Roasted Corn with Manchego and Lime

I hardly ever cook corn but I saw this recipe in bon appétit and it looked so delicious that I had to try it. Plus, it has cheese on it. That alone was enough to grab my attention. It’s very easy to make and it’s really tasty. If you add jalapeño, and I think you should, you’ll probably want to add it a little at a time. I combined the salad with the entire amount called for and it was just a tad too spicy.

My friend Johanna made this with me and we ate the corn with these pupusas she buys from Costco and fills with shredded pork as well as a homemade slaw. Man, that was a good meal.

Ingredients

• 6 ears of sweet yellow corn, unhusked
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons (¼ stick) unsalted butter
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 jalapeño, seeded, finely diced
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 lime, cut into 4 wedges
• 1 cup finely grated Manchego cheese
• ¼ cup thinly sliced chives
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 450°. Roast unhusked corn on a baking sheet, turning occasionally, until heated through and crisp-tender, about 15 minutes. Let cool. Shuck corn and cut kernels from cobs. Discard cobs.
• Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add corn kernels and sauté until heated through and light-golden in spots, 3-5 minutes. Add butter; stir until melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Transfer corn to a large wide bowl or deep platter; sprinkle jalapeño and crushed red pepper flakes over. Squeeze lime wedges over; sprinkle with cheese, chives, and lime zest.

~Christina

Rummy Apricot Compote

I have to state up front that this wasn’t supposed a be a “rummy” dish but you know how things go sometimes. It started off when I found a recipe for “Apricot Compote” in this month’s bon appétit magazine. I was visiting my friends Johanna and Mark and their daughter one Sunday and Johanna and I poured through a couple of recipe sources before deciding to make this. I was pretty excited, especially because I don’t eat apricots that often (not fresh ones, anyway) and I liked the fact that I could eat these with some Greek yogurt.

After cooking and chilling the apricots we took them out of the fridge and tasted them. Ugh. We were so bummed because they just tasted like chilled apricots. I cooked them in lime juice and sugar for 8 minutes and they tasted like I hadn’t done anything to them at all. Perhaps the problem was that the apricots weren’t ripe enough. They should probably need to be more than just-ripe. But the recipe does call for “firm ripe apricots.” Hmmm. Maybe it wasn’t my fault after all.

So Mark mentions that the apricots would probably taste really good cooked in rum. Rum! And that’s what we did. Johanna added some sugar and rum to a skillet and we re-cooked the apricots in that mixture. Ah, so much better! The sugar and rum amounts you will have to determine on your own. It really is about personal preference with this one.

Ingredients

• 1 lb firm ripe apricots, halved, pitted
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 – 3 tbsp sugar
• Greek yogurt or vanilla ice cream
• Fresh tarragon leaves (optional)
• Rum (optional)

Directons

1. Combine apricots, lime juice and sugar in a large skillet. Cook over medium heat, turning occasionally, until apricots are glazed and syrupy, 7-8 minutes. If you’re going to add rum, I would do it at the end – when the fruit is glazed.
2. Transfer to a small bowl and chill.
3. Serve with yogurt or ice cream and garnish with tarragon leaves, if desired.

~Christina

No Mayo Macaroni Salad

This is another great picnic or party dish that light but full of flavor. And it only takes about 20 minutes to make from start to finish which might be the best part. No, it’s the taste. I saw this on Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks site (Have I mentioned how much I love her work? If not, you should check her out). Since I was planning to make this for myself and not a crowd, I divided the recipe by fourths and just made a quarter of the amount. It worked out perfectly. You’ll have to adjust the ingredients a bit to your taste. I love garlic so I used a little (ok, maybe a lot) more than the recipe calls for but you might want to increase the salt, pepper, lemon, etc. Another thing I really love about this recipe is the fact that it doesn’t require mayonnaise. I’m not anti-mayo but I always love an alternative.

