Dinner with Julie

Quinoa with Charred Corn, Scallions, Browned Butter & Mint

The pox had descended on our house. Although Mike’s over it, he’s still got the gout, and W needs to have a roll of toilet paper fashioned into a necklace for easy nose access, and I’m even less coherent than usual. We all have coughs that won’t quit. I’ve either been sneezing or been right on the verge of for approximately 36 hours. It’s still been a full weekend though, with my parents (finally!) moving into their new house and all that goes along with a move of that magnitude (ie. by someone who has been out of college for at least 3 years), so there has been moving, packing and unpacking, many hours trying to resurrect our own kitchen into something usable and enough leftover work to make today feel like a weekday anyway.

We went to Mike’s mom’s house for dinner – Chinese food bought from Safeway and microwaved – during which we discussed the fact that the third floor bathroom at the Bay downtown has really gone downhill in recent years, and that none of the bathrooms are anywhere near as nice as the old Woodward’s (Woolworth’s?) bathroom, which was beautiful, wasn’t it? Until they hired all those contractors (?) and then boy did it ever go downhill too. She put away a sandwich baggie full of her spare elastic bands (saved from her newspapers) to give to us, so that’s something.

I made this at some point over the weekend, having found it on a torn-out magazine page I stuck on the fridge before corn was in season. Now that corn season is almost over, I finally got around to making it. It originated here, but I did my own thing – boosted flavour by charring the corn in my cast iron skillet (why settle for boiling it?), knocked down the mint a lot, and figured while melting the butter, why not give it an extra minute to turn a nutty brown? My sister said it tasted like wedding cake. W threw it up. I think it would have been great with crumbled feta.

I just noticed that I used my old Woodward’s bowl. Eerie.

Quinoa with Charred Corn, Scallions, Browned Butter & Mint

1 cup quinoa, rinsed in a fine sieve
canola or olive oil, for cooking
2 cobs of corn, kernels scraped off directly into a skillet
1/4 cup butter
zest and juice of a lemon
1 Tbsp. honey
salt & pepper
2 green onions, chopped
a few leaves of fresh mint, torn or chopped

Cook the quinoa in a pot of boiling water for 15 minutes; drain in a fine sieve and dump back into the pot while still steaming. Cover with a tea towel, then the lid and leave it to steam (this will make fluffy quinoa). Meanwhile, heat a drizzle of oil in a heavy skillet set over medium-high heat and cook the corn for about 10 minutes, until starting to turn golden. Set aside to cool.

Melt the butter in the skillet (preferably the one the corn was just cooked in) and cook it for an extra few minutes, until it turns golden and smells nutty. Stir in the lemon zest and juice, honey and some salt and pepper. Try not to eat it all with your finger.

When everything has cooled down, mix the quinoa, corn, green onions and mint. Drizzle with the warm dressing and toss to coat. Serve immediately. Serves 6.

September 26 2010 | salads and vegetarian | 14 Comments »