Warm Corn & Ham Salad

We started the week out with 6 ears of corn. I really like corn - but have never really been in a position to use this much all at once. The last few weeks I've simply frozen the bounty, but this week was inspired to use all of it.

Rather than just eat in on the cob - which isn't so good if the corn sits in the refrigerator for days and days - I cooked all 6 ears at the same time when we ate corn earlier in the week, and cut them off the cob for last night's dinner. Again, I turned to Mark Bittman for ideas. He has a recipe for a warm corn and ham salad that sounded tasty, especially since P and I found a really good ham in the deli section of the local Loblaw's. This ham tastes like what you'd make at home - but without having to buy a whole ham.

For those who envision a mayonnaise-laden salad when hearing "ham salad," this is far from that. It's simply some onion and ham sauteed in a pan until browned (I added a jalapeno from the balcony garden), with some corn and frozen soy beans added to heat through. The dish is then finished with a bit of wine vinegar, parsley, and salt and pepper. Bittman originally called for lima beans, but since neither P nor I like them, we used soy beans; the only white wine vinegar I had on hand was champagne vinegar, which worked fine. This was a great way to use the corn and onion from the box, as well as one more jalapeno from the garden. It was equally delicious for lunch today.

As an accompaniment, P made onion rings with our new deep fryer. Though his recipe is still being perfected, I think freshly-made onion rings are probably more delicious than most you'll get in a restaurant - there's that fresh-from-the-fryer taste that is hard to get when moving the onions from the kitchen out to a restaurant table.

Lebanese potato and warm cabbage salads

Tonight's dinner was another go at making the vegetables more interesting - and in this case, having no meat as a main or side. The cabbage we got in the box a couple of weeks ago was still good, as were the potatoes from the week before, so I combed through my new favorite cookbook (Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express: 404 inspired seasonal dishes you can make in 20 minutes or less) for some interesting recipes.

Two recipes appealed to me, though they fell in the "wrong" seasons. Warm Cabbage Salad with Bacon was designated a winter recipe; Lebanese Potato Salad was apparently meant for the spring. Obviously, though, these are just suggestions - the primary vegetable players in both recipes are clearly in season now.

The Lebanese Potato Salad was delicious - I'm not sure what made it Lebanese, but it was still tasty. While Bittman called for sprinkling some coriander seeds in it, I got it mixed up with another recipe and threw in some mustard seeds instead. Still tasty, though the coriander might have been what made it Lebanese...in any case, I'd make it again.

As for the cabbage, I'm curious how it tastes cold. Warm, it was a bit like a sauerkraut with a bit of bacon. P thought it definitely needed more bacon to make even adding it worthwhile; it was hard to even notice it within the giant pile of cabbage and onion. Maybe with sausages on a cold winter night this would be a better fit - otherwise, I don't think this will reappear on the menu any time soon. When it's cold it might make a good slaw or sauerkraut substitute - we'll see.

With the salads, we had some fresh steamed corn, which was delicious. What was arguably the most successful part of the meal, though, was the cornbread I made. Yes, we had cornbread last week. Yes, I love cornbread, and I would eat it every day. P, however, does not. He thinks cornbread is just okay, and will usually only politely eat a bit of it. This cornbread, though, has been declared The Best Cornbread Ever.

Embarrassingly, the actual cornbread part of it comes from a mix. It is the best cornbread mix out there (Jiffy - I think only available in the U.S.), but still, it's a mix. P has eaten cornbread made from this mix on several occasions, though, so it's what's added that made the difference. The cornbread I made last week was a bit of inspiration.

The Best Cornbread Ever or
Almost-All-Homemade Jalapeno Cornbread

1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup creamed corn
2 large jalapenos, diced
1 green onion, sliced thinly

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 9 inch pan.

Dump the dry mix into a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix until just combined. Pour into pan. Bake for 18 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

I used a 9 x 9 inch pan; the directions on the box call for an 8 x 8 inch pan. Just watch when it's done, and the size change won't make any difference. Obviously, the smaller the pan, the thicker the cornbread. If you're using something other than Jiffy, my additions to the recipe on the box were the creamed corn, the jalapenos, and the green onion; otherwise, just follow the directions on the box.

Tex-Mex chicken and jalapeno cornbread

I love, love, love cornbread - so when I saw the The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon, I had to buy it. A whole cookbook full of over 200 cornbread recipes? How could I resist?

Combine a new cornbread cookbook and a bunch of fresh jalapenos from our balcony garden, and the results are obvious: jalapeno cornbread. The recipe I used was Jane's Texas-via-Vermont Mexican Cornbread. And while I'd be happy just eating cornbread for an entire meal, we also made Tex-Mex Chicken with Chilis and Cheese, from the June/July 2009 issue of Fine Cooking. Both were delicious - and though there were four jalapenos between the two, neither were too spicy.

If you're in the market for a cooking magazine and can only have one, Fine Cooking should be it. There's always a set of quick weeknight recipes in the back that - unlike what Michael Pollen decries in his recent New York Times Magazine article - are actual cooking. The rest of the magazine has gorgeous photography and interesting recipes, and usually has one weekend project and a general recipe that can be modified many different ways (like ice cream flavors, or lasagna). (Now, if you can have two cooking magazines, I'd recommend Cook's Illustrated.)

There are still at least two more jalapenos on the plant, so I'll have to think about what to do with those. In the meantime, I'm having some cornbread for dessert.

This week's haul

This week's box is full of things I'm very excited to use:

- 7 ears of corn
- 3 tomatoes
- a head of cauliflower
- a head of lettuce
- a cucumber
- 2 carrots

I'm really looking forward to the corn and tomatoes; I think those are the vegetables that evoke summer to me the most. Even if the weather isn't super summery, the food in my kitchen can be!