Roasted corn and smoked blue cheeses salad
On the farm of my grandparents in summer we would be outside all day to shoot BB weapons and break the windows of abandoned barns. But shortly before dinner, Grandma would be with a bushel ears in her veranda swing chair. “Wash your dirty hands,” she would say, “and help me shake this corn.”
The California corn of California is as sweet as sweets. This salad plays with textures and mixes raw and roasted grains in a defending marinade. The Sungolds give him a sweet step and the watermelon gherkins-tiny, football-shaped cukes bring-crunch. Add creamy cheese and bitter greens, and we reach for all the spokes on the taste wheel.
Do not mix this salad too far. They want the flavors together, but separate. Throw the herbs short before serving. If you want herbs to last, treat them like gold. Wrap them in a dry paper towel in a damp paper towel, then in a zipper or a reclassifying silicone bag in the fridge and give nothing difficult on it. Before they go to the court, they become a little rough with them. Give them a tear.
1. In a 9-inch cast iron pan over strong heat, heat oil and ghee. Add the shallots and cook them until they are deep brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle them with 2 large arteries of salt and then throw half of the corners. Cover the pan so that the corn does not fly out to you and let it caramelize once or twice until it is browned and fragrant in places. Add the pepper.
2. Put the corn mixture in a bowl with a slit spoon, then add the raw corn together with lemon juice and umboshi and do everything. Cover it and stow it in the fridge while preparing the rest of your vegetables.
3. Halve the tomatoes and gherkins in the longitudinal direction, then put them in a serving bowl and sprinkle with a large pinch of salt. Crumble in the blue cheese. Add the corn mixture, mix so that everything is well combined. Shortly before serving, tear and fold the dandelion grasses and basil leaves (either torn or completely) and season the salad with more salt and pepper.
Extended from coast: 130 recipes from a Californian road trip by Scott Clark with Betsy Andrews, © 2025. Published by Chronicle Books. Photos © Cheyenne Ellis.
Originally presented in a love letter of a fine body on the California central coast
