cucumber salad and spicy cornbread.

Dear friends, it's summer. Or, more accurately, and with apologies to any of you not on an academic schedule, it's my summer. The field exam is well in the rearview mirror, classes have ended, grades are in, and I have a season of research and writing in front of me. [No, this isn't a picture of my reading list. Those are cucumbers. I can tell the difference - must mean that I've learned something!]


It's also a new cooking season, one that coincides perfectly with two new additions to my cookbook shelf: Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty (a gift from the thoughtful C.) and Super Natural Every Day, by Heidi Swanson of 101Cookbooks. Both are gorgeous and inspiring, and I've been settling down with them as pleasure reading. Total cookbook-love-at-first-sight. Especially as more produce slowly makes its appearance on the farmers' market tables, these will definitely keep me happy and busy all summer.

First up, a cucumber-ginger salad to accompany J.'s feast of lemon-thyme salmon and couscous with chives and peas, topped off with M.'s decadent chocolate layer cake. (We're a well-fed bunch.) This salad was fantastic: light, zingy, and refreshing. Plus, you know how I feel about any opportunity to slice fruits/veggies paper-thin.


I also made this cornbread from smittenkitchen. I'd never made cornbread before - so easy! And so tasty! I searched high and low for the aleppo pepper recommended and couldn't find it, so I substituted a little bit of paprika, cayenne, and red pepper flakes. (The next day, I saw aleppo pepper at Williams-Sonoma - go figure - so eventually I'll invest and give this another shot.)



Cucumber-Ginger Salad
adapted slightly from Plenty

Dressing
3 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. canola oil [*or sunflower oil, which I didn't have on hand]

Salad
1 small red onion, sliced paper-thin
1 1/2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced 1/8" thick
1 tsp. Maldon (or kosher) salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely sliced
4-6 small cucumbers (~1 1/4 lb.; Kirby cucumbers worked beautifully), peeled in stripes
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
3 tbsp. chopped parsley

Make dressing: whisk together all ingredients in medium bowl. Add sliced red onion, combine well, and set aside for about an hour.


Place ginger, salt, and garlic in mortar and pound well with pestle (fun!) until crushed but not yet paste-like. Add to bowl with onion and dressing; stir well.


Cut cucumbers into thin - but not paper-thin, about 1/8" - slices. (If your cucumbers are larger, you might want to halve them as well.) Add cucumber to bowl, along with sesame seeds and parsley. Stir and let sit for 10 mins.


Stir again before serving, tipping out a little bit of the extra liquid.



Spicy Cornbread
Adapted slightly from smittenkitchen (original from Red Rooster Harlem)

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. yellow medium-ground cornmeal
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. paprika [*I tried sweet Hungarian paprika - yum!]
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 c. sour cream
1/3 c. buttermilk
2 tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F; butter non-stick loaf pan.

Whisk together dry ingredients (through salt) in large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together wet ingredients.


Stir wet into dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake 25-30 mins., until toothpick in center comes out clean.