Charred Corn and Mango Salsa + Plantain Chips

Charred Corn and Mango Salsa + Plantain Chips // A Thought For Food

Wait. What? How are we already approaching the end of July? I'm pretty sure it was May yesterday. And didn't we just have snow on the ground? Can we just slow things down a bit? Maybe there's been a bit too much running around these last few weeks. There was the trip to the Berkshires, followed by some time in New Jersey/New York, which went directly into a couple days on the Cape. All good, fun stuff, but, at the same time, it's all a little exhausting. Our lives slow down a bit over the next few weeks. There are plenty of projects to work on, but not as much travel. Just some Cape-time, reading, swimming, boating. Simple, quiet activities.

Charred Corn and Mango Salsa + Plantain Chips // A Thought For Food

Charred Corn and Mango Salsa + Plantain Chips // A Thought For Food

Charred Corn and Mango Salsa + Plantain Chips // A Thought For Food

Charred Corn and Mango Salsa + Plantain Chips // A Thought For Food

After all the back and forth, it was great to get into the kitchen and work on some recipes I've had in my head for quite a while. Corn is my summer obsession. Even more than tomatoes or asparagus or berries, I can't get enough corn. The thing is that I really don't like eating it on the cob and would much rather shave the kernels into a salad. The inspiration for this salsa came from my father-in-law. With my adaptation, I gave it the summer treatment by charring the corn, giving it some added flavor and texture. A good amount of spice comes from the habanero Tabasco. This stuff doesn't just have a kick... it burns. But in a good way. It's something to think about as your seasoning the salsa.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Tabasco. Over the course of the year, I will be creating recipes featuring the Tabasco Family of Flavors and this is the first of those posts. All opinions expressed on my site are my own.

You can check out my recap from my trip to visiting Tabasco here and my recipes for Smokey Shrimp Burgers and a Watermelon Shrub Spritzer.

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Charred Corn and Mango Salsa + Plantain Chips

Notes The corn can also be prepared on a grill by removing the husk and grilling the corn kernels until charred.

Yield
Serves 6 as an appetizer

Ingredients
For the salsa
4 ears corn
1 mango, peeled and cut into 1/4" cubes
Olive oil
1 teaspoon habanero Tabasco (or more depending on desired amount of spice)
1/8 cup chopped red onion
1 teaspoon chopped cilantro
Juice of one lime
Salt

For the plantain chips
3 plantains, peeled and sliced 1/16" lengthwise (using a vegetable peeler or a mandoline) Vegetable oil (I used safflower oil)
Salt

Directions

For the salsa
1. Preheat a large caste iron skillet (or pan) on the stove over medium-high heat for three minutes. Add two tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet. Once heated, add the corn kernels and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the kernels have charred. Remove from heat.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together habanero Tabasco, cilantro, and lime juice. Add corn, mango, and red onion. Season with salt.

For the plantain chips
1. Pour vegetable oil in a large, deep saucepan so it comes up 2 inches. Heat the oil to 375 degrees F.

2. Cook the plantain slices in batches, carefully lowering the plantain into the oil. Cook until crispy, approximately 1 minutes. Line a plate with two layers of paper towels. Transfer plantain chips to the paper towel and season with salt. Serve with corn and mango salsa

Buttery New Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs

Buttery New Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs // A Thought For Food

For most of my life, I've made potatoes two ways: mashed or roasted. The idea of a boiled potato seemed rather uninteresting. I mean, how is it possible to impart any flavor when all you're doing is throwing them into some hot water. Then, a few years ago, I was introduced to Syracuse salt potatoes. Even though I studied at Syracuse University for a year, I only learned about them on a business trip out there. The small new potatoes were cooked in a large pot of very salty water with the skins left on. The result is a super creamy potato.

These, of course, are not Syracuse salt potatoes... but I thought about them as I was preparing this dish. I started with a bit more salt that I normally would in my water. Just like salting pasta water, this infuses the potatoes with a lot of flavor and helps break down the starches in the potato, giving them their creamy consistency. Once done cooking, they were given some tablespoons of butter (of course), minced garlic, chopped herbs (I used a combination of what we had in our garden), and a nice amount of coarsely ground black pepper.