Ingredients

• 1 pound elbow macaroni
• 1/4 cup / 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cups thinly sliced green onions {~3-4 bunches}
• 3 medium cloves garlic, chopped
• fine grain sea salt
• lots of freshly ground black pepper
• zest and juice of one lemon
• 1/3 cup / 2 oz grated Parmesan
• 4 big handfuls arugula
• 1 large apple, diced

Directions

1. Cook the macaroni in a large pot of well-salted water per package instructions. Set aside at least 1/2 cup / 120ml pasta water. Then drain pasta and set aside.
2. In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a large skillet until hot. Add most of the green onions, all of the garlic, and a pinch of salt. Cook until the onions soften, and the garlic begins to take on some color, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for a couple minutes.
3. Use a hand blender or food processor to puree the green onion mixture along with 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, zest of the lemon, half the lemon juice, and the reserved pasta water. Puree and taste. The green onion flavor should be assertive. Stir in the Parmesan.
4. Combine the macaroni with the green onion sauce in a large bowl. Toss well. Add the arugula and most of the apple and toss again. Taste, and add more pepper, salt, or lemon juice if needed. Serve topped with the remaining apple and green onion.

~Christina

Summer Crostini

What could be more appropriate to eat on American Independence Day than cherries? For a summer picnic I made two different types of crostini, made light and bright with a base of lemony ricotta. The first was topped with sliced figs and honey. I made two versions of the fig crostini. The first time, I used chestnut honey and I discovered that do no like chestnut honey for the same reason I don’t like sheep’s milk cheeses. To me, sheep’s milk cheeses remind me of the smell of a petting zoo. When we were little and went to the petting zoo we would feed little goats and sheep with a handful of pellets you could buy for 25 cents. I have never forgotten that smell, unfortunately, because whenever I eat cheeses made of sheep’s milk I can “taste” the smell of sheep. I don’t know if all chestnut honey tastes like this or it was the region or producer that made a difference but I was not a fan. So I made the fig crostini a second time with regular clover honey and it was much better.

The cherry crostini is simple and delicious. It’s sweeter than the fig crostini but you can control the level of sweetness with the amount of sugar you use. Lastly, I squeezed lemon juice into the ricotta but feel free to use lemon zest if you prefer.

Fig and Honey Crostini

Ingredients

• figs
• honey of choice
• lemon juice (or zest)
• ricotta
• baguette of choice

Directions

1. Cut baguette at an angle into slices. Brush with olive oil and toast in a 375° oven for approximately 5 minutes.
2. Add lemon juice or zest to ricotta to desired taste. Spread on toasted bread slices.
3. Slice figs and place on top of each slice. Drizzle with honey.
4. You can also sprinkle the crostini with salt and pepper, if you wish.

Cherry Crostini

Ingredients

• sweet cherries
• light brown sugar
• ricotta
• lemon
• baguette

Directions

1. De-pit and chop the cherries. Add brown sugar and mash them until combined and a little juicy.
2. While the cherries are sitting, brush the baguette slices with olive oil and toast in the oven.
3. Add lemon juice or zest to ricotta to desired taste. Spread on toasted bread slices.
4. Spoon cherries on top of each slice.

~Christina

Poached Chicken with Lemon Sauce

Here’s a pretty light chicken dish I made the other night. I actually made it twice. The first time I attempted it I was rushing and I did everything wrong so it didn’t turn out the way it should have. I didn’t measure the lemon juice and the sauce turned out way too lemony for my taste. Plus, I over-cooked the leeks and the sauce turned brown. It was a mess. The taste wasn’t the worst but I was really disappointed in myself. Luckily, I had bought twice the amount of ingredients I needed so I was able to try it again a few days later and it was much better. The flavor is not super strong or overpowering which I like, especially for a summer meal. It also doesn’t take long to make it. It would be a good idea to chop, juice and measure as much as you can at the start so you don’t end up over-cooking anything, as I did.

From Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp butter or extra virgin olive oil
• 2 leeks, washed well and diced, including some of the green part, or 2 small onions, diced
• ½ cup dry white wine or water
• ½ cup chicken or vegetable stock or water
• ½ tsp chopped fresh thyme or tarragon leaves or a good pinch dried
• Approximately 1½ lbs boneless white-meat chicken (breasts, cutlets, or tenders), cut into 1- to 1½-inch chunks
• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Put half the butter or oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the butter is melted or the oil is hot, add the leeks and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the wine, stock, and herb; bring to a boil and let bubble for a minute or two.
2. Add the chicken, turn the heat down to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the meat is barely cooked through, 5 or 6 minutes. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and keep warm.
3. Turn the heat up to high and cook the sauce rapidly, stirring occasionally, until just about ¾ cup remains; this will take 5 to 10 minutes. Lower the heat to medium-low, add the lemon juice, then stir in the remaining butter or oil, a bit at a time. If you’re using oil, add it gradually, stirring vigorously with the back of a spoon as you do so.
4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and return the chicken to the sauce to heat through.

~Christina