So, I have become kind of obsessed with this corn “relish” recipe from the most recent Everyday Food. It’s about as simple as it gets, there’s no cooking involved. None! As we were chowing down tonight, Valerian asked “why do we even cook corn?” because it is so so tasty hacked right off the cob. And I’m not talking about any pampered organic superstar corn from the farmers market; I think it’s way too early for that anyway, especially since California apparently took a holiday in Oregon this spring and we’ve had weeks of unseasonal rain. No, this corn came from the grocery store, 33 cents an ear, and delicious as all get-out.

Although I’ve managed to make a meal of the relish several times (leaving guests whimpering as I greedily cleaned out the serving bowl), I wanted to bulk it up a little to make a more substantial dinner. I tossed in some black beans and for the omnivores among us, topped it off with some chicken cooked on the panini press my mother handed off to us when we moved. For myself, a little feta added some salty goodness but that’s optional, I’d say.

This was such a satisfying meal and so simple, it’s a good one to throw together for these weeknights when the sun stays up so long it’s easy to forget how late it is. Gluten free, too! It’s a delicious taste of the summer to come, just look at these gorgeous tomatoes:

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Fresh corn salad with grilled chicken
Adapted from Everyday Food

To keep the salad snappy and fresh, dress it last; I’d recommend cooking the chicken first, then assembling the salad; the chicken could easily be made in advance and kept in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.

Ingredients

for the chicken

• 1 lb. boneless chicken breasts or thighs
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 3 ears fresh corn
  • 8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2 scallions, sliced thin
  • 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, about 1½ cups, drained
  • juice of one lime
  • 12 ounces baby spinach
  • feta for serving (optional)
  • About an hour and a half before you want to eat, trim any excess fat from the chicken, season it with salt and pepper and place it in a sealable container or bag. Stir together the buttermilk and cumin in a cup, then pour the mixture over the chicken. Cover/seal and refrigerate for an hour.
  • To cook the chicken, preheat a panini press or grill to medium heat. Place the chicken parts on the grill (discard any remaining marinade) and cook for about 10 minutes, until there are nice grill marks on the pieces and the juices run clear.
  • While the chicken is cooking, cut the kernels off the ears of corn.
  • Toss the corn, tomatoes, scallions and beans in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the lime juice over and toss again.
  • Serve on a bed of baby spinach, with the chicken or feta on top.

  Serves three to four as a light meal.

This recipe was born when we invited my in-laws for a Hungarian picnic. Traditionally, the protein part of the meal would be cold cuts: thinly sliced Hungarian paprika sausage or the famous Pick/Hertz winter salami.  You can’t get those here, though,  and substituting sugar-soaked ham was not an option for me. The other popular Hungarian custom for picnics is to take their big kettle and cook goulash, fish soup, bean stew or paprikash. I would be all for this, but I do not think it will make the California firefighters happy.  The grass is so dry that you can light it up just by looking at it. I also had doubts that the picnic grounds would be happy to see some crazy Hungarian making a huge pot of goulash while burning their turf, and I definitely didn’t want to risk expulsion from the Marin Cheese Factory. Where would I get my healthy dose of Camembert?  So under pressure, I threw together this recipe, with a very Hungarian result. It’s maybe best served warm, but kept cool in the picnic basket, it makes a great sandwich filling.

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Hungarian Vegetable Chicken

This is a rustic dish and it can be altered as you wish. If you are crazy, you can skip the bacon and go for vegetable oil. It will still be good.

Ingredients

Feeds 4 people.

• 2 pounds boneless chicken (preferably dark meat)
• 3 wax peppers (Anaheim)
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 strip smoked bacon
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 tsp paprika
• 1 cup red wine
• pepper to taste

Method

• Cut the chicken into 1 inch strips or cubes. Dice the bacon and the onions. Mince the garlic, slice the pepper and the tomatoes into circles.
• Start frying the bacon on medium high heat to render some fat, then add the onions.
• When onions are translucent or even caramelized (burned) on the edges add the chicken cook on all sides (5-6min) and then add the peppers and the pepper and paprika.
• When peppers start to shrivel (7-15 min), add the garlic and tomatoes. Toss together and cook for 7 more minutes (do not burn the garlic).
• Add the wine and lower the heat. Simmer until the liquid evaporates and the mixture thickens.

I had a great day in Sonoma tasting some wine. I specifically went to try out the Cline cellars, since I was very excited about trying their wine; I had it for the first time on the way to California on the BA flight. I love the idea of grapes grown on 100 year-old vines. The yield is low but very mature and sophisticated. I am a big fan of Cline and their Ancient Wines line. With a little luck you can get these wines from under $10, which is my comfortable price limit for a bottle of wine. After the tasting at their cellars, I could not come home empty handed, and I decided to share this gem with my family. Since good wine must be accompanied by good food, I decided to make a Czech classic: roasted duck with red cabbage and Czech dumplings.

