Corn salad

I can´t believe summer is very soon to be over. Both my summer holiday and the season. I´ve had 2 months of holiday, just lazing. This has been such a lazy summer. You have no idea. I didn´t even bother to blog, although the only thing I´ve done these past weeks is cooking, baking and eating. It seems to me that I get lazier the more time I have on my hands, and the fewer things I have to do, which eventually probably will make me totally incapaple of doing anything at all. Well, I guess it´s a good thing there´s less than a week left until I start my studies again.

Today was such a beautiful day. The sun was shining and you could feel it warming your skin, though the sun is loosing to the sharp air as every day goes by. But not today. I spent it walking to the mountains, picking some blueberries along the way, reading in the park and eating ice cream. It was hot. It called for barbecueing, but I knew it would be too cold for that when my boyfriend would be back from work. So I decided to throw a little inside-barbecue for us. I had some aubergines and sausages as my base. I drizzled the aubergines with oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them in the oven together with the sausages. Now I needed some accompaniements. A kind of salad. I found some ears of corn in the fridge, probably from the last time we barbecued. Whenever that was. I wanted to use them, but I didn´t know in which way. Luckily I remembered to have seen a post about a corn salad on bloglovin that I had yet to read. So I read it, and that was my solution. It was quite summerly, just like I wanted this dinner to be, and it paired up very well with the aubergines and sausages. The recipe is from 101.cookbooks.com.
I added some little gem lettuce, for some colour and crunch and to make it a little lighter. It worked out very well, and my boyfriend, who is not exactly salad-man himself, absolutely loved it and came back for seconds. (Usually he just puts some on the plate, and that´s where it stays. For me to see and for him to avoid…) I also made the dressing to go with the salad, but I think the salad also can be served without. The dressing was that little extra something, though. So I guess I´m saying make it. Unless you don´t bother. Whatever.

But make this at least!

Corn Salad for 2 (recipe adapted from 101.cookbooks)

2 ears of corn
1/2 red onion
50 g roasted pepitas
50 g roasted sunflowerkernels
1/2 little gem lettuce

Dressing
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon brown sugar
a squeeze of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Use a knife and cut the kernels from the cobs. Finely chop the onion. Put it in a bowl together with the kernels while you make the dressing.

Combine lemon juice, salt and sugar in a bowl. Gradually add the oil, whisking vigorously until everything comes together. (Ooops, I see where I went wrong…I just put everything in a cup and stirred like crazy… Well, don´t be like me!) Adjust to your taste, but this dressing is ment to be on the sweet side.

Just before serving add the seeds to the bowl of corn, together with 2/3 of the dressing. Toss well and make everything well coated. If you want more dressing, add to your taste, or serve it on the side.

Crispy crisp bread

It’s funny. Food is a matter of fashion, and very influenced by trends it seems. Somehow certain recipes find their way through the internet, among people, and become a hit. Or maybe some recipes are just that good, that they would have been spread troughout the world either way. With or without the internet. That just speeds it up. From a mother to a daughter, from a friend to another, to a colleague…
I have a feeling this is one of those recipes.

It’s happened a number of times, when I have what I think is a new recipe, to try out, I spot several similar recipes on tastespotting or other blogs. Great minds think alike, I guess. Well, it happened again. I’ve never thought of making my own crisp bread. Ever. But a few months ago I visited my mother in law, and she had made a box full of crisp bread stuffed with seeds and grains, as a part of dieting her husband. I didn’t get to taste them, but I was very intrigued by the look of them, and instantly thought of making crisp bread myself. A couple of days later I met a girl from my class to study. And as always, we started to talk about food instead of chemistry, and she told me about a colleague of her who had brought some very delicious homemade crispbread to work. Now she had been given the recipe and was making them herself. And then, after some time I visited my parents. And what did I see? My mother had joined the ride and made them too! A box full of crisp bread, looking exactly like the one my mother in law made. Well, that was it. I had no other choice than getting down to buisness. I had been thinking about it for ages, but all kitchen-activity has been put off until my exams were over. They are now, so I’ll start my to-bake list with these. I figured I could check the internet for a recipe, but didn’t really think I would find any. I mean, who makes crisp bread? Well, everyone apparently. I didn’t even get to log in to bloglovin, before a crisp bread recipe practically was threwn at me. So I found something that looked like what I had in mind. With lots and lots of stuff in it. And it’s a low carb recipe, if you’re into that.

Crisp bread
(makes about 30)

3,5 dl sunflower seeds
1 dl chia seeds
1 dl sesame seeds
2,25 dl bran
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon honey
5 dl water

Directions
Mix everything together. Leave the batter to soak for 20 minutes. Divide the batter onto two sheets lined with parchment paper. Even it out with a spatula, making it as even and thin as possible. Cut into squares with a knife or a pizza cutter. Bake on 170 C for about an hour, or until golden and crisp. Turn the sheets once or twice to make sure they’re evenly baked. When they’re done, immediately remove from the parchement paper. Allow to cool on a rack, and store in an airtight container. They can be stored for several weeks, but don’t expