Corn and Sweet Potato Soup

As the evenings are cooler, a hearty soup makes a welcome supper.

The other night I made this southwest-style corn and sweet potato soup with cheese.

I took this picture on the second night of eating it. We re-heated it a little too much and the cheese curdled so it looks a little lumpy. It still tastes great.

Corn and Sweet Potato Soup

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

6 cups vegetable stock

1 bottle Mexican beer

2 tsp ground cumin

1 bay leaf

1 large onion, diced
1 tbsp oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped
14 oz packet frozen corn, defrosted
1 poblano, roasted, peeled and chopped (or 4oz can green chiles)

2 tsp chili powder

cayenne pepper

2 cups milk

12 oz Monterey Jack cheese, grated

1/2 cup fresh cilantro (optional)

Boil the sweet potatoes in 3 cups stock, beer, cumin and bay leaf until crisp tender, about 12-15 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Do not drain.

Sauté onion and garlic in oil about 10 minutes until soft. Stir into sweet potatoes along with the remaining 3 cups of stock. Add corn, poblano, cayenne to taste, and chili powder. Gradually stir in milk. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes until warmed through.

Reduce heat to low and stir in grated cheese until just melted. Season with salt to taste.

Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Serves 6

Grilled Corn and Tomato Salad

The first few weeks of organic corn season, we simply cook it and munch it straight off the cob. I eat it plain. Larry uses butter, salt and pepper. Nothing fancy. We revel in sweet summer corn.

A couple of weeks in, I'm ready to start using corn in fancier preparations like this salad adapted from Elizabeth Orsini's book Garden to Grill.

I served this grilled corn and tomato salad with homemade black bean burgers on Friday night. It was a great combo — the salad was a juicy sweet contrast to the dense burgers — and the leftovers of the salad were great in my lunch the next day.

Larry grilled the corn and tomatoes, and I stirred them together with onions and lemon from the garden, romaine lettuce and feta.You can't go wrong with that.

Grilled Corn and Tomato Salad
2 medium plum tomatoes
2 ears corn
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 Egyptian walking onion stalk or scallion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp feta, crumbled into small dice
3-4 cups romaine lettuce, cut in bite-size pieces

Slice the tomatoes crosswise 1/2 inch thick. Shuck the corn. Brush all with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and grill over medium heat (hand held 6 seconds over grate). The tomatoes will take a couple of minutes on each side. The corn will take about 10 minutes — turn it occasionally.

Remove the vegetables from the grill and let cool slightly. Chop the tomatoes in bite-size pieces and put in a serving dish. Cut the kernels from the cobs and add as well.

Snip the Egyptian walking onion stalk into a small bowl. Add the garlic, lemon zest and lemon juice with a little more olive oil. Whisk well and pour over the tomatoes and corn. Toss well. Add the lettuce and feta, toss again and serve.

Serves 4

Treasures from the Freezer

When we have leftover cooked rice, I stash it in the freezer for when I want to serve a simple casserole for dinner.

Also in the freezer are roasted poblanos, organic corn, and bags of diced zucchini from last summer's over-enthusiastic vegetable garden. This year's zucchini plants are starting to flower, so the pressure is on.

Fortunately, all these ingredients combined into a fabulous casserole. Some aged cheddar on top added the finishing deliciousness.

I combined leftover white take-out rice and leftover brown rice, just because those were the first two containers I found. Freshly cooked rice would be great too, of course.

I used 4 poblanos for a very spicy casserole. You can cut back the heat by using fewer poblanos if you like. Also, you could use fresh poblanos and skip the roasting, just dicing and adding to the skillet. But the roasting does add a yumminess. (See how I do it here.)

Poblano and Zucchini Rice Casserole
1 tbsp oil
1 cup corn, defrosted
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3-4 poblanos, roasted and peeled and diced
3 cups diced zucchini (from 4 medium zucchini)
4 cups cooked rice
aged cheddar

Warm the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté the corn for a few minutes until it starts to brown, stirring regularly so it doesn't burn. Add the onions, garlic and poblanos. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft. Add the zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Cook over low heat until the zucchini is tender.

Stir into the cooked rice. Pour into a large casserole dish and top with a few slices of cheese.

