Recipe: Tender corn and fresh tomatoes star in a no-sweat dish
that's a Cherokee Carbon, a Chef's Choice Orange and a Better Bush red tomato. (Photos: Kathy Morrison) |
The tomatoes and sweet corn are so good now, it's almost criminal to cook them -- not to mention too hot (usually) to do so. This recipe, adapted slightly from one by the New York Times, puts those stars of midsummer produce to work as the basis for Sunday lunch or midweek dinner.
This is almost a no-recipe recipe. The veggies, including red onion, are sliced thin and layered, then sprinkled with salt, pepper and fresh oregano. (It's versatile, too: Add peaches or arugula to the mix, or sub in scallions for the red onion, for example.)
What binds this dish together? Hot-off-the-grill protein, such as chicken or pork chops or steak or halloumi cheese. Or avoid cooking altogether and top the vegetables with warm pieces of a store-bought rotisserie chicken. The key is the spicy drippings that act as a warm dressing.
When we enjoyed this for dinner, with boneless chicken thighs as the topping, I upped the ante by serving a green salad topped with slices of super-ripe homegrown muskmelon, as fragrant as a perfume counter. Add a slice of artisan sourdough on the side and you have a summer meal to remember.
Tomatoes and corn with grilled 'dressing'
Here's the veggie base. Add the grilled or warm protein of
your choice.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of May 11
Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)
* Plant dahlia tubers.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.
* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.
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