Thursday, June 19, 2014

The Wonderful World of Color: Red Corn And Radish Sprout Salad With Peanut Chili Dressing

    
   When I was a kid I used to love watching Disney's Wonderful World of Color.



   It didn't matter that we never had a color TV, we used our imaginations, that and a piece of cellophane that fitted over the TV screen, the top part blue, the middle pink, and a strip of green along the bottom. Who were we fooling?

   My other experience of color had to do with painting at midnight with my mom. That's usually when she was "inspired" and it often involved  a can of lavender paint, and a spray can of gold. We'd get roused out of bed at 1 a.m. and  armed with brushes, paint, and clear plastic pop beads to help make the dining room chandelier "fancier" we'd attempt to turn our humble row house into Versailles. In the morning, I'd get up and don my navy and white Catholic school uniform and go off till  3 'o'clock when I'd return to Fran's Wonderful World of Color, which always ended with my father's big statue of Jesus in the back yard being spray-painted gold. And then white again. And then gold. I grew up hating bright colors. My answer to every painting question as an adult has bee, "paint it white." Until now that is. We've been renovating the house we just bought and we are now God help us, at the painting stage.

   I never knew there were so many paint colors! Every paint company has different names for the same colors, and not only are there a zillion names, there are also sheens. Who knew about sheens? Flat, matte, eggshell, satin, and so on and so forth. I always said that this house I was gonna take a chance with decor, this house I was gonna go big, go bold, take chances. That is until I got into a few paint stores. Immediately I was intimidated, battered into submission by the difference between Simply White, and Swiss Coffee, which by the way is a different color depending on who's making it. Oh yeah. Paint.  Who names this stuff anyway?  You think I like walking into a store and asking for a gallon of Kitten Whiskers and a pint of Inner Balance? It's too zen. By the way, Zen is also a color. Actually any random word salad is probably a color. Paranoid Pelican, Pond Scum, yeah those are probably colors too, I'll have to check my color wheel (not) which weighs about 5 pounds. With all the color madness surrounding me it's no wonder I was attracted to the red corn I found at the farmers market. Those delicate tones of pale eggshell, blended with the lightest cream, and just a touch of Kitten Whiskers. It was calling to me and so I bought some.


   I thought I'd use this colorful corn to try a variation of the roasted pepper salad I'd made a couple of weeks before. I'm trying to compile a group of easy recipes for back yard get-togethers  this summer, plus I've been pretty lazy with all the color picking, and I wondered if I could make this work. Let me tell you, it worked like a charm. It worked so well, there was a battle over the left overs. Plus, fast and easy is always a winner. The corn, mixed with the spicy radish sprouts, the crunch of the peanuts, and heat from the chilies is a great combo. This recipe will work with any color corn, but if you should run across red corn grab some up,  toss a few ears on the grill and get cooking.

Red Corn And Radish Sprout Salad With Peanut, Chili Dressing

 

Here's What You Need:


4 ears of corn
1  and 1/2 Tbs olive oil plus a bit extra to rub on the corn
1/2 cup of roasted unsalted ground peanuts
3 Tbs chopped fresh chervil
salt to taste
2 cups radish sprouts
1 1/2  tsp dried red chili flakes
2 Tbs lemon juice

Here's What To Do: 


Shuck and clean 4 ears of corn.


Rub the cleaned ears with a bit of olive oil.


Just lightly cover them.


Place the ears of corn on the grill and cook them until they are lightly roasted.

Meanwhile, place the cleaned radish sprouts in a bowl and set them aside.


Add the 1/2 cup of ground up roasted unsalted peanuts  to a small bowl.
Mix in 2 Tbs of lemon juice
1 and 1/2 Tbs of olive oil
Salt to taste
Add in the torn up 3 Tbs of chervil.


Add in 1 and 1/2 tsp of red chili flakes.


Mix everything together well. Set it aside.
Take the kernels off the ears of roasted corn.


Add the roasted corn kernels to the bowl of radish sprouts.


Mix everything together well.

 
Whisk in the peanut chili dressing.


Give it a good stir so that everything is covered, and serve it up!

   This salad can be served hot of cold. It's great as part of a vegetarian menu and also works well with any sort of grilled meat. I'm actually thinking of using this dish as a base for a salmon salad. Give it a whirl, if your family likes peanuts, and corn this could be a keeper. Coming up next, Avocados, and CocoaPlanet  Deep Dark Truffle Chocolate hook up for a Summer romance. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori


  

6 comments :

  1. very healthy and loved the step by step explanation..Thanks for sharing dear..

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  2. I want it now!! Looks delicious Kathy. :) How do you come up with such lovely looking (and I am sure tasting! dishes?

    Love,
    Supriya

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    Replies
    1. Ha! Thanks Supriya. I am always looking for great stuff that will show off Indian food. My friend Paula Wolfert has given me a bunch of her dishes and this particular one is borrowed from the kitchen I'm currently using while we're building our new kitchen

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  3. My great-aunt had that colored cellophane over her black-and-white TV back in the day. Even as a kid I thought it was ridiculous...

    Very pretty salad! Though I'd use the 'regular' kind of corn. I have an irrational odd reaction to corn that's not yellow. Silly, but there you are.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Frank! It's a great salad, and bioy we'd do anything to have had colcor TV. My parents didn't get one until we'd all moved out of the house. Go figure.

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