Monday, June 12, 2006
Sometimes a Picture is Not Worth A Thousand Words
You might think that a blog featuring food would be dripping with mouthwatering photos. Photographing food is hard. It requires a great deal of skill to make a bowl of chili look appetizing in a photograph. I remember squealing in horror with colleagues over a book of soup recipes. The bowls looked like they contained dissected brains and other less savory items. Until I have further perfected my skills (and get new batteries for my camera) a thousand words will have to suffice (or in this case 333).
Today’s Lunch
Posole Salad
Soak 2 cups of corn over night. Drain and rinse the corn the next day. (You can take a shortcut and look for canned hominy in the canned vegetable isle.) In a pressure cooker add 3/4-cup broth and enough water to cover the corn. Add a pinch of dried red pepper flakes (more if you like spicy food) and 1 tsp black pepper. Bring the contents to pressure on medium-high heat and then reduce the heat to medium-low for 20 minutes. Allow the pot to cool until the pressure is released. (You can also place the same ingredients in a crock pot and let it cook on low for about 8 hours.) Wash and chop into small pieces 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 red or green pepper, and desired amount of red cabbage. Once the corn is cool toss it with the vegetables and your favorite dressing. I used balsamic vinaigrette.
Notes: Posole is technically a South American stew made with dried lime-treated corn kernels, but in the U.S. the term is often used to describe the corn itself. In North America a similar preparation using wood ash called hominy was learned from Native Americans. Both preparations remove the germ from the grain and the hard outer layer.
Today’s Lunch
Posole Salad
Soak 2 cups of corn over night. Drain and rinse the corn the next day. (You can take a shortcut and look for canned hominy in the canned vegetable isle.) In a pressure cooker add 3/4-cup broth and enough water to cover the corn. Add a pinch of dried red pepper flakes (more if you like spicy food) and 1 tsp black pepper. Bring the contents to pressure on medium-high heat and then reduce the heat to medium-low for 20 minutes. Allow the pot to cool until the pressure is released. (You can also place the same ingredients in a crock pot and let it cook on low for about 8 hours.) Wash and chop into small pieces 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 red or green pepper, and desired amount of red cabbage. Once the corn is cool toss it with the vegetables and your favorite dressing. I used balsamic vinaigrette.
Notes: Posole is technically a South American stew made with dried lime-treated corn kernels, but in the U.S. the term is often used to describe the corn itself. In North America a similar preparation using wood ash called hominy was learned from Native Americans. Both preparations remove the germ from the grain and the hard outer layer.