Bake at 350°F 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and everything has melded well.

Serves 6

Corn and Cherry Tomato Salad with Marjoram and Feta

I usually make this salad in the summer with fresh corn and sun-ripened tomatoes, but the knotted marjoram in our garden is about to flower and there are good cherry tomatoes at my local grocery store, organic corn in the freezer and feta in the fridge.

How could I resist making it to go with the Red Lentil Burgers we had for dinner the other night?

Marjoram adds a wonderful base note to the sweetness of the corn and the saltiness of the feta. It's worth growing this aromatic herb for this salad alone.

Corn and Cherry Tomato Salad with Marjoram and Feta

10 oz package frozen organic corn
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup diced feta
1 tbsp chopped fresh marjoram

Cook corn briefly according to package directions. Drain and set aside to cool.

Whisk together olive oil and red wine vinegar. Stir in cooled corn, tomatoes, feta and marjoram.

Serves 2-3

Jalapeño Corn Bread

 We started 2016 with a dinner of collard greens, black-eyed peas and jalapeño cornbread – it was a great meal to start the year, and hopefully lucky too.

I have many cornbread and corn muffin recipes. I made this one at New Year's because I had some apple juice in the freezer I wanted to use up.

(I can only find organic apple juice in large jars, but I rarely need more than a cup at a time. So I freeze the extra in small containers ready to be defrosted and added to marinades or baked goods.)

This is a moist and light cornbread. It only uses egg whites; I added the yolks to scrambled eggs for breakfast the next day — they went great with left over cornbread.

I used 2 serrano peppers I pulled from the freezer — freezing makes them milder. Jalapeños tend to be milder than serranos, especially if you remove the seeds before using them. You could use a little red or green pepper instead of the hot peppers if you don't like spice, but it's nice to have a little kick in the cornbread.

Make sure to use organic cornmeal — the non-organic kind is almost certainly genetically-modified. The same goes for the frozen corn, which is fortunately getting easy to find at the supermarket.

Jalapeño Corn Bread
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 cups plain yogurt
1 tbsp honey
1 or 2 jalapeño peppers
1/2 cup grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed

Leftovers are great for breakfast

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a 9x9 or 7x13 inch baking pan.

Stir together the cornmeal, flour, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg whites, yogurt and honey.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Stir together vigorously.

Seed and mince the jalapeños. Add to the batter along with the cheese and corn. Pour the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top turns slightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow the bread to cool slightly in the pan. Cut into squares and serve warm.

Rice Salad with Eggs and Green Beans

It's been too hot to cook, so I've been relying on salads at dinner time.

This one, with eggs and rice and corn, was a truly complete meal. We ate almost all of it in one sitting, and I took the leftovers for lunch the next day. That is the sign of a good salad.

A note about the rice: Usually I make this salad with brown rice, but I had spent the early evening puttering in the garden so to get this salad on the table in a timely manner, I used white jasmati rice – an organic rice from Texas that my local independent grocery store carries. It has a great flavor, and I had dinner on the table in under 45 minutes.

Rice Salad with Eggs and Green Beans
1 red pepper
1/2 cup onion, sliced in rings
2 cups cooked rice
4 oz (large handful) green beans
1/2 cup corn (frozen is fine)
2 eggs
1 small avocado
butter lettuce
1 tbsp capers
6 olives, sliced

Dressing:
1  clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp yogurt
1/2 tsp dijon

Cut the red pepper in half. Remove the seeds and membranes. Place cut-side down in a small roasting pan. Add the onion rings. Sprinkle the onion with a little olive oil, then cook them under a broiler for 5-6 minutes until the pepper starts to blacken. Stir the onion a couple of times so it turns golden, not black. Put the pepper halves in a pot and let them steam gently. Cut the onion rings up and stir them into the rice. Put the rice on a large platter.

When the peppers are cool enough to touch, scrape off the skin (as much as you can) and cut them into thin strips.

Pierce the eggs with a pin and put them in a pan of boiling, salted water for 10 minutes. Drain and refresh in ice water. When cool enough to touch, peel off the shells and cut the eggs in quarters.

Cook the green beans in a little boiling water for 2 minutes, then add the corn and cook another 2 minutes. Drain and put in a bowl with the red pepper strips.

