corn and avocado salad

7 bags of frozen corn
5 red peppers
1 package (or ~1 cup) of fresh oregano
10 avocados

olive oil
red wine vinegar (apple cider vinegar works in a pinch)
lemon or lime juice
cumin
Tabasco sauce or cayenne
black pepper
salt

Not only are the ingredients flexible and approximate, the directions are too!

Boil the corn. Chop the peppers. Chop the oregano. Mix together in a large bowl. Add cumin - enough to turn the corn slightly brown. Add oil and vinegar, and then add lemon or lime juice on top of that. At pika I typically use very little oil - maybe 1/4 cup. More vinegar, maybe 1/2 cup. Lemon juice until it's as sour as you want. Cut in the avocado once you've added the lemon juice, so it doesn't discolor. Then add the cayenne, salt, and pepper. (If you add the salt or cayenne before the lemon juice, you'll find that the perceived saltiness and spiciness are changed by the acid.)

Serve warm or cold. Keeps for days.

corn salad with mustard greens

5 onions
4 large bunches of fresh mustard greens
7 bags of frozen sweet corn (use fresh corn when it's in season)
1 package of fresh tarragon
1 package of fresh sage
pepper
salt
apple cider vinegar
strong-tasting olive oil

Cut the onions in to small pieces (it doesn't matter what shape, and they pieces don't have to be tiny). Heat some olive oil in a large pan (but don't let it get so hot that it spits), and pour in the onions. Use a spatula to completely coat all the onions in oil, and keep them on high heat for a little bit, but once they start to get soft, turn the heat down to medium (or low, if you have a very thin pan) and cook the onions slowly until they are caramelized and sweet.

Wash the mustard greens. Boil a large pot of water. When the water's boiling, dunk the mustard greens in for about 30 seconds - 1 minute (you'll probably have to do this in stages unless you have a HUGE pot), just enough to wilt the greens but not long enough to change the color. This should get rid of the bitterness in the greens but preserve some of the spiciness. Drain the greens and chop them up in to small bits.

Boil more water. When it's boiling, add the corn. You don't need to cook corn very long; mostly, you just need to warm it. Even uncooked corn tastes good, so just take the pot off the heat as soon as you're happy with the taste of the corn.

Mix the corn, onions and mustard greens together. Pour in a little bit of olive oil. Not too much - you don't want the olive oil to pool at the bottom of the bowl, and you definitely don't want this dish to taste oily. It's just for texture. Next, add in some apple cider vinegar. Keep tasting the mix until it's as sour as you like. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then chop the tarragon and sage and add them in last. Serve warm.