What made this side even more special was where the potatoes came from. While we were in the Berkshires last week, Eric and I went out to visit our friends Heather and Matt at Sparrow Arc Farm in Copake, NY. I've had the pleasure of hanging with them a couple of times at various events and we hit it off immediately. They were so kind to take us around their property and explain what they're growing and their process (it's quite the operation). We went berry picking with their kids (check out this picture of their youngest after he devoured multiple handfuls of blackberries).Before we departed, Matt handed us two large bags of new potatoes, which I've enjoyed serving to family and friends over the last week.

Buttery New Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs // A Thought For Food

Buttery New Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs // A Thought For Food

Buttery New Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs // A Thought For Food

Buttery New Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs

Yield Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs new potatoes, scrubbed well and cut in half or quartered, depending on size
3 tbsps butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 tbsps chopped fresh herbs (a mixture of tarragon, parsley, chive, and basil)
1/4 cup Kosher salt
Black pepper

Directions

1. Add the potatoes to a saucepan and cover with cold water until it's an inch over the potatoes. Season with Kosher salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce to medium-low heat. Cook for 6-8 minutes, or until tender. Drain potatoes in a colander.

2. Add butter to the used saucepan, along with the minced garlic and chopped herbs. Transfer potatoes back to the sauce man and toss to coat with butter-herb mixture.

3. Taste for seasoning, and, if necessary, add more Kosher salt. Season with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.

Heirloom Tomatoes with Garlic Scape and Basil Vinaigrette

Heirloom Tomatoes with Garlic Scape and Basil Vinaigrette // A Thought For Food

My family is in full swing with our summer reading contest. This has been going on for years, ever since my sister and I were old enough to get through a Curious George book on our own. She always took it a bit more seriously than I did and would make it through at least a half a dozen by the end of the summer, while I'd get through one or two. It wasn't until high school that I started getting competitive with her. After my senior year of high school, my parents took us to San Francisco for a week. While there is a lot that I remember from that trip (the Ghirardelli factory, walking through the Ferry Building Marketplace, dim sum in Chinatown), the two of us spent most of that trip with a book in front of our faces.

Between college and jobs and, you know, life, we've calmed things down a bit over the years. I no longer compete with my sister (a much faster reader than I am, I have no doubt she'll get through more books), but I still love this tradition. There have been recent years where I've only gotten through a couple. In the month of June, however, I managed to finish three. The first was a YA novel (I didn't know this until I'd already read a couple chapters and felt like it'd be the perfect book for a teenager) called Noggin. While the writing wasn't very challenging and the story wasn't terribly complex, the premise was creative and it had some strong characters.  The second was The Girl on the Train, which I found to be an engrossing mystery. The last was The Dinner, which, like The Girl on the Train, is told in the first person.

I'm currently making my way through All the Light We Cannot See. I won't go into much detail about the plot, but I will say that the writing is some of the best, maybe the best, I've ever read. Every sentence is loaded with detail. That's not to say that it's verbose. Quite the opposite, in fact. Every word adds new depth to the experience, as if you're watching a painting or a photograph being developed before your eyes. It's a magnificent experience and I'm trying to take my time with the book so that I can savor it.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with tomatoes. Except that they both exist in the summer. I've been enjoying tomatoes in a variety of forms, but my favorite preparation is as a lightly dressed salad or sliced and served on top of rye bread. For this dish, I included garlic scapes two ways: in the dressing and simply sautéed. It's nothing revolutionary, but, hey, it works.

Heirloom Tomatoes with Garlic Scape and Basil Vinaigrette // A Thought For Food

Heirloom Tomatoes with Garlic Scape and Basil Vinaigrette

Ingredients

2 lbs heirloom tomatoes
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped garlic scapes
1/4 cup basil, packed
3 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon
Kosher salt
Black pepper

Directions

1. Cut tomatoes into wedges (four or five, depending on the size of the tomato) and transfer to a bowl.

2. Make the dressing by placing 1 cup chopped garlic scapes, the basil, vinegar, olive oil, and 1 teaspoon of salt into a blender (or use an immersion blender). Blend until pureed.

3. Toss the tomato wedges with the dressing and set aside.

4. Set a small skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook remaining chopped garlic scapes for three minutes, or until slightly softened. Sprinkle on top of tomato salad.

5. Season salad with more salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.