Happy summer!

Too hot to spend much time at the stove?

These Thai Corn Fritters may be just what you need. A short cook on the griddle and you have a tasty appetizer, entree or side. (OK. I’ll fess up. I eat these for breakfast, too.)

I’ve long enjoyed simple pancakes laced with sliced jalapenos (and sometimes fresh corn) and sauced with maple syrup. This is a variation on that recipe. This recipe has no dairy and lots of sliced green onions. The onion complements the sweet fresh corn perfectly. You can eat this with maple syrup or Vietnamese sweet chili dipping sauce (nuoc cham ga). I added some cayenne pepper to my maple syrup and got the hot bite I was looking for. I love the sweet and hot flavors in this dish!

This recipe also takes advantage of the beautiful fresh corn in the markets. It’s a win win.

Here’s the recipe.

Thai Corn Fritters

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Ingredients

For The Fritters
• 2 C. fresh corn
• 2 eggs (separated and room temperature)
• Salt and freshly-ground pepper
• 1/2 C. chopped green onion
• 1 t. chopped fresh jalapeno (or to taste)
• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
• 3-4 T. butter or neutral oil (grapeseed or corn)
Sauce
• Maple Syrup
• Cayenne Pepper (to taste)
• or Sweet Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Cham Ga)

Instructions

1. Combine egg yolks, a generous pinch of salt, 1/2 t. pepper, green onions, chile, corn, soy sauce and flour in a large bowl. Mix. Set aside.
2. Whip room-temperature egg whites until they are stiff. Fold them into the corn batter.
3. Melt butter (or heat oil) on a griddle. Spoon scoops of batter on to your griddle and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side.
4. Serve with maple syrup--heated up with cayenne pepper or sweet dipping sauce.

Nutrition

Calories

6062 cal

Fat

653 g

Carbs

44 g

Protein

20 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

200

https://bluecayenne.com/thai-style-corn-fritters

This recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman’s Corn Pancakes, Thai Style recipe in his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. You can buy the book here.

Oh, how I wish I had a vegetable garden! I would try my hand at growing everything.

Gene, my good friend and neighbor, has a flourishing vegetable garden this year. On occasion, he lets me come down and dig around to get my fix. Along with tomatoes, zucchini and beets, he has beautiful bush beans and a few days ago I was lucky enough to get some of his first beans.

What a treat!

I’m far from alone in enjoying green beans. Green beans are the most popular edible pod bean in the United States.

Green beans originated in South America–probably Peru– thousands of years ago and their cultivation was spread to other parts of South America and northward by migrating Indian tribes. When the Europeans arrived in the Americas, green beans became part of the great Columbian Exchange. (You remember the Columbian Exchange from your history classes. America got, among other things, coffee beans, bananas, olives and onions. Europe, Asia and Africa got potatoes, tomatoes, vanilla and beans.)

In the European part of that exchange, the cultivation of the beans quickly spread throughout the Mediterranean region with the new crop becoming particularly popular in Greece, Turkey and Italy. Here is a 1543 European woodcut of a man ravenously-consuming green beans from the Americas–either that or he is shouting at the beans. Can’t tell.

So, this recipe, with its feta and mint, is a tip of the hat to that early Mediterranean love affair with the bean.

But first, a bit of food chemistry… This month, in their July-August issue, Cooks Illustrated Magazine ran a piece about cooking green beans. (They also featured the original version of this recipe.) Their article drew upon the writings of food expert Harold McGee (On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of The Kitchen). Seems that the magic in cooking tender vibrantly-green green beans is cooking them quickly in very salty water. Accoding to Cooks Illustrated (quoting McGee), “when vegetables are cooked in salted water, sodium ions displace some of the calcium ions in their cell walls…causing the vegetable to soften.”

Gene’s Beans: Green Bean Salad With Cherry Tomatoes and Feta

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds green beans (trimmed and cut into 1 to 2 inch lengths)
• 1/4 C. table salt (plus 1/4 t. for salad dressing)
• 12 ounces cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 1/4 C. extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 T. chopped fresh mint
• 2 T. chopped fresh parsley
• 1 T. lemon juice
• 1/4 t. pepper
• 2 ounces feta cheese (crumbled) or more to your taste

Instructions

1. Boil 2 quarts of water in a large pan. Add green beans and 1/4 C. salt to the boiling water. Cook until green beans are a bright green color and are tender. This will take 5-8 minutes.
2. When beans are tender, drain and immediately put into an ice bath until the beans are cool. When beans are cool, spin in a salad spinner until the beans are dry.
3. Combine tomatoes, oil, mint, parsley, lemon juice, pepper and salt in a large bowl. Add the green beans and toss to combine. Let the beans sit on your counter for a while to allow them to absorb the flavors of the other ingredients.
4. Plate on a pretty platter and sprinkle with feta.

7.8.1.2

197

https://bluecayenne.com/genes-beans-green-bean-salad-with-cherry-tomatoes-and-feta

This recipe is adapted from one that appears in Cook’s Illustrated Magazine. Here is the link: Green Bean Salad With Cherry Tomatoes and Feta.

Potato salad.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Buttermilk Potato Salad

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Ingredients

• 3 pounds small red potatoes
• Kosher salt
• 1 C. mayonnaise
• 1/4 C. buttermilk
• 2 T. Dijon mustard
• 2 T. whole-grain mustard
• 1/2 C. chopped fresh dill (or to taste)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 C. medium-diced celery
• 1/2 C. small-diced red onion
• Diced red onion, chopped parsley, chopped fresh red bell pepper for garnish

Instructions

1. Steam potatoes until they are tender when pierced with a knife. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut into halves or fourths depending upon the side of the potato.
2. Whisk mayonnaise, buttermilk, mustards, 1 t. salt salt and 1 t. pepper together. Set aside.
3. Assemble salad by mixing the warm steamed potatoes with the buttermilk dressing. Let the potatoes sit for a while so that they can absorb some of the dressing. Add celery and red onion, salt and pepper to taste. Toss.
4. Cover the salad and refrigerate overnight. Garnish and serve at room temperature.

Nutrition

Calories

2600 cal

Fat

171 g

Carbs

188 g

Protein

66 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

194

https://bluecayenne.com/buttermilk-potato-salad

This recipe is adapted from one that appears in Barefoot Contessa At Home. The book is available on Amazon here.