Stir together the washed and torn lettuce leaves with the peeled and diced avocado. Pile them on the rice.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Put about half into the bowl with the green beans and toss gently. Pile this on top of the salad.

Decorate the platter with the eggs, olives and capers.

Serve the extra dressing on the side.

Serves 3-4

Spicy Coleslaw

Coleslaw is a great dish to have in the fridge. It pairs well with grains, beans, casseroles, marinated tofu - it even goes well on a green salad in a pinch.

And it's very healthy. Cabbage is one of the healthiest foods we can eat, especially for the colon. It's full of good kinds of fiber and anti-cancer nutrients.

The other day I made this creamy spicy coleslaw to liven up some leftover black beans and rice. We ate it the next day with leftover tofu, and I was impressed at how it had become even more spicy with rest.

You can vary the spiciness by using more or less chiles. I used fish peppers, which look like serranos and are also very hot. The plants were very popular at the farmers' market this year, and I can see why because they grow into a pretty variegated bush of green and cream leaves. They're heirloom peppers originally used in fish stews in the Philadelphia area, hence the name. If you don't have fish peppers, use serranos or jalapeños. If you don't like heat, use a couple of tablespoons of bell pepper.

I added raw corn to the slaw. This is a luxury only available in corn season, and I recommend you take advantage of it. Raw corn adds a crisp sweetness to whatever you sprinkle it on. I don't think I'd munch a whole cob of raw corn, but a few kernels in a dish are great.

The base of the dressing is mayonnaise. I used to use Hellman's (Best Foods in the west), but now I'm an organic obsessive so I use whatever organic mayonnaise I can find, usually made with a base of organic canola oil. It's not mayonnaise, but it is a fine creamy addition to this spicy slaw.

I rarely sweeten my food, but in this slaw I used a spoonful of brown rice syrup in the dressing. This is a complex sweetener found in health food stores. Feel free to leave it out, but you might need to add more mayonnaise to smooth out the flavors.

The leftover dressing is excellent on green salads. Or you can make some more coleslaw. You can't go wrong with cabbage.

Spicy Coleslaw
1 tsp cumin seed
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/4 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp brown rice syrup
1 ear corn
4 cups shredded cabbage
1 red pepper
2 fish peppers
2 scallions

Toast the cumin seed in a small heavy skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Remove from the heat.

Combine the mayo, garlic, cilantro, cumin, lime and brown rice syrup in a blender. Purée until smooth.

Husk the corn and place the cob vertically on a chopping board. With a large knife, cut carefully down the ear, separating the kernels from the cob, but leaving all the tough pieces of cob behind.

Put the corn kernels in a bowl with the cabbage. Seed, quarter and slice the red pepper and fish peppers and add to the bowl. Chop the scallions and add them too.

Pour half the dressing over the salad and stir well to combine. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Refrigerate the remaining dressing separately.

Taste before serving and add salt, pepper and more lime juice to taste. Serve the extra dressing on the side.

Serves 4-6

Stuffed Peppers

These are not the stuffed peppers I grew up with - green bell peppers stuffed with seasoned rice and tomato sauce and baked until the peppers were wrinkled.

These peppers are loosely mounded with corn, tomatoes and herbs, topped with a little cheese, and then baked 15 minutes or so in the toaster oven until warmed through.

They make a nice light summer supper, especially with a green salad on the side.

You can use any pepper for stuffing. I used an Italian gourmet pepper I grew. It was a little sweet and held its shape when it cooked.

Stuffed Peppers
2 tsp olive oil
2 spring onions, sliced
1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup corn (defrosted frozen is fine)
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 green pepper to stuff
2 tbsp firehouse Mike cheddar (optional)

Warm the olive oil in a skillet and sauté the onion and poblano pepper until softened. Stir in the corn and cherry tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

Slice the pepper you'll be stuffing in half. Take out the seeds. Pile the filling on each half. (There will probably be too much, so mound it high.) Sprinkle the optional cheese on top.

Bake at 350°F for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the tomatoes are warmed through.

Serves 2 as a side dish.

