The Food Zone – June 2018

Mexican Corn and Bean Salad

This is one of those dishes you can make in a few minutes while tailoring it to your taste buds by just adding this and subtracting that.

I was pan-searing some very nice large sea scallops one night and wanted something light to go along with it. Basically, a salad without lettuce. After staring at the pantry and the refrigerator for a bit, I narrowed it down to some type of Mexican-style salad – corn, beans, cilantro, some cheese.

You get the picture. This is just one of those recipes where you just throw in what you want. You can use red, kidney or (fill in your favorite) beans. Same with the various peppers, whatever you feel like. If you want a spicy salad, go with jalapenos; milder, try banana peppers.

Below is the version we came up with.

Ingredients:

Two  regular cans of black beans

Three ears of corn, on the husk.

One medium red and one medium yellow pepper

One cup of cilantro leaves

One cup of feta cheese

Two jalapeno peppers

Quarter-cup of olive oil

Juice from small lime.

Empty the beans into a strainer and wash all the juice off. Once washed, throw them in a big bowl.

Dice up the red, yellow and jalapeno peppers and add them to the bowl. The feta cheese should be crumbled and the cilantro diced up. Yep, add them to the bowl as well.

Lots of options on the corn – microwave in it their husks, boil them or grill them, up to you. For this instance, I did the microwave trick. Rule is about 4 minutes for the first and add about 1-2 minutes for each additional ear.

Cut the kernels off of the cob and throw the corn in with everything else.

OR, for something a little different, try this: after the corn is cooked, grill the cob. You can do this on a grill, or if you have a gas stove, just hold the ear with some tongs over the flame until the kernels start to cook and begin to look burnt.

Cut the kernels off and throw them in the bowl and mix everything together. Add the olive oil and juice from the lime. Mix some more and let it sit for an hour or so if you can.

That’s it. Other than the enjoying part.

(John A. Winters is president of Winters Media & Publishing, Inc., which publishes The Paper. You can usually find him, his wife (the Little Black Dress) and their three boys known as the SONS of Thunder somewhere near the kitchen or a fire pit.)