Grilled Corn Salad with Fresh Cheese and Corn Nuts by Alison Roman

August 6, 2021

A few weeks ago, I made Alison’s other grilled corn salad, Charred Corn and Scallions with Tomatillos. I have a preference between the two. Keep reading to find out! (Oh, the suspense!)

This Grilled Corn Salad is essentially the same as the Charred Corn, but instead of scallions, there are red onions marinated in lime juice, and instead of sliced tomatillos, a half cup of corn nuts. Both salads use plenty of cilantro and cotija. And both benefit from lots of salt and black pepper.

The corn nuts are super fun in the Grilled Corn Salad. They blend in really well with the corn kernels, so you don’t know when you’ve got one on your fork. This makes their crunch a total surprise. You never know when you’ll chomp down on one of those toasty, salty buds. Corn nuts remind me of my childhood. My mom never bought them for us, but I would trade away anything in my brown paper sack for a bag of corn nuts at the lunch tables.

I’m curious about Alison’s choice to have us grill the corn with husks on, rather than directly over the flames. With the husks on, the corn didn’t get any char and it took a whole half hour to cook. The other salad had the kernels char directly over the grate and it only took 10 minutes. Quicker, tasiter, and reason #1 why I prefer the Charred Corn over the Grilled Corn.

Reason #2 is the lack of strong acidic contrast in the Grilled Corn Salad. While the recipe calls for lime juice, it’s a primarily salt-forward dish. I know I could just add more lime, but I appreciate how the Charred Corn incorporated the juicy, tangy elements of tomatillos right out of the gate. I think this classifies as truly a personal preference, but I’ll vote anything with tomatillos over dishes without. The presence of tomatillos cinched the deal for me. At the end of the day, it’s the Charred Corn that I crave, both for the time it takes to make and its flavor profile.

118 recipes cooked, 107 to go.

Charred Corn and Scallions with Tomatillos by Alison Roman

June 24, 2021

Grilling recipe number 2! If you want to know more about the actual grill experience, feel free to check out yesterday’s post about Grilled Carrots with Limey Hot Sauce and Cotija.

There are several components to prep for this dish, including tomatillos, which I’ve yet to talk about on the blog. For those of you who are unfamiliar, tomatillos are small green fruits that resemble a smaller tomato in shape, and come wrapped in a sticky husk. Tomatillos are not spicy, but rather tangy, acidic, and bright. They’re frequently used to make green salsas. I also love making homemade enchilada sauce with them. I roast the tomatillos and several jalapeños under the broiler before blending them up with salt and pepper. Delicious!

This recipe only needs a few tomatillos (they’re sold by the pound.) They’re thinly sliced and tossed with lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper, and set aside to await the corn and scallions.

The recipe calls for either scallions or spring onions. And since I happened to find some spring onions (which are rare these days!), I used those. Two of the raw onions are saved for chopping and tossing with the tomatillos. The rest of the bunch get charred over the grill — which takes only a few minutes.

The corn grills on medium-high for 8 to 10 minutes according to the recipe. However, similar to the grilled carrots, they could have used another 5-8 minutes to get more char. As long as they aren’t totally blackened, I say the more char, the better.

Once ready, cut the corn off the cob, roughly chop the grilled spring onions, and mix both with the tomatillo mixture. Per Alison’s note, we added diced avocado — to which I also say, the more avocado, the more delicious. (Alison claims that avocado “does nothing for her,” but I couldn’t disagree more. See this post for a deeper dive into my feelings about avocados.)

This dish lends itself very well to modification! Margaret pointed out that plenty of alterations could be made based on preference. Add sliced jalapeño or flaky salt, diced fresh bell pepper, or cotija, just to name a few.

We loved this dish, and it made enough for 6 of us to each have seconds (and for some, thirds).

91 recipes cooked, 134 to go.

Scallops with Corn, Hazelnuts, and Brown Butter Chermoula by Alison Roman

June 18, 2021

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Let’s talk about scallops. Scallops are small, fleshy circles of meat that grow inside of hinged shells. They are, in fact, animals. They have organs and eyes that can detect light and motion. There are over 300 species of scallops! Scallops have a tiny muscle flap on their sides that needs to be removed before cooking (I’m not sure why - they’re probably too tough?), and they shrink down quite a bit as they cook, perhaps by about 40-50%. They smell rather fishy!

Alison instructs us to sear the scallops in a skillet with a bit of canola oil, browning them on both sides. After cleaning my scallops, I did just as instructed. But I was unable to get a good sear because the scallops leaked a potently fishy liquid that covered the pan, creating a soggy surface environment opposite the dry heat required to sear. Why this happened to me, and not Alison – I’m not sure? I ended up draining the liquid and getting a bit of light brown color on each side, but the whole process took far longer than she mentions, and the scallops seemed a bit too dry by the end. There are one or two other scallop recipes yet in this project, so I hope to report back with more success.

Let’s talk about chermoula (ch-er-moo-la). Chermoula is a kind of relish used in seafood dishes in many Arabic countries. It typically includes garlic, cumin and coriander, among other spices. Alison’s chermoula also used red pepper flakes, cumin, and paprika. In this recipe, chermoula is cooked until fragrant and toasted in a foamy pat of butter. Then the corn is added and cooked until bright yellow.

Let’s talk about corn. I love fresh corn in the summer. Cutting it off the ear is a bit more work than buying it frozen, but fresh corn has such a better flavor and texture. My corn cutting tip: stand the ear upside down on it’s head, holding it by the stalk, inside of a large, deep bowl. Take a sharp knife and saw the kernels off one side of the ear, rotating it so that you get all sides clean. The bowl will keep the kernels from flying all over the counter and floor, which always happens when I use a cutting board instead. This, friends, is the best way to cut fresh corn.

Let’s talk about hazelnuts. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t like hazelnuts. At ALL. Alison apparently loves them. So anytime I see them in a recipe, I swap them for a different kind of nut. In this dish, I subbed the hazelnuts with toasted pistachios, which I roasted in the oven for 10 minutes before chopping them for the garnish.

This kind of dish was a new adventure for me. I enjoyed it, but probably won’t make it again. The scallops were a little too fishy, and the coriander seeds overwhelmed the flavor. The pistachios and cilantro were a nice touch, and I preferred a squeeze of lime, which is pictured in the book, but isn’t mentioned in the recipe.

Scallops and Corn were the final dish for my All-Out-Alison Meal! This week’s AOA meal menu included: