Marcella Cooking Stuff • July 5th - July 11th
July 5th - July 11th
It's the middle of July. It's hot, humid, and the AC is pumping. I bet you have spent some time by a pool, floating in a lake, or at the beach (socially distant of course). July means we are in the middle of corn season. Last week on our drive to and from the lake we stared at fields of corn. Hours and hours of corn. Corn is the number one crop grown in the US and corn screams SUMMER. At least to me, eating corn means it's summer.
Corn is grown in almost every state and can be found year-round but there is nothing better than in-season corn. Plump juicy kernels bursting with sweet flavor...yes, please!
So what are we making with all this corn? Our go-to on any weeknight is my grilled corn salad. If you don't have a grill, you can boil the corn or even better keep the kernels raw. Trust me on this. I'm adding kernels to pizza, salads, and salsas. This week I made a Corn Risotto. Cornbread is always a good idea and Mexican Sweet Corn Cake sounds even better. I want to try adding it to onion dip and you know I will be pickling some corn too. Most importantly before summer is over I will 100% make sweet corn ice cream.
Growing up my grandma Marge made her corn pudding every Easter. It was the highlight of Easter and the first thing I went for. Last November I attended a Friendsgiving here in KC and my new friend brought his grandmas corn pudding...🤔. Upon further investigation, I learned this corn pudding is a Jiffy Spoon Bread Casserole recipe. I'm sure there are grandmas all over the country that have been making it for years. I would like to recreate this recipe I grew up eating. Using fresh corn, probably grilled, and adding more flavors. Scallions maybe? It is on my to-do list.
Some will say corn is overrated but I strongly disagree. We have access to corn year-round but it won't be as tasty is it is now. Embrace it and eat a lot of it!!! Make sure to try it raw in a salad at least once before summer is over and send me a message to tell me your thoughts!
Monday
Shrimp Pad Thai
Pad Thai is on my list of easy meals to throw together when I don't want to cook. To most, it may sound intimidating but when you read the recipe it has minimal ingredients, comes together in 15 minutes, and only uses one pan. It's an OG "one-pan weeknight meal" lol.
Night + Market's recipe is the one I always use. If Thai cooking sounds scary, get his book! I will be talking about it forever because it's wonderful. In all honestly, I need to pull it out and try something new from it. It has been a while.
I took Marco with me to Sprout's and Costco. We got a ton of groceries and...a new TV. So after putting everything away and mounting a heavy 75 inch TV we were tired. We curled up on the couch with flavorful pad Thai noodles and called it a day.
Tuesday
Carnitas Tacos
Stewed Cranberry Beans
Flipped from Thai to Mexican. I restocked my freezer with pork shoulder. I only bought 8 pounds this time and cut them into steaks instead of cubes before freezing. Grilled pork steaks are in our future.
I used four of the eight pounds to make my Carnitas. It's an easy crockpot recipe that comes out great every time. I promise. Along with the 6 pounds of beans I ordered from Ranch Gordo recently, I also ordered dried chipotles and Mexican oregano. I hydrated a chipotle in hot water and pureed it with 1/4 an onion. I added that to the crockpot as a substitute for the jalapeno in my carnitas recipe. I was hoping to achieve some added layers of smokiness and I did. What shined through more was actually bold oregano flavor. So it could have used more chipotle, maybe two? This was a good reminder of how important fresh and flavorful dried spices are.
This week I want to encourage you guys to clean out your spice cabinet. Anything over a year old most likely doesn't have much flavor. Find a use for it in the next few weeks and then re-stock. To prevent wasting dry spices and herbs try to buy them in small quantities. I also recommend spending a little bit more on small-batch spices with a short supply chain. Kinda like produce, the faster it is dried, packaged, and delivered to your kitchen the more flavor they will have.
Here are some that I like to buy from:
Frontier Co-op *Best grocery store brand
The Spice House *Has the biggest variety
Click here for a 15% code to The Spice House.
One last note if you can, buy an extra coffee grinder, and grind whole spices at home as you need them. This is the best.
I think we need a newsletter doing a deep dive into dry spices and herbs, what do we think?
To go with our tacos I stewed 1 cup of soaked cranberry beans with, 2T bacon grease, 1/2 onion, 1/2 a bunch of cilantro stems, and 4 cups broth. Topped with fresh Pico De Gallo for brightness. Nothing better than a flavorful bowl of beans!
Wednesday
Grilled Chicken Summer Salad
You'll notice that the chicken above is not grilled...that is because I ran out of propane mid grill 🤬. And I knew I would. Tuesday night I checked and said to myself, "you won't have enough." Before cooking I said to myself "I bet I'm going to run out." I had time to go to the store and I didn't. I knew I didn't have enough to successfully grill a whole chicken but I was still pissed when it ran out. The bird was at 145 degrees, I was just getting ready to move it on to the flames, and...I was out. I moved the chicken into the oven. It didn't have crispy skin with perfect grill marks but at least it was still juicy and cooked well.
Early in the morning I spatchcocked the chicken and popped it in a bag to marinate. Olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, salt, and pepper is all I used.
The salad was composed of:
Heirloom tomatoes
Grilled corn
Grilled red onions
Grilled bell peppers
Avocado
Feta
Baby romaine
Parsley
A note on grilling corn, I have always removed the husks and grilled corn directly over the flames. This gives you great color and char but in all honesty, the corn can dry out. The best part of corn is the juicy explosive kernels. This time I left the husks on and grilled the corn. Yes, the husks will totally burn and that's fine because you take them off anyway. The corn was cooked, juicy, and had nice flavor. It lacked grill marks but I didn't miss them.
I used a simple dressing of 1T balsamic, 1T lemon juice, 1T honey dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and 3-4 T olive oil. My favorite dressing.