Spicy Bean Salad

This week I don't want to be inside in the kitchen. I'd rather be outside enjoying the flowers and birds and summer light. So the other day I put a hotplate on the patio table and cooked some Christmas lima beans while I puttered in the garden, close enough to keep an eye on the pot but not tethered to the stove.

When the beans were cooked, I drained them, then used the hot plate to fry up some onion and spices. These went into the beans along with some lime juice, herbs, corn and tomatoes to make a colorful warm bean salad.

We ate this slightly spicy summery dish outside on the patio - it's the best place to be on these long summer evenings.

Christmas limas are large meaty red and white beans. You could use kidney beans or cannellini beans instead, or even chickpeas. If you're using canned, drain 2 14-oz cans of beans and rinse them well. Start the recipe at the second step.

Spicy Bean Salad
2/3 cup dried Christmas lima beans
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp ginger root, finely chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1/4 cup rice vinegar
juice of 2 limes
1 1/2 tsp roasted sesame oil
12 oz packet frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup slivered red onion
4 tomatoes, seeded and chopped

Cook the beans in plenty of boiling water until tender, 90-120 minutes depending on the age of the beans. When they are tender but not mushy (take one and cut through it - it should be cooked all the way through), drain them and set aside.

Warm the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion, garlic and ginger root until the onion is translucent, stirring occasionally. Add the curry powder and turmeric and cook 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the beans, thyme, vinegar, lime juice and sesame oil. Stir to combine, then cook until all is heated through.

In a large bowl, combine the thawed corn, red onion, and tomatoes. Stir in the contents of the skillet.

Serves 6

Black Bean and Corn Salad

Beans are one of the healthiest foods we can eat - full of fiber, protein, antioxidants, B vitamins, iron - plus they're inexpensive, and they travel well in the lunch box.

A bean salad and a green salad combine to make an excellent portable meal.

I make one or two bean salads a week for our lunches. The variety is infinite - beans never have to be boring. Here's the colorful salad we're eating this week.

Black beans cook quickly in boiling water - usually in under two hours without soaking. You want them to be tender, but not mushy. If you prefer to use canned beans, 3 to 4 14-oz cans will do.

I still have some of last year's poblanos in the freezer. (You can see how I froze them here.) If you are not so lucky, substitute a red or green pepper, or a jalapeño if you'd like a little heat. Or skip the pepper completely. Make sure you use organic celery - the non-organic kind is one of the most heavily pesticided vegetables. Fortunately, safe celery is becoming easier to find in the organic section of grocery stores. Also, pick up a couple of extra limes - it's nice to squeeze a little more lime juice over the salad before serving or packing in a lunch box.

Black Bean and Corn Salad
1 1/4 cups dried black beans (turtle beans)
10 oz packet frozen corn kernels (about 2 cups)
1 poblano, roasted and peeled, seeded
3 stalks celery
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
3/4 cup slivered red onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup olive oil

Pick over the beans, discarding any small stones or clumps of dirt. Wash them well, then cook them in plenty of boiling water, partially covered, until they are tender - 90-140 minutes depending on the beans. Drain and put in a large bowl.

Cook the corn in a small amount of boiling water until tender - 2-3 minutes. Chop the poblano and celery into bite-sized pieces. Add them to the beans along with the corn, grape tomatoes, and red onion.

Whisk the salt, cumin and lime juice together. Slowly whisk in the olive oil to make an emulsion. Dress the salad and let it sit at room temperature for half an hour for the flavors to meld.

Serve immediately, or refrigerate for a few days. Serves 6-8

Summer Barley Salad

I usually think of barley as a winter food - great in soups and stews. But the other day I used it in a salad that tasted of early summer - full of cherry tomatoes and peas and fresh dill.

This ancient grain is soothing to the digestive tract, balancing to the blood sugar, and healing to the heart. It makes a nice change from brown rice, and takes about the same time to cook. Buy barley at the health food store - it should be a brownish color and will be called pot barley. The pearl barley at the supermarket is whiter and more refined - meaning more of its goodness has been removed.

However, when you're eating this salad, you won't be thinking of the health benefits because you'll be too busy enjoying the flavors.

