Corn & Cucumber Salad with Fresh Blueberries ♥

Today's summer salad recipe: An intriguing blend of corn (for sweetness), cucumber (for bulk) and blueberries (for tart) in a vinaigrette spiked with a little cumin, which adds just the right amount of underlying smokiness. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

What a difference a single ingredient can make! I made this salad a few weeks back, making what I thought was a "safe substitute": inexpensive blackberries for expensive blueberries. The texture was right, the size was right, the color was right but with blackberries? The salad underwhelms.

Then, laden with more blackberries and peaches than was prudent for someone leaving on vacation in a few days, I was chatting up a woman in the pay-up line out at Wind Ridge Farm not far outside St. Louis. She'd arrived early and clutched several quarts of blueberries. Masking my blueberry-envy, I asked her plans for them. First, she said, she'd make her favorite corn and blueberry salad, then ticked off all the ingredients you see here.
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Cooler Corn: How to Cook Corn in a Beer Cooler ♥

How to cook fresh summer sweet corn in a cooler – and more importantly, why you want to cook those gorgeous ears of corn in one, whether you're camping or not.

Now let me confess right off, I got some grief for cooking corn in a beer cooler. "You might as well cook that corn in the dishwasher," was the less-than-excited response. But a real veggie evangelist will press on even under pressure, ever on the hunt for new and interesting – and always, useful – ways to cook vegetables.

Besides, I was pretty sure my dear Auntie Karen was onto something when she sent me the "recipe" awhile back. (Ha! Is something this easy a recipe? Yes, if it's life-changing, you bet.)

It felt like a good idea for cooking corn outside, camping, say, or for a shore lunch when fishing.
It felt like a good way to cook a whole mess of corn for a crowd with practically zero fuss and muss.

But here's the thing, why this is my new way to cook corn:
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Creamy Feta Mousse with Greek Salads ♥

Some times, a salad isn't as much about the vegetables as what's served on the side, in this case a creamy-tangy "mousse" made with feta cheese. It's almost an excuse to make an extra-special salad, one that's as beautiful as it is appetizing. That said, the creamy feta spread is one of those little "something I cooked up" that's great to have in the fridge. You'll find ways to use it, I promise. And Weight Watchers? While it tastes ever-so-rich, a whole quarter cup is only 3 points.

My friend Cindy loves the feta mousse at the St. Louis restaurant Remy's Kitchen & Wine Bar, but so far, Chef Lisa Slay is loathe to share a recipe with Special Request, my weekly restaurant-recipe request column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. That's okay, I respect this chef's choice: some recipes, you just want to keep in the family. Well, maybe not bloggers. When we find a recipe we love, we can't wait to share it ...

So somewhere along the way, Cindy found a recipe in Food & Wine that she thought might be close to the feta mousse at Remy's. It called for feta and heavy cream, she found this too rich. I made it with feta and buttermilk and well, honestly, fell in L-O-V-E.

If you love feta, you'll love this "mousse" – though honestly, I'm not sure that mousse is the right name, for this isn't marshmallow-light. It's got that wonderful feta tang, made smooth, made spreadable, made try-not-to-gobble-it-by-the-spoonful.
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Ragubbit or Rabbigu?

Making my first rabbit ragu - it's in the oven as I start this post. For some reason the unusual and uncommon meats seem to make us squirmish. Fear of the unknown? Trying to challenge that attitude by proving that rabbit can be awesome. Time will tell.

After reviewing my cooking library and taking some inspiration online, I decided to freestyle it.

Found these recipes helpful: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/meat/recipe/pappardelle-with-rabbit-ragu-20111019-1m68w.html (because it didn't suggest using the kidney - baby steps!)

and

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rabbit-Ragu-233984 (because it included bacon!)

Contemplating making my own pasta, but not sure I have enough eggs... or energy! Would be a good opportunity to give the food processor (that I pined over last christmas and have barely used), a run. Hmm. But the ready-made stuff is so easy.

The rough-and-tumble recipe:
Preheat oven 170 degrees celcius.
Chop: 1 rabbit into 6 pieces - [husband, cleaver or both are very handy at this point].
Chop: 2 brown onions, 4 garlic cloves, 3 sticks of celery, 1 large mushroom*, 150g bacon; 3 carrots.
*[not sure this is too traditional, but we love mushies, so why not!]

Heat olive oil in a heavy pan (which has a lid and is suitable for the oven). Brown the rabbit pieces in the oil. You may need to do this in two batches depending on the size of your pan. You don't want to overcrowd the meat during browning process. Once browned on all sides, remove meat from the pan.

Add a little more olive oil, throw in onions, garlic, celery, carrots, mushroom and bacon. Fry for a few minutes, stirring. Add some fresh sage and rosemary leaves, and a bay leaf. Add a cup of white wine to deglaze the pan and scrape all the sticky bits off the bottom so they get into the stew and don't burn. Cook for a few more minutes, the veges should be softening. Add 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 1 cup tomato passata, and 2 cups chicken stock. Return the rabbit to the pan. Add a little more stock or white wine (depending on taste) so that there are no sneaky bits of meat sticking out of the liquid.

Pop in the oven and cook for 2 hours. Remove meat from the pan, pull meat away from bones and discard bones. Return meat to the pan. Put on stovetop and cook until the liquid is reduced.

Serve with pappardelle pasta (interesting fact: 'pappardelle' comes from the Italian word 'pappare' which means 'to gobble up' or 'tuck into' - http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pappare)

Looking forward to it! Time for a glass of wine methinks!

____________


The finished product

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