This Czech meal consist of three separate segments. You have to roast the duck, make the cabbage and the dumplings. It is a bit more labor intensive, but again remember that a good wine must be accompanied by a good meal.  I’ll post them as separate segments because the cabbage and the dumplings are often used with other meals and later I might refer to these recipes.

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Roasted Duck

For this recipe I used duck legs. For bigger parties or hungry individuals, you can count on 2 legs per person, for a lighter meal go with 1 duck leg per person. You can use other parts of the duck if you wish. The amount of apples and pears depends on the amount of duck you are going to roast. I use fruit in order to achieve light fruity tones and preventing the meat from drying out.

Ingredients

• firm apples, such as Braeburns
• pears, any variety
• red wine
• salt
• water
• duck legs
• caraway seeds

Method

• Slice the apple and pear and lay them directly on the roasting pan. Add few cups of red wine or water. The liquid should barely cover the fruit.
• Salt the duck legs on both side, place the legs on the fruit bed and sprinkle them generously with caraway seeds.
• Preheat the oven to 340F, cover the roasting pan with foil and bake until the meat is soft (2 -2.5 hours).
• When the meat can be easily pierced with a fork, remove the foil and broil until the skin is nice and crispy.

Red Cabbage

While the duck roasts you can do the red cabbage. This is a special cabbage used with few Czech recipes and you can use the leftovers in many good ways, as a side dish, in sandwiches.

Ingredients

• 1 medium red cabbage (1.5-2pounds)
• 1 big onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 3tbs vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 orange
• 3 cups of red wine
• 1tsp caraway seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method

• Slice the cabbage into thin ribbons, removing the hard bits and nibbling on them while you salt the cabbage and let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Chop the onions.
• Heat the oil in large pot and add the onions together with the bay leaf. When onions become translucent, add the sugar and caramelize it.
• Add the caraway seeds and 10 seconds later add the red wine and the juice of one orange.
• Bring the mixture to boil and add the cabbage. Cook the cabbage on medium temperature until soft.
• When cabbage is soft add the vinegar and season with extra salt (1/2tsp maybe).

Steamed dumplings – knedliky

The Czech knedliky or “steamed bread” is a real Czech classic. It is served with variety of foods, especially with sauce. This is a simple knedliky recipe; unfortunatelly they are great only on the first day. After that they lose their freshness rapidly, so try to use them right away. You will need a steamer to make these (obviously), one with a flat bottom is the best.

Ingredients

• 1tsp sugar
• 1tsp yeast
• 3½ cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup of milk
• ½ cup lukewarm water

Method

• Make a sponge: mix the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast and leave until bubbly, about ten minutes.
• Mix the flour with salt, add the sponge, eggs, and 2/3 cup of milk (if necessary keep adding more milk).
• Let it raise for 30 min, then punch it down.
• Let it raise again until doubled.
• Prepare the steamer: put a few inches of water in a large pot, and lightly oil the steamer basket. Bring the water to a boil.
• Shape little oval loafs and put them in the steamer basket. Steam them for 10-12 minutes until they are resilient and have a firm outer skin.
• Let them cool and cut them into slices just before you serve them.

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Chicken Paprikas

This is one of the classics of Hungarian home cooking. Everybody has a unique version, so use the recipe as a path to your preferred flavors. The famous Hungarian chef Karoly Gundel recommend mixing the sour cream with cream (1/2 sour cream, 1/2 cream). This way you achieve extremely creamy chicken paprikas but you lose some of the tanginess.

Ingredients

For 4 portions

• 2 tbs oil
• 2 medium onions
• 2 tbs red paprika
• 2-3 lbs/1-1.5 kg chicken pieces, bone-in
• 2 hungarian yellow peppers
• 1 tomato
• 3/4 cup/2 dcl sour cream
• 1 tbs flour
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

• • Dice the onions, pepper and the tomato. Heat up the oil, add onions, salt and pepper. Saute the onions over low heat. When translucent, add diced peppers and then the tomato.
  • When the mixture cooks down, add the paprika, mix well, add the chicken and water. Water should barely cover the chicken.
  • Simmer on a low heat until meat is cooked, about  45 – 60min.
  • When cooked, remove the chicken. Mix the sour cream and flour together and add to the sauce remaining in the pan. If your sour cream curdles, first add a spoonful or two of the sauce into the sour cream/flour mixture before adding it back into the pan. Stir, replace the chicken into the pan and cook very gently for another 5 min.
  • Serve with nokedli (you can use prepared gnocchi) or good fresh bread.