Summer Barley Salad
3/4 cup barley
3 cups frozen corn
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
3/4 cup cherry tomatoes
1 stalk celery
2 spring onions
3 tbsp chopped fresh dill
3 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon

Cook the barley in 2 1/2 cups boiling water, covered, until the grain is tender and the water is absorbed, about 45 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Steam the corn and peas for about 3 minutes until tender. Halve the cherry tomatoes and dice the celery. Slice both the white and green parts of the spring onions. Combine the vegetables, dill and barley in a large bowl. Stir in the olive oil and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and extra lemon juice as desired.

Serves 4-6

Black Bean and Orange Salad

I picked a couple of oranges off our tree to combine with black beans in this colorful salad. Grapefruit, corn and cherry tomatoes added to the festivity, and the zingy dressing of lemon and lime juice made it fun to eat.

As usual, I recommend adding some red onion (maybe a quarter cup) to add a little bite. I used an anaheim pepper, because that's what I had, but a red pepper would work too (although then a jalapeño to add some punch would be nice). One morning I added some diced avocado to the container I was taking to work - that was a nice addition.

Bean salads are very flexible. The key is to use lots of good flavors, and enough salt to help the flavors shine through.

Black Bean and Orange Salad
1 cup black beans, cooked (or 2 14-oz cans)
1 cup frozen corn, defrosted
1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes
2 oranges
1 grapefruit
1 anaheim pepper
1/4 cup cilantro
1/4 cup lime juice (from 2-3 limes)
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

If using dried beans, cook them in plenty of boiling water until they are tender but not mushy, about 2 hours depending on the age of your beans. Drain them and put in a large bowl. (This can be done ahead).

Add the corn and cherry tomatoes to the beans.

Slice the ends off the oranges and grapefruit and then slice down each side to remove the peel and pith. Then you have 2 choices of how to proceed.

For the very beautiful look, hold the orange over the bowl of beans, and cut from the outside to the center along one of the membranes. Then turn the knife so you're cutting the segment away from the membrane on the other side. Let the juice drip into the beans. Cut the segment in 2 or 3 pieces and add it to the beans too. Once you've segmented the whole orange this way, throw away the pith.

The second option leaves some of the pith on the segments. This is not as pretty, but it is healthier. The pith is where the bioflavanoids are, and we need those to enhance our immune systems. Once you've peeled the grapefruit as above, cut in half from top to bottom, and then cut each half in four wedges (as if you were cutting them into segments, but not worrying about cutting along the membranes). Then cut the pithy core off the wedge, and cut the remaining wedge into pieces and add them to the bowl. (This is way easier to do than to describe.)

Seed and dice the pepper and add it too, along with the cilantro.

Make a dressing by whisking together the lime and lemon juices, olive oil and salt. Add it to the beans and stir gently. Taste and add more salt or lime juice to taste.

Before serving, taste and season again. The beans absorb more flavor as they marinate in the dressing.

Serves 6

Corn and Tomato Salad

One of my favorite summer dishes is corn and tomato salad.

Don't bother making this in winter. Frozen corn and bland tomatoes will not make a great dish.

But now, with fresh organic corn and heirloom tomatoes, this is summer in a bowl.

Corn and Tomato Salad
2 ears corn
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 large tomato
1/4 cup crumbled feta
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano

Husk the corn and cook it in boiling salted water 5 minutes until tender. Drain and cool.

Whisk together olive oil and vinegar. Add diced tomato, feta and oregano. Cut kernels from corn cobs and add to the bowl. Stir gently to combine. Season to taste.

Serves 2-3

Root Vegetable Salad

Move over cole slaw. You are being replaced with this healthy and beautiful grated root salad.

It's easy to make in the food processor and keeps well in the fridge, thus fulfilling the requirements for lazy summer dinners.

This is a great recipe to introduce your family to raw turnips and beets. The lemon juice cuts some of the earthy flavor, and the carrots make it sweet.

Turnips are cruciferous vegetables, so they have similar cancer-preventing substances to cabbages and broccoli. They are anti-inflammatory, good for the heart and circulatory system, and full of minerals and fiber. Beets are a good source of iron and fiber, and are great liver tonics.

Plus, just looking at the colors of this salad will make you happy!

