Recipe(let): Mexican Corn Salad

I make a salad such as this often, and with assorted seasonal ingredients. You could make it with black beans, green beans, peas, even lentils or barley or quinoa. The point is to create a complete protein by combining a legume with a grain: in this case Fava Beans and Corn. The favas were a bit tough as i'd left them on the bush for a while to let everyone mature enough to pick all at once - this might have been nicer with a quick blanch or just fresher favas. This also would have been great with jicama, but i had none on hand. This is a great salad by itself, or as i served it on top of salad for me and hot black beans for the husband. You can make a big batch of it and keep it in the fridge for quick lunches or snacks: it only gets better in time. Here's the recipe as it appears, followed by suggestions for ingredient alternatives of additions:

• Fava beans 
• Corn (about 1 part corn to 2 parts beans)
• Finely chopped spring onion: white and green parts
• Pinch diced cilantro to taste
• Minced garlic
• Dashes cumin, chilly powder, cayenne, salt & pepper
• Light drizzle olive oil
• Heavy drizzle lime juice: 1-2 Tablespoons or more to taste
• Splash raspberry balsamic vinegar

Alternatives/Additions:

• Exchange Fava Beans with Black beans, white beans, pinto beans, lentils, quinoa, or even orzo to change it to a pasta salad (no longer a complete protein)
• Red onions
• Diced fresh hot peppers: serrano, jalapeno, habanero, etc
• Diced fresh bell peppers
• Diced tomato
• Chives
• Jicama
• Change the spices from "Mexican" to "Indian" by adding curry, more cumin, cardamom and subbing mint for the cilantro

Voila. Quick and easy meal. I was actually not so hungry after doing an evening step aerobics class so there is leftover salad waiting for me for lunch today. Not too shabby!

What is your favorite use for fava beans? Do you prefer them fresh or cooked?

Pickled Eggs and a Kimchee State of Mind

Firstly, I must apologize for not posting these past few weekends. It has been project crunch time around the homestead: the hubby prepping and crafting his beautiful gourds, me working on decadent body product for my upcoming event. If you'll be in Austin this wednesday, come by and check it out. Some great jewelry by Schatzelein and bent on design, as well as $1 Lonestar beer at Thunderbird Coffee. I'd love to meet you.

Anyhoo, Sunday was a full day of farmers market patronage, cooking, and finishing up the last touches on my portion of the Mother's Day event. My kitchen tinkering included a first for me:  pickled eggs. Strange sounding, I know. Pickled eggs came to be when folks needed to travel with their protein and lacked sufficient storage to keep eggs fresh and unjostled. When pickled, the eggs can be kept for a few months unrefrigerated. I found a recipe on my local poultry meetup group and will experiment with it using only 4 or so eggs. No idea if i'll like them, so i'd rather not waste The Ladies' hard work.

Fresh eggs are hard to peel!

My other decision today relates to sustainability, seasonal eating, and my enjoyment of kimchee. I've posted my recipe here a few times, and still plan on trying the marinating method (versus the pound it to death method). But today i will only mention my new approach:

Kimchee is a condiment of versatility and self expression. You can use just about any vegetables and spices you like. I have decided that from this point forward, i will be preparing my kimchee with entirely seasonal produce. I stopped by the Hope Farmers Market today and purchase a locally grown cabbage (i tried to grow cabbage, but the snails beat me to the harvest) and then wandered my garden to pick some spring onions and garlic whips (which i dutifully followed by planting some basil seeds in their stead, it's about time!) Today's kimchee will be made with:

• Local cabbage
• Homegrown spring onions
• Homegrown garlic whips
• Homegrown carrots
• Homegrown dried chillies
• Homegrown coriander seeds
• Homegrown nasturtium leaves
• Homemade whey from local raw milk
• Salt - sourced from far away, i'm sure

Pickled eggs (very reduced recipe to serve 5 eggs):

• Malt and cider vinegar
• water
• 1 whole clove
• Small cinnamon stick
• 1/4 teaspoon or so of pickling spice
• Dash mustard
• Some hot peppers and cayenne powder
• 1/2 T rapadura
• pinch sugar
• 1/2 T pickling salt
• Garlic cloves

Bring to boil, simmer 15 minutes, cool and pour over the eggs. I know this is supposed to be non refrigerated, but it wierds me out, so into the fridge it goes.  I'll test them out next weekend and see what i think!

Great productive weekend for us, onward to a new week, and hopefully a successful (or at least informative) market event on Wednesday.