June 22, 2009

Summer Corn Salad

Last night, we deep fried a turkey.

Yes, I know it's stiffling hot outside...but it was much nicer to have NOT heated up the kitchen for dinner.

Since I wanted to avoid the traditional--and heavy--turkey fixin's like mashed potatoes & stuffing with this meal, I made this instead:


Summer Corn Salad

Ingredients:

4 ears of corn
1 cup haricots verts (tiny whole green beans) *
1 orange (or red or yellow) bell pepper, seeded & chopped
1 small package of grape (or cherry) tomatoes, quartered
3 green onions, sliced
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
olive oil
salt & pepper

* You can find these in the frozen veggie section of your grocery store.

Directions:
  • Blanch the corn in boiling water. You want it to be cooked, but still retain its crunch. Remove from water & plunge into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.
  • Steam the green beans in a colander over the corn as it cooks. You also want them to stay crunchy and green. Plunge them into the ice water with the corn.
  • Cut the kernels off of the corn cob by standing it upright into a bowl and using a sharp knife to cut down the sides of the cob...or use a corn cutter.
  • Combine the corn with the green beans, bell pepper, tomatoes, and green onions.
  • Gather the basil leaves into neat pile, roll up like a cigar, and slice into ribbons. Add to the salad.
  • Dress the salad with the lemon juice, a few tablespoons of olive oil, salt & pepper to taste.
This salad keeps well, so you can make it ahead of time. And the next day, you can use it to make one hell of a frittata (add bacon, of course).

2 comments:

Coco Bean said...

Thanks for the heads up on TWD. I can't believe you deep fried a turkey! I have only heard of horror stories surrounding a deck, a turkey, overflowing oil, and lots of flames! Good job.
The summer salad sounds delicious and simple, great for a hot day.

Steph said...

Sounds terrific! Very colorful too!