Root Vegetable Salad
3 carrots
3 medium turnips
1 large beet
small wedge of cabbage (about 1 cup grated)
1 cup corn (thawed frozen is fine)
juice of 1 lemon

Grate the carrots, turnips, beet and cabbage in the food processor (or by hand). Tip into a bowl and stir in the corn and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I find this salad great as it is, but you can serve your favorite salad dressing on the side if you like.

Serves 4-6

Labor Day Barbecue

We had an excellent Labor Day barbecue.

Larry grilled me a portobello (brushed with a combination of balsamic vinegar, olive oil and tamari), complete with grilled red onion to gild the lily. (He said his hamburger was good too.)

Plus he grilled corn.

We have done this in the past, where we grilled the corn in the husk. It makes sweet corn, almost steamed in its own greens. (You can read about it here.)

But last weekend, we took it to another level.

I pulled back the husks, cut off the caterpillar-eaten parts, and ripped out the silk. Then I pushed the husks back up over the kernels. I soaked them in water for 10 minutes, and then gave them to Larry to cook over a hot fire (he could put his hand 5 inches above the grill for 1-2 seconds), turning occasionally, for 10 minutes. He then removed the husks (silicon gloves helped) and put them back on the grill and cooked them, turning as needed, until they were browned and tender, about 5 minutes more.

Brushed with butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, these were great end-of-season corn. Flavorful, smoky, yum.

Organic corn

Finley Farms had organic corn on the cob on Sunday - the first of the season. We grabbed some to eat for dinner that night, boiled and served with butter and a little salt and pepper. Yum.

I only buy organic corn. Non-organic corn (or no-spray corn) can be grown from genetically-modified corn kernels. I don't know what genetic-modification will do to my body or to the earth, but I don't trust it. Also, I don't want to give a dime to the multi-nationals who create gmos.

Eating only organic corn means most of the year we eat it frozen. And then for a couple of months we enjoy it fresh off the cob.

Shoppers often rip open the top of ears of corn to check for complete ears and insect damage. I don't bother. I figure most organic corn has insect damage - because it's not sprayed with poisons that kill insects. And the kernels might be a little erratic from faulty pollination - because it's grown in a field not devised in a factory. I prefer my food to look real.

Which is a good thing, because we brought a caterpillar home with the corn. You can just see it hiding in its little hole in the front cob on the left.

It's a harmless little thing, as long as it's not eating my corn. I threw it over the fence to the neighbor's chickens. You can also just put it in the trash or kill it and add it to the compost.

You can see the top ends of the corn where the silk tassels emerge looked pretty unsightly. It's caterpillar damage. Not harmful. I just cut the end off the cobs and serve the beauties you see below.
In fact, until I showed Larry these pictures, he did not know that the corn we brought home had a little editing done before I served it to him, delicious and sweet and beautiful.

So remember, organic corn can be ugly. But cut off the ugly part and you have something truly delicious, and you can feel good about where your food dollar is going.

Industrial Agriculture

I've been aggravated for a while about how cheap industrial US-grown corn produced by the likes of Archer Daniels Midland has put a lot of Mexican farmers out of work. The companies export the corn to Mexico and sell it for less than their local farmers can grow it.

But I didn't realize that it's not just the corn used in tortillas that is exported cheaply.

A lot of corn is fed to hogs. American hog companies move into Mexico, import cheap (gmo) corn from the US, grow fat hogs, and then slaughter them in Mexico where labor is cheap. Then the ham is sold here in the US. Big US companies like Smithfield have forced the closure of many small Mexican butchers.

I learned about this in a recent article in The Nation, which you can read here.

I don't want to support agricultural multinationalism. That's why I shop at the Hollywood Farmers Market from small farmers who have a minimal footprint of damage.

Larry buys meat from a farmer who raises his own cows, pigs and chickens, takes them to a USDA-approved slaughterhouse where they are prepped and frozen, and then sells them at famers markets. (The LA Times wrote about this farmer, Greg Nauta of Rocky Canyon Farms in Atascadero. You can read their article here.) Greg's cattle are completely grass-fed, unlike so many cows that are finished with a couple of weeks of grain to make them fatter. Fortunately he has people like us who are willing and able to pay extra for the privilege of knowing where our food comes from.

Industrial agriculture destroys too many societies. We all need to do what we can to shop locally from small non-industrial farmers.

