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

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.

Little Gems with Garlicky Lemon and Pistachio by Alison Roman

I’m finding it hard to know what to write about this salad. It was good, but not great. There wasn’t anything special about it. If you’re like me, you already enjoy little gems or romaine (I’ve never seen little gems lettuce in the store), mixed with lemon juice, some kind of chopped nut, and herbs on a regular basis. This salad isn’t any different. Perhaps the only slightly new element from my normal salad routine are the finely chopped lemon bits, which are nice, but not necessary to make a good salad. This kind of light, acidic salad works weIl with a rich entree. I paired it with Alison’s Anchovy-Butter Chicken. While the chicken got some comments, nothing was said about the salad. Not because it’s a bad salad, but because it’s not anything new.  
117 recipe cooked, 108 to go.

Anchovy-Butter Chicken with Chicken Fat Croutons by Alison Roman

Anchovies don’t have the best reputation. I know, because I used to make an “eww” face when someone mentioned them. In the same way that sardines aren’t widely loved, anchovies draw out an almost automatic, negative response. Something about skinned fish submerged in oil with a strong smell. After 7 months of cooking with anchovies regularly, I confess I still get a little grossed out when I open a new tin and coax the tiny fillets out of the oil. They’re not visually appetizing.

Through this project, I’ve come to realize and appreciate the powerful flavor that anchovies contain. When heated, their fishiness practically disappears and I’m left with a salty umami that cannot be replicated by dumping a bunch of salt into something. The saltiness of anchovies add depth without calling attention to themselves. Case in point: after just a few bites of this chicken, my mother-in-law said, “There are anchovies in this? I can’t taste them at all!” Little did she know that almost an entire tin of anchovies were used to flavor the chicken. 

Because anchovies pack so much flavor power, little else is needed to accompany them. This chicken, a 3.5-4lb. bird, gets covered in a thin layer of salt and pepper, before a half stick of room temperature unsalted butter mixed with finely chopped anchovies and garlic gets slathered all over its skin, and even under its skin. Alison encourages us to “really get in there” with the butter. Before sticking this in the oven, I placed a head of garlic, cut crosswise, and several springs of fresh thyme into the cavity of the bird. I placed a red onion, cut into eighths, around the base of the bird to catch the fat drippings. 

The bird spends 25-35 minutes in the oven at 425 degrees. Then the temperature gets adjusted to 350 degrees, the onions get tossed in the rendered chicken juices, and it all spends another 30-35 minutes in the oven. At least, that’s how Alison tells it. I, on the other hand, had yet another chicken incident where the chicken is not at all ready when she says it will be. Yes, I used an oven thermometer and made sure my oven is as hot as it says it is. But everytime one of Alison’s chickens uses this half-an-hour at a higher temp, then half-an-hour at a lower temp method, my chicken is undercooked and I spend the next 20-30 minutes checking it every 5 minutes or so. I need to find the right solution to this problem, which will take some experimentation. Perhaps I don’t turn the temperature so low halfway through. Or I budget in the extra 30 minutes from the get-go so I don’t have a group of hungry people waiting for the chicken to finally finish. I’ve had great success with Alison’s low-and-slow method, where the bird sits for 2.5 hours at a low temp. Maybe I convert her recipes to use this method? (Margaret, any other ideas?) 

The bird was still very tasty, though a little dry on the top layers of meat from all the checking and poking with the meat thermometer. Once the chicken was cooked, I tossed a bowlful of torn sourdough bread in the chicken fat and stuck the pan back into the oven to crisp up. Chicken fat croutons were easily the best part of this dish. 

If I can figure out the oven conundrum, this dish has potential to become a regular in my kitchen. But until then, I’m sticking with the other low-and-slow birds. 

116 recipes cooked, 109 to go.

Creamy Goat Cheese with Lemony Za’atar by Alison Roman

This recipe was a HIT – 8 oz. of crumbled cheese gone in 20 minutes flat. It also didn’t hurt that I served it with homemade sourdough bread. 

I started by toasting sesame seeds in a skillet until golden and fragrant. Then I added olive oil, finely chopped lemon, fresh thyme, salt and pepper. These ingredients spent only two minutes over the heat before I poured them over the crumbled goat cheese. I let the bowl sit for 30 minutes before sticking it in the fridge. I served this appetizer alongside Alison’s Marinated Artichoke Hearts. 

A few tips: 

• Buy a large log of goat cheese from TJ’s and crumble it yourself. They sell 12oz. Logs of cheese for only $5, whereas the crumbled version only comes in 6oz. containers and they’re more expensive. Don’t even try to look at Whole Foods - you’ll overpay no matter what. 

• Don’t skip the sumac. I get that this is a more niche ingredient for many of us and it can be hard to find. If you don’t have a middle eastern grocery story near you, then it’s worth buying sumac online. If you cook a lot of Alison’s recipes, then you’ll use it up quickly. 

• This is probably a no-brainer for most people, but it was a revelation for me. I’ve recently started buying bags of sesame seeds vs. tiny spice jars. I find that sesame seeds are much more affordable in bulk, and I go through them very quickly when cooking Alison’s recipes. I’ve found the bulk bags hidden on a bottom shelf in the spice aisle at Whole Foods, or in the back corner of the produce dept. at Cub Foods.

For those curious, of Alison’s appetizers that I’ve made thus far (I’ve cooked 10, and have 10 left to go), here are my top 3 favorites: 

1. Spicy-Tomato Marinated Feta

2. Creamy Goat Cheese with Lemony Za’atar

3. Crispy Haloumi with Honey and Pistachio

115 recipes cooked, 110 to go.

Your Very Own Marinated Artichoke Hearts by Alison Roman

With this recipe, I believe Alison achieved her goal of making artichoke hearts that are easily eaten in one sitting. Her main gripe with store bought ones is that they’re too tangy to eat in quick succession. I’ll add that I think they’re too oily, also. For these reasons, I will start to opt for making my very own marinated artichoke hearts, a la Alison Roman. 

The process is quite simple. I started by draining and quartering two cans of artichoke hearts. I like my artichokes in small bites, which is why I opted for quartering as opposed to halving. I placed the hearts in a serving bowl and turned to the oil. I brought a half cup of oil to a very low sizzle over medium heat, along with fresh thyme (Alison calls for oregano), thin lemon slices, and very thin shallot rings. Once the shallot and lemon began to sizzle, I removed the pot from the heat and seasoned everything with salt and pepper. 

I poured everything from the pot over the artichoke hearts, and added a splash of white wine vinegar. The hearts marinated on the counter for an hour before I stuck them in the fridge. We left for dinner at Sam and Madeline’s about 2 hours later. Just before leaving our apartment, I sprinkled the bowl with fresh parsley.

I served this appetizer alongside Alison’s Lemon Goat Cheese, which was clearly the winner between the two. Everyone seemed to eat one or two artichoke quarters, but they completely finished the goat cheese. Over the next few days, I ate the remaining leftovers for lunch with handfuls of kale and almond crackers. Artichokes are an acquired taste. If you really enjoy artichokes, then I think you’ll enjoy this recipe. If artichokes aren’t your favorite, then go ahead and skip it. 

114 recipes cooked, 111 to go.