Roasted Corn Salad

If you’re in need of some color in your life, I have the solution. Make this salad. This is a beautiful, bright, colorful roasted corn salad good-looking to the eyes and to the stomach. The secret is the corn. There’s something about grilling corn directly on a charcoal grill that is out of this world. All the sugars from the corn come alive giving this salad a little sweetness. But with the texture from the pepper, bite from the red onion and heat from the jalapeño, it gives this salad some dimension. It’s light. It’s different. It can be eaten at room temperature or chilled. I’ve added it to a bed of spinach and salad dressing, I’ve even used it as a topping for tacos, or simply, just eaten alone. A seasonal salad, effortless to put together, but very memorable to eat.

Ingredients:
6 whole corn
1/2 cup red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup orange bell pepper, finely diced
1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1 large jalapeño, fined diced
1 1/2 lemon, juiced
olive oil
salt + pepper

Directions:
1. Roast the corn. On a preheated charcoal or gas grill, roast the ears of corn directly on the rack. This will probably take 15-20 minutes. Be sure to rotate the corn occasionally to get a good color all over the corn.

2. Prep veggies. While the corn is grilling, prepare the vegetables. Finely dice the red onion and orange bell pepper roughly the same small size. Chop the cilantro and finely dice the the jalapeño. Place everything in a serving bowl. As soon as the corn is ready, remove from the grill. Allow to cool off for a few minutes. On a cutting board, stand each corn vertically and glide the knife down the cob to remove the kernels. Add the roasted kernels to the bowl of vegetables.

3. Combine everything together. Once you have all the veggies in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, drizzle a heavy dose of olive oil and squeeze fresh lemon juice. Toss everything together. Taste to be sure it’s flavored nicely. Add more seasoning if you think it needs more. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Brown Rice with Chicken Broth & Scallions

I am a white rice kind-of-girl. Always been since the day I was born. It’s what I ate for dinner almost every day growing up in a Filipino household. Never got sick of it or gained too much weight from eating a not-so-healthy grain. For some odd reason though, Jared and I were walking through the grocery store and decided to pick up a bag of brown rice. Yes, brown rice?! Couldn’t believe it myself. My first attempt at preparing brown rice at home went pretty well. There’s really nothing to it. I did, however, add some special touches by using chicken broth instead of water and incorporated chopped scallions to give an oniony taste. This was a nice change of pace to the ordinary white rice. I will definitely give brown rice, more credit.

Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth (or 2 1/2 cups water, 1 bouillon cube)
4 scallions, chopped

Directions:
1. Cook the rice. Prepare the rice according to the instructions on the bag. On medium high heat, bring to a boil the chicken broth (or water with bouillon cube) in a medium saucepan. Add the brown rice and reduce heat to low. Cover and allow to simmer for about 45 minutes until water evaporates and rice is cooked through. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

2. Add scallions. When the rice is cooked fully through, add the chopped scallions and mix together.

3. Serve. As soon as you mix the scallions in, the rice is ready to serve. Pair it with the red snapper with vegetables in a parchment pouch!

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Grilling Spring Veggies

From the kitchen of: Isabel   Makes: 8-10 servings   Total time: 10 min to prep, 10 min to grill

What’s not to love about grilling, Spring and vegetables? Put all three together and you got a winning combination. Grilling vegetables has got to be the easiest thing to do on this planet. I don’t even know why I provided directions on how to grill them, but for those who need some guidance, here you go! I grew up eating all sorts of vegetables even trying my least favorites — okra and bitter melon. Ewww. Other than those two, I’ve learn to love vegetables and appreciate them for their unique flavor. So go ahead and start grilling some vegetables this Spring. You’ll love how simple it is.

Ingredients:
1 large red onion
1 bunch of asparagus
3 zucchini
3 peppers, one of each color
olive oil
salt + pepper

Directions:
1. Prep and chop vegetables. Before you prep the veggies, start up your grill! Prep the vegetables while the grill is heating up. Rinse all the vegetables under cold water and pat completely dry with paper towels. Once the veggies are dry, it’s time to chop them. Cut thick slices of the onion, remove just the woody part of the asparagus (the end of the stalks), cut the zucchini on the bias in thick slices and lastly, slice the peppers in half, remove all the seeds and cut into large chucks. Place all the vegetables in a large pan or bowl.

2. Season the vegetables. Drizzle the vegetables with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. Toss everything together to be sure all the vegetables are coated. You can add more olive oil, salt and pepper again to be sure you got every piece seasoned.

