It's that time again. I got bored and needed to use up some of the produce we had lying around the house before it became fodder for the compost heap or the garbage bin. To that end I had 2 ears of corn left over from the week as well as a ham steak. So for whatever reason, corn/ham salsa came into my head. And so I began.
Here is what you'll need:
1 Ham Steak
10 Plum Tomatoes (smaller the better)
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Large yellow onion (though I'm sure the type dosen't matter much)
2 Jalapeno Peppers
2 Ears of Corn
Prep on this is very easy. Chop the onion into a few discs and try to leave them intact. Take out the seeds of the pepper and cut off the bottom, then cut down one side to get a long piece. Remove the white pulpy part (it does not add any flavor here so why bother cooking it?)Rub the corn with cold butter, then grind on a LOT of black pepper, wrap in aluminum foil.
Take all of this out to the grill. To prep the grilling device of your choice (I use gas because its easy and I don't have to bother with a chimney starter etc...) add aluminum foil to one half of the grilling surface and let it heat on high.Then add the tomatoes, green pepper, onion and corn. Don't forget to add the jalapenos...
After you get some nice grill marks (5 minutes) turn them every 2 thereafter to keep them from burning. At 15 minutes in to the event you can put the ham steak on the grill to get a nice sear and grill marks on both sides.
If you want restaurant style grill marks, put aluminum foil on the side you are going do sear the ham steak (or any grill fodder for that matter) It heats the grates up hotter than by leaving them open as above. After a 3-4 minute heat up, remove the foil and slap on the food; don't forget to turn it 90 degrees after 2 minutes and then flip and repeat.
Once you get the ham steak done, remove everything from the grill. Now this next part is messy. You'll want to peel the skins off of the tomatoes and slice them up and toss them into a bowl. Dice up the onions and green peppers and add them in. Now you have a significant choice here. You can:
A) Dice the jalapenos up and toss them into the bowl
B) Peel the skins off the jalapenos, then cut off the ends, split down the middle and remove the seeds and the membranes, then chop and put into the bowl.
Option A yields a much hotter salsa while option B yields a mild creeping heat, but you get to taste the very light and almost fruit like flesh of the pepper without decimating taste buds before they can get the details. The call is yours.
Next remove the kernels from the corn and place into the bowl, then dice the ham and do the same, try not to add much of the fat from the steak, it's not needed here.
Lastly I added some Indian Cumin, roasted and ground, as well as some black pepper (ground) and cilantro. Stir it up with your hands (best tools we have) and serve any way you like.
**Try adding the zest of 1 orange and half an orange worth of juice to this!**Feel free to post comments on this or any of the dishes on the blog. I'm looking to take on one ingredient suggestions to build a meal around, so if you have a common one, or an odd one, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll do my best to come up with a tasty dish that utilizes it.
Posts
