Smokey corn and cabbage salad
Often when I cook I start out with a vague idea of where I want the meal to end up…no not in my belly silly…I mean how it will taste and what it will look like. On Monday I cooked six ears of corn knowing that we wouldn’t eat them all but that I could use them in a salad on Tuesday night. So I actually started thinking about Tuesday night’s dinner while I was making Monday’s dinner.
On Tuesday I planned to fritter away the whole day learning some new applications on my adorable new laptop. Isn’t it cute…I’ve covered it with my moo picture stickers…oh such a delight! It’s powered by Linux…specfically the Ubuntu, Feisty Fawn distribution. I’m now a huge fan of Linux and the whole learning curve has been painless thanks to the sweet, sweet GH. Open source rules!!!
Back to the food…I managed to tear myself away from Lappy (yes I named my laptop) long enough to get some pork chops out of the freezer to defrost. Later, I dug through the freezer again and found a jar labeled “spicy marinade” and felt resonably confident that it would go well with pork…doesn’t everything. While I pulled a double espresso I defrosted the marinade in the microwave and plunked the chops into it for a soak.
At six I headed into the kitchen and began putting dinner together. In the refrigerator was a red bell pepper, cabbage, a purple onion, the corn plus there were three tomatoes on the counter. I roasted the bell pepper over the flame on my cooktop as I chopped the cabbage, sliced the corn off the cob, and diced the onion and tomatoes. This all got thrown into a large bowl. Once the pepper was roasted I removed the loose charred skin and seeds, diced it, and added it to the bowl. In a mixing cup I combined 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1/3 cup lime juice, and 1/3 cup olive. I always keep bottles of Santa Cruz lime and lemon juice in the refrigerator…they work so well in marinades and dressings. I stirred that up well and added a teaspoon of Spanish smoked paprika and a 1/4 teaspoon of chilpotle. Once that was well combined I tossed the salad. The pork chops were on and off the grill in no time at all and dinner was served.
The salad worked so well with the pork chops. The smoky spicy flavors of the paprika and chipotle played accented the sweetness of the roasted pepper and corn. The cabbage might seem like an odd addition but it really was pleasant. The acidity of the lime juice boosted the flavors. My favorite was a small bite of pork with some salad on the fork too. Perfect easy summer dinner.
For those of you that like a recipe click for the printer-friendly version.
Finally, a brief aside about this blog. Over the summer I’ve been tweaking the design and layout. I upgraded WP and my theme to the most current releases. I’ve got my fabulous, colorful banner and I’ve resigned myself to tolerating the small photo size (I’m at 461px on the width and I lust after 580px). I removed all ads because, well really…they’re never going to actually pay enough to balance out their inherent ugliness. I’ve cleaned up the sidebar and added a few flickr mosiacs…hopefully they don’t slow the loading speed down too much. Today I added a new “related posts” feature at the bottom of each post. I hope it behaves and serves us well but if not I’ll bring it in line or kick it out. If you have any comments or suggestions please let me know. Thanks for reading!
Chicago…a tangy, cheesy inspiration
We spent a long weekend in Chicago, arriving on the heels of a gigantic storm that ripped up ancient trees and downed power lines. Although Friday afternoon was steamy and hot, Saturday and Sunday were clear and sunny. This is the view from the apartment we stayed in, thanks to the gracious kindness of GH’s sister… it was great!
On a walk down Astor Place we passed this secret garden, locked up tight, but the view was free for the taking. Check out the little aqueduct that flows past a pair of sphinx.
I love to take photos of ornamental stonework…this sandstone example reminds me of thistle leaves.
We browsed a farmers’ market on Divison between State and N. Clark. There were lots of peaches for sale but I wasn’t buying…I didn’t want to carry them all day. I have yet to eat a peach this season but I hope to fix that situation this week.
We ate so many fabulous meals …excellent sushi, an absolutely perfect brioche french toast with mascarpone chese, chicago hot dogs, lobster rolls, cannollis. Saturday night we went to Second City to see Pratfall of Civilization. It was a hilarious revue of our crazy culture and I laughed so hard at the comedy terriorist skit (they tell jokes that bomb) that I had tears in my eyes. Before the show we ate a delightful middle eastern meal at Old Jerusalem. They serve a salad of tomatoes, cucumber, and onions dressed with yogurt, lemon juice, and feta cheese. It was good at the restaurant and when I got home today I saw all the ingredients (except cucmbers) sitting in my refrigerator waiting for me to recreate it’s fabulousness. So after a few hours of pulling gigantic weeds from my flower garden I went inside and prepared a quick dinner of leftover curry with jasmine rice and a side salad ala Old Jerusalem. It’s tangy and cheesy…I love it.
Old Jerusalem Salad
4 small tomatoes
1 small onion
handful of basil
1/3 cup of plain yogurt
juice of one lemon
1/3 feta cheese, grated
Chop the tomatoes and onion in a large dice, salt lightly. Mix the yogurt, lemon juice, and feta in a bowl. Add the tomatoes and onions. Stir and top with the chopped basil.
Click here for the recipe.
