Cooking 101

I mentioned the other day that the Bread Baking Bunch was taking a trip to Chateau Elan. Well, we went this weekend and had an absolute blast! You can view the pictures here. We went to a cooking class while we were there and the chef made this pretty kick-ass, roasted corn salad. While I didn't have most of the ingredients the chef used on hand tonight, I decided to make my own version of it. First, I roasted two ears of corn in the oven. So simple: just put the oven on 350 and stick the ears straight on the rack for 35-45 minutes. When the corn comes out and after you've let it cool and pulled the husk and silk off, you'll "saw" the kernals off the cob. To do this, first cut off the bottom and top of the cobs:

With the fat end on the bottom and with the cob standing straight up (verticle), carefully cut down one side of the cob. After you've done this, lay the flat side down on the cutting board (horizontal) and keep cutting each side off, rotating the cob so that the flat side is always on the board.

Once you've got it all of the cob:

Place it in a bowl. Next, finely chop some cilantro. You can use the stems of the herb, too - that's actually where the most flavor lies. After the cilantro, chop up a white onion very fine.

Next, heat up about a tablespoon of olive oil and minced garlic in a saute pan. Throw your corn/cilantro/onion mixture in and saute until you just begin to smell that sauteed onion smell.

I cooked a piece of salmon in the toaster oven (yes! In the toaster oven!) with just some olive oil, salt and pepper to go with it. Top the salmon with a little bit of PeyPey's Picante and chopped cilantro. Throw some of this roasted corn salad on the plate, sprinkle with some salt and pepper and chopped cilantro and enjoy your dinner. I like to pair this with a citrus-y wine. Kim Crawford white, Nutura Organic white, or Menage A Trois white all would go wonderfully!

This concludes PeyPey's Cooking 101 class!