3. Grill the vegetables. Place the large pieces of vegetables directly on the grill. For the peppers, I used a grill basket. If you don’t have one of these, keep the peppers in large strips so they don’t fall through the cracks. Grilling the vegetables literally takes minutes. Roughly 3-5 minutes per side depending on the grill’s temperature. Once the vegetables have nice char on them, place them back on the serving platter. Keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

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Recipe for: Shoestring Onion Rings

From the kitchen of: Isabel   Total time: 10 min to prep, 20 min to fry   Makes: 4-6 servings

A colleague orders out for lunch every once in a while, and I always look forward to the days he gets onion rings with his sandwich because he never eats them all and shares them with the group. The onion rings he gets though are not my favorite. But hey, they’re free and I can’t pass up on free food. His onion rings are the thick kind. They’re fat slices with a thick coating of breading and deep fried. As you can imagine, that after some time, the onion and the breading do get a little soggy. Well, my version is the complete opposite. Mine are shoestring so they cook up super fast and stay crispy for a longer time. There is a good balance between the salty, thin, crispy exterior and the oniony flavor and texture. I used evaporated milk to bind the flour to the onion and it turned out freaking amazing! You absolutely can’t eat just a handful. Before you know it, the pan will be empty. Shoestring onion rings are definitely the way to go.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 can evaporated milk
2 sweet white onions, medium to large size
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
salt for seasoning
vegetable oil, for frying

Directions:
1. Mix flour with seasonings. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cayenne, chili powder and teaspoon of salt. Mix well and set aside.

2. Prep onions. Thinly slice the onions. The first onion, slice off the ends and remove outer layer. Slice the onion in half and thinly sliced the halves. The second onion, also remove the ends and outer layer, but keep it whole. Thinly slice the onion keeping onion in rings. This way you have a mix. Place slices in a bowl and pour the evaporated milk over the onion slices allowing to soak for 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, turn on the oven to 170° and line a cookie sheet with 2 layers of paper towel.

Thin, thin, thin slices. Using a sharp knife is the key.

3. Fry the onions. While the onions are soaking, heat a dutch oven or large pot with an inch or so of vegetable oil over medium high temperature. Allow the oil to get hot. To test whether the oil ready, try frying one onion ring. It should take about 30 seconds or so for the onion ring to brown.

Once the oil is hot, take a handful of the soaked onion rings and dredge it in the flour mixture. Shake off any excess flour and gently place the onions in the hot oil. Using a strainer utensil, turn the rings over once or twice allowing them to turn golden brown It will only take 30 seconds to a minute for the onion rings to brown. Remove and place on the paper-lined tray and keep them in the heated oven to stay crispy while you continue to fry up the rest. Repeat process 4-6 times til all the rings are fried. Once all fried, season with salt and eat immediately.

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Recipe for: Garlic, Sage & Parmesan Creamy Mashed Potatoes

From the kitchen of: Isabel     Total time: 30 min     Makes: 6-8 servings

Potatoes are my thing. I just absolutely love them. However it’s prepared, I will eat it. French fried. Mashed. Croquette-style. Hashed. Scalloped. Roasted. Seriously, anyway. Just ask Jared how obsessed I am with potatoes. I’ve never met a style of potato I didn’t enjoy eating and I find it ironic that I don’t even have a mashed potato recipe on Pretty Tasty Things. Until now. I’ve eaten and made mashed potatoes a million times, and found that the best way to infuse flavor in mashed potatoes is in the cream. The cream is the base to any mashed potato and while the cream heats over the stove, add whatever flavors you enjoy. I decided to use garlic and sage, allowing these bold flavors to steep in the cream. With Gold potatoes rather than Russet, the end result is a creamy texture with wonderful hints of garlic, sage and Parmesan cheese.

Ingredients:
7 gold potatoes
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 large garlic cloves, crushed
2 sage leaves
1/4 grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons salt
pepper

Directions:
1. Boil potatoes. Bring to a boil a large pot of water seasoned with one teaspoon of salt. While the water is heating, prep the potatoes. Peel, rinse and chop the potatoes to large chunks relatively all the same size. When the water reaches a boil, gently place the potatoes into the pot and allow to cook until fork tender. Roughly 20-25 minutes depending on size.

2. Infuse cream. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the milk, heavy cream, crushed garlic and sage over medium-low temperature. Allow the ingredients to infuse for 20 minutes stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Lower temperature if the milk begins to bubble up.

3. Make mashed potatoes. Once the potatoes are fork tender, drain the water and return the potatoes to the pot. Allow the potatoes to steam in the pot for 30 seconds over low temperature in order for the water to evaporate. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes thoroughly. Gradually add the garlic/sage cream mixture in several intervals mashing in between until you’ve reached a creamy consistency. You may not need to use all the milk. I had a little left over that I did not use. Afterwards, add the Parmesan cheese, and season with butter, salt and pepper. Mix well and serve hot sprinkled with a little more Parmesan cheese.

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