This was a perfect summer salad.
Marco rating 9/10.
Thursday
Baked Eggs + Smoked Salmon
Grilled Chicken + Artichoke Pasta Salad
Back when quarantine started, and I bought a bunch of frozen produce that I normally don't use, I bought frozen hashbrowns. Well after staring at them for months I decided to finally use them.
I cooked them in a pan with sliced scallions. A little too dark but that's okay. I was planning on cracking eggs right into the potatoes but wanted to use the toaster oven vs. big hot normal oven. Transferred the potatoes to a ceramic dish, cracked two eggs in the middle, baked until the whites were set, and topped with smoked salmon and goat cheese.
Marco ate this and I didn't have a bite but I got good feedback.
Marco rating 9.5/10.
"These were frozen? You can't tell the difference. All the flavors went well together and I liked how it was baked in a little dish."
So I learned two things.
Frozen hashbrowns are not bad and good to keep on hand.
Transfer to a cute ceramic dish when possible.
Pasta salad time! I didn't eat a lot of pasta salad growing up but I know everyone else did. Same with potato salad, I'm not a fan of creamy heavy pasta salads. I use olive oil, red wine vinegar, and lemon juice only as dressing. Artichoke hearts and asparagus add bold flavor and vegetables. You won't feel guilty eating a whole bowl.
This recipe for Grilled Chicken + Artichoke Pasta Salad takes no time to pull together. To make it even easier use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store!
Friday
Corn Risotto
Nectarine + Almond Galette
More Galettes this week. I'm really really into them. We had an overflow of ripe juicy nectarines. When I made the mini berry ones they were good but needed more depth. Before I added the nectarine slices, I added a layer of toasted chopped almonds. Toasting them beforehand adds toasty flavor but also keeps them crunchy under the nectarines. This was the perfect addition to complete the galette. It made it a little more exciting with added layers of flavor and texture.
I also replaced 1/4 cup of GF flour with almond meal. I thought this would add subtle almond flavor to the crust. It did not. What it did add was an extra crumbly crispness to the crust. With GF crusts they can become moist and chewy easily. If you have almond meal on hand and are making a GF dough I suggest using some for better texture.
Corn Risotto...basic risotto with two ingredients to spice it up. The first is corn kernels, of course, the second is something I have been calling corn water. AKA broth.
In the morning I shucked the corn and thought "how can I use the cobs again?" Corn cobs have corn milk which can be extracted by running a knife along the cut cobs. I wanted all that flavor without doing the work. I tossed them in a pot of water, added half an onion, two carrots, some celery, a bay leaf, parsley, peppercorns, and leek greens. Reduced it to half and had corn water. A slightly sweet broth. This is what I used for my corn risotto. If you don't want to make this at home, you can absolutely use water, vegetable broth, or chicken broth.
After you make the risotto base, raw corn kernels are folded into the rice along with cheese and butter. I put the lid on and let everything sit for 5 minutes. This slightly cooks the corn. Lots of fresh basil is added right before serving.
It was delish! We enjoyed it BUT it needed something else. Make sure to make it really peppery and really cheesy. While eating the leftovers I had the idea to crumble bacon over the top. I think the dish could have benefited from the extra saltiness and crunch. I'll report back if we try it again.
Marco rating 7.5/10.
Saturday
Asparagus Galette
Heirloom Tomato Salad
Saturday night I had nothing planned for dinner and no motivation to make a real meal. I only used half the dough for the nectarine galette and decided a savory galette was all I would make.
The galette was layered with:
Dijon goat cheese spread
Poorly caramelized onions
Asparagus
Pinenuts
I think savory galettes are 100% acceptable as meals!! My tip for doing one with some type of filling/spread is to add a lot! The potato galette from a few weeks ago was good but the dijon goat cheese was spread thin. This galette had a nice thick layer making it more filling. Kinda like eating a pizza.
This was my best galette yet. Marco has confirmed that he is team savory as well. I love that you can throw really anything on the dough and it turns out well. Remember, like with most dishes, to layer in components. You want lots of flavors and texture.
The second-best summer produce item behind corn is probably tomatoes. You can't beat a tomato bursting flavor. If you can get your hands on some good tomatoes, or if you grow some in your back yard, make a simple salad with them. You don't need much as you want the tomatoes to shine but think acid, fat, salt, and texture.
Acid = Balsamic vinegar
Fat = Olive oil
Salt = Flakey salt (Maldon or Celtic work great)
Texture = Pine nuts (crunch), Feta (creamy)
All of those also add flavor to the dish, of course, and adding shallots and fresh herbs add even more flavors to compliment the tomatoes.
You don't need all these ingredients to make a good Tomato Salad. Just use what you have on hand and try things out to see what you like.
Random thing of the week:
Remember the gnomes that made a home on my neighborhood walking trail? Their fairy friends moved in too.
I don't know who is setting these up but I love it. Every time I walk by I move them around a bit and I have heard kids talking about them being busy gnomes.
Pet photo of the week:
Chaz on the deck watching birds. He turned six this week. He is the first pet Marco and I got together and my absolute favorite! It's not even a secret the other three know he is number one.
Thing everybody needs:
I have had a glass bottle with a spout for years. It's filled with olive oil and sits on my counter. I bought avocado oil, white vinegar, and some others in bulk and needed more bottles for storage.
I found glass bottles, with spouts, and they seal shut! Perfect for keeping in your panty. I tested them and they don't leak. I love these for a uniform look and easy storage.
If you watched my Two Minute Mayo video on Instagram you saw these bottles in action!
Do you have any favorite corn recipes I should try?! Or a favorite recipe you make every summer. I want to know what screams summer to you guys!
See you next week,
Marcella