Vegetable Sides Day Six

Last night we had corn on the cob, probably the last of the season. It was great while it lasted.

I also cooked broccoli and cauliflower the way I did on Sunday.

It's important to eat cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower etc.) at least once a week because they support healthy estrogen pathways (meaning fewer hormonal cancers) and they are the best food out there for the colon.

I chopped the broccoli stems a little smaller, and cooked them with the cauliflower for a couple of minutes before adding the broccoli florets. I find cauliflower florets take longer to cook than broccoli florets.

I served them all plain, with salt and pepper and butter on the side. Click here to read my post on the health benefits of butter.

As a side note, I tried turning the potato gratin leftovers into mashed potatoes. Not really successful. The crusty parts of the gratin wouldn't mash, so it was lumpy. Next time I need to mess with leftover gratin, I will turn it into potato soup. That would have been excellent.

Fall Vegetable Stew in Coconut Milk

The harvest markets are abundant with corn, peppers, zucchini and herbs. I combine them with tofu and coconut milk to make this creamy, delectable stew.

If you can't find fresh organic corn, the frozen kind works fine. Vary the hot pepper to suit your taste - the coconut milk mellows out the flavor considerably. This is a slightly Thai-influenced dish, so use Thai basil if you can find it. If not, the more common Italian kind works fine.

Serve the stew over brown rice for wonderful fall comfort food. It's also great as is, served in a bowl as a combination soup / stew.

Fall Vegetable Stew in Coconut Milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
14-oz firm tofu
2 small zucchini, diced
4 large ears of corn or 2 cups frozen
1 jalapeno pepper
1 heaping tbsp cilantro (optional)
1 bunch scallions
1 heaping tbsp fresh basil
3/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 cup coconut milk
1 tsp soy sauce

Drain the tofu and dice into 3/4 inch cubes. Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise, and then into 1/2 inch half-moons.

Warm the oil over medium-high heat and sauté the tofu and zucchini 10 minutes, sprinkling with 1/4 tsp salt and shaking the pan occasionally, until the tofu is a little browned.

Cut the kernels off the corn cobs, or defrost the frozen corn. Seed the jalapeno and mince it finely with the cilantro and basil. Slice the scallions into 1/2 inch lengths, including the firm greens. Add all to the pen. Pour in coconut milk and rinse out the cup measure with 1/3 cup water and stir into pan. (Freeze or refrigerate the remaining coconut milk in the can for later use.)

Stir in soy sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper to taste. Cook 5 minutes until the corn is heated through.

Serves 4-5

Late Summer Black Bean Salad

This is a wonderful time of year at the farmers market: corn on the cob, all colors of peppers, vine-ripened tomatoes.

I like to combine them in this colorful black bean salad. It's a great dinner on a warm evening, and fast to make if you use canned beans. (I cook dried beans the night before so it's easy to put together at dinner time.)

Add hot peppers or some salsa if you'd like a spicier salad. (Sweating is cooling!) Serve the beans with a green salad for a meal that is filling but not too heavy.

I don't cook the corn in this recipe. I get sweet organic corn at the Hollywood Farmers Market from Finley Farms. It tastes great raw, although I do cook it for corn on the cob.

Taste your corn by removing the husk and slicking off a kernel. It should taste fresh, sweet and grassy. If it's flavorless, cook it in boiling water for a couple of minutes after removing it from the cob. I slice the raw corn off the cob by lying the ear on its side and cutting off a few rows with my big knife, then rotating the ear a little and doing a few more.

(If you can't find organic fresh corn, use the frozen kind. Cook it a couple of minutes before adding to the salad.)

This bean salad will last a few days in the fridge, so save some to take to work for lunch the next day. It's like having late summer in your lunch bag.

Summer Black Bean Salad
2 cups dry black beans, cooked (or 3 14-oz cans)
1/2 red onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 green onions, white and some green, sliced thinly on diagonal
2 cups corn kernels (from about 3 ears)
1/ 2 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
2 cups small cherry tomatoes, halved or whole
salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
juice from 1 lime (2-3 tbsp)
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Cook dry beans in a large pot of boiling water until they are tender but still retain their shape. Drain well.

If using canned beans, drain and rinse well.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Pour over the beans. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.

Serves 6-8