If you live in the Midwest then now is the time for sweetcorn.
It comes to this neck of the woods in a flash in August and stays just a little while. A fleeting summer delight, it’s so sweet at this time of year that there’s no need to add salt or butter or any other such thing to it – it’s literally perfect as it is.
That’s not to say that I’m averse to dollying it up somehow – this grilled corn salsa is one of the most delicious ways to enjoy corn I’ve found. Throwing the corn on the bbq gives it such a deep, smoky flavour which reacts so well to the cilantro and cumin lime dressing (taken from this salad I blogged about earlier in the summer). Serve it with steaks or fish, or just scoop it up with corn tortilla chips and wash down with a cold beer.
Grilled Corn Salsa
Ingredients
- 2 ears of sweetcorn
- 1/4 red onion, diced
- 1/2 bunch of cilantro, diced
- 1/2 lime, juiced
- olive oil
- salt
- pinch of cumin
Directions
- Remove husks from corn and lightly coat in olive oil. Cook on the bbq right over the flames charring the corn slightly as you turn it.
- Place onion and cilantro in a bowl. Combine the lime juice, olive oil, cumin and salt in a small jam jar and shake. Set aside.
- Once corn has cooled down use a knife to gently slide down the sides of the corn, removing the kernels. Add the corn to the cilantro and onion, pour over dressing to taste, and toss. Adjust seasoning if needed. Serve with corn tortilla chips.
What fruits and vegetables signify summer to you? For me it’s strawberries and blueberries, sweetcorn and peaches, on a growing list.
Only in recent years have I started appreciating tomatoes as a summertime thang. For a long time I thought that I just didn’t like tomatoes much but then I realised my mistake: eating them in seasons other than summer. Tomatoes in the winter just suck. Instead of juicy they’re watery and they lack any sweetness and depth of colour. The flavour is all wrong.
Realising the error of my ways with tomatoes was one of the first steps in getting me interested in eating seasonally. Food simply tastes better when it’s grown in season. I find eating this way even more enjoyable because when things are only good for a short snap of time it makes you appreciate every ear of corn and pint of blueberries that much more. Summer comes and boom! It’s all I can do not to hoard tomatoes and make gallons of fresh sauce.
While raw tomatoes are so wonderful at the moment (thick slices with rounds of fresh mozzarella, basil leaves, a drizzle of oil and balsamic, ho yeah) – this dish is pretty special too. Make room for it in your life.
Freshly sliced tomatoes are dragged through a herbed creamy mixture before being roasted once and then roasted again covered in baguette-croutons and parmesan cheese. The result is a bubbly, crunchy, yet fresh taste of summer ready to be scooped up with yet more baguette.
Baked Tomatoes with Baguette
adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi for The Guardian
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp double cream or milk, if you’ve none on hand
- 2-4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
- 1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped (1/2 for cream mixture, 1/2 to sprinkle later)
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for the croutons
- 2 oz finely grated parmesan
- 2 lb tomatoes of as many colours and sizes as you can get
- 1 small French baguette, half to make croutons and half to serve
Directions
- Heat the oven to 200C/400F. In a small bowl, mix the cream/milk, anchovies, sugar, garlic, 1/2 the rosemary, oil and a third of the cheese. Cut larger tomatoes widthways into 1.5cm slices and halve smaller ones. Put them in a bowl and pour in the cream mix. Gently combine with your hands, so the tomatoes are coated, then place cut side up in a 8 x 10 inch ovenproof dish; bake for 15-20 minutes, until their edges start to crisp.
- Meanwhile, cut the crust off half the baguette and tear the bread into rough chunks ranging from small crumbs to bigger pieces – you should end up with 6 tbsp of croutons. Toss them in a tablespoon of oil, spread out on a baking sheet and bake alongside the tomatoes for seven minutes, until dry and lightly golden.
- Remove both trays from the oven and spread the croutons on top of the tomatoes. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and the remaining rosemary, and bake for seven minutes more, until the cheese has melted. Remove, set aside for 20-30 minutes (the flavour intensifies), then serve with the rest of the baguette.
Broccoli. How do you feel about it? Maybe not that excited. What about roasted broccoli – are you acquainted with it yet? I don’t expect it to excite anyone in the way that say, peanut butter cup bars might but I really love this stuff enough that here I am, blogging about broccoli.
Maybe, like me, you’ve eaten blanched and steamed broccoli for years and enjoyed it enough. What I didn’t know back then was that loving broccoli, craving broccoli was possible.
Take a whole head {two if you’re feeding more than a couple of mouths} and cut it into florets. Find some olive oil and douse your broccoli liberally with it, making sure every floret is shiny before you twist black pepper and sprinkle crunchy coarse sea salt.
That’s it. You can add slivers or chunks of garlic, herbs, or shavings of parmesan, but the nice part is you don’t have to use anything but oil, salt and pepper for this to taste amazing.
Pop it in the oven at 350F for 20-30 minutes (check on it to make sure you’re not charring the stuff) and it will come out roasted to perfection. Crispy edges and sweet, salty bites. I roast a batch whenever I can find an excuse. It’s so good to share, letting everyone dig into a bowl with forks, but honestly I enjoy it most when there’s an entire head of broccoli just for me to eat with salty fingers.
