoes, garlic, minced hot pepper, thyme, remaining 2 T olive oil, and kosher salt in a heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 12 to 15 minutes.

If serving without pasta, turn tomato mixture into eggplant mixture, season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in basil and parsley and serve while warm or at room temperature. Serves approximately 12 as a side dish.

If serving with pasta, cook the penne in a six-quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente, and drain. Meanwhile combine eggplant mixture and tomato mixture and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in basil and parsley. Toss penne with 1/3 of the ratatouille, and served topped with remainder. Sprinkle with cheese, if desired.

NOTE: Ratatouille can be made 2 days ahead and chilled. Reheat before using with pasta. Serves 6 as a main dish.