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.

Red Soup

In my day, there were cooks who refused to use the Cuisinart to slice onions. They said it ruined the flavor. I remember inventing this recipe to avoid that restriction.

Once you have the basic recipe down you can vary it a lot. Try adding spinach, garlic, cauliflower or summer squash. The only thing I've tried that didn't work well was potatoes.

Bring to a boil:
1 huge can (1 gal?) whole tomatoes
1 huge can tomato sauce
~16 c. water

Use a food processor to slice:

3-4 carrots
1 bunch celery

Add to soup.

Use a food processor to mutilate:
2 huge onions (~3c)

Chop and add:
1 small head broccoli
3 green peppers

Add:
1 1/2 c. red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Serve when the carrots and broccoli are cooked (tender).

Posted by mathhobbit