Saturday was supposed to be the highest point of humidity we’ve had so far this year. Boy, did I feel it, too. Take one step out the door, and here comes to sweat. I was stationed most of Saturday at Magnolia Grove in Greensboro during the Annual Black Belt Birding Festival, but it was nice to get out and see how lively Greensboro was this past weekend.
Not to say that Greensboro isn’t lively on any given day, just more characters to go around the Catfish Capitol.
That night, though, we had a big send off for a friend of ours who was visiting over the last month or so. For me, that meant a contribution to a farewell feast. I wanted a cold salad, but I grow tired of reaching for the jar of Duke’s every time I can’t be bothered to heat up the oven.
Over a couple of days last week, I sorted and washed and soaked some black eyed peas with only two thoughts in mind for them: pea cakes or field pea and corn salad.
For those of you wondering what a pea cake is, no, it’s not a pea-picking cake. They’re like salmon croquettes made from mashed black eyed peas, mixed in with some whole ones, then pan-fried.
However, the pea salad won out for Saturday night—less heat that way.
Ever since I had a panzanella that my friend Sara made for a Fourth of July shindig, I’ve been obsessed with a more vinegar and oilbased salad dressing. That’s when I reached for this recipe in Frank Stitt’s Southern Table.
If you haven’t heard me preach the Gospel of Stitt, I’ll spare you the tedium and cut to the chase. If you find yourself in Birmingham and want to have some of the best food around, go to either Chez FonFon or Bottega. One is more French, the other Italian—take your pick.
Don’t be fooled, though. These are Southern fusion restaurants, where familiar flavors and ingredients are married with a European sensibility.
I’ve had some of the best celebrations at either restaurant, and you’d have a hard time making me budge from my loyalty to either institution.
Whenever we want to show out or make something a little extra special for our loved ones, we pull out a recipe from either of Frank Stitt’s cookbooks.
Our friend Loretta raves over a salad that is perfect for the height of summer: a cornbread, tomato and cucumber salad with buttermilk dressing. It’s a lovely, filling spin on the classic “vinegar salad” many of you have grown up with.
John has made the “Chez Salad” for me upon request, which is an arugula salad dressed with a poached egg, crumbled bacon, and a drizzling of pan drippings. Between the bacon grease and poached egg, you have a rich dressing that would make any carnivore believe in the power of salads.
This particular field pea and corn salad doesn’t have any leafy greens, aside from some herbs. A blessing, given the current conundrum over contaminated lettuce.
What is nice about this salad is that if you find yourself grilling out any time soon, you can grill a couple of the ingredients for this salad before your meats. The hearty, slightly sweet quality of the peas and corn really bring out the smoky elements.
Not to mention, this is one salad that highlights the bounty of summer vegetables at the peak of their ripeness.
However, this salad is quite hearty on its own. I could see myself having this with friend chicken or a fried pork chop (my favorite) to round out the plate.
I could also see myself just taking a slice of cornbread and crumbling it in a bowl of this salad. When cornbread is involved, the sky is the limit.
Or is it that the belly is full?
Aside from the grilling, this salad couldn’t be easier, but enough of me teasing you with it. Let’s pick some peas!
Field Pea and Corn Salad
2 ears of corn, shucked
1/2 medium red onion
1 cup cooked peas, preferably a mixture
1/2 cup seeded diced tomato
1/2 cup seeded diced green tomato
1 teaspoon finely minced shallot
1 teaspoon chopped basil
1 teaspoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon chopped flatleaf parsley
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Prepare a hot grill. Cook the corn in unsalted boiling water for 3 minutes, then drain.
Place the corn on the grill and cook, turning occasionally, until charred. Let cool, then slice off the kernels.
Grill the onion, cut side down, until charred. Cool, then chop.
Combine the corn, onion, and remaining ingredients in a large bowl, tossing to mix. Let the flavors marry for an hour or more in the fridge. Can be served chilled or at room temperature.
Now I’ll go ahead and tell you, a Vidalia onion fixes everything in this house. In fact, I hardly ever think about a red onion, that’s how much we keep sweet onions around.
I went ahead and used a whole sweet onion, chopped in half to char. It stood in for the shallot and chives.
I also skipped the parsley because I’ve grown suspicious of really any leafy greens, herbaceous or otherwise, that haven’t come from our yard.
The basil I used was both some leaves and some flowers from the garden. If you end up with basil flowers, use those to not only keep your basil going, but to pretty up any dish that calls for basil.
Not grilling? No problem.
Just heat your oven to 450 degrees, cover your shucked corn and the cut side of your onions with oil, and broil until browned and roasted. It may take a little longer than it would on a hot grill, but you do all the same motions.
Rotate the corn every so often, make sure nothing gets too burned.
A pro tip is using duck fat. Now they have duck fat spray, but I suggest the stuff in the jar or better yet, extracted from a grilled or roast duck.
Brush a little duck fat on anything you’re roasting for instant depth of flavor. For example, cutting a bulb of garlic, brushing the cut side with duck fat, wrapping it in foil, and roasting it just the same.
Roasting like this can make onions and garlic almost jammy, which is an interesting flavor to incorporate in any number of dishes.
As far as olive oil goes, you want a nicer, slightly fruity one. Something with a great flavor profile on its own, is a general rule of thumb when procuring ingredients for this dish.
I was happy to use my first ever hybrid tomato in this salad—a variety called Parker’s Improved Whopper. I gotta say, a whopper, it was not. Yet the flavor was just right, a little sweet.
No, no, there wasn’t a green tomato present, but I’m telling you it’s because I’m holding out for my Atkinson tomatoes to finally give me something to write about.
Simple as this salad may be, it’s the simplicity that can be so intimidating to me. When you grow up with casseroles and “convenience foods” there’s ways to turn a dish around with more canned soup or crushed crackers.
This is a dish that really begs for the best from the garden and of your restraint.
Though, I found the dressing a bit too scant, so I added a dash extra of each vinegar. One of these days, I’ll remember to buy myself a bottle of sherry vinegar. Yet every time we have it around, it seems to grow legs and run away from us.
Yet you’ll always find some apple cider vinegar in our pantry, so I used that instead. Read my lips: just a dash extra, nothing more!
It’s on my agenda to make some ice cream batter this weekend. So, lucky for y’all, you may be getting another cold treat in this column. Just in time for the dog days of summer that are still ahead in August.
Now that we’re getting into late summer, I’m longing for some ice milk and peach cobbler. Or maybe some peaches and milk.
Either way I’m going to enjoy this last little window of peaches before they’re gone, and cold dairy will be involved.
In the meantime, I’m going to be shoveling more peas in my gullet, like I do every week. Certainly there’s someone in history who ate black eyed peas with that much regularity.
I would say I’d go on the John the Baptist diet, but I haven’t found a good pickled locusts recipe yet.
Oh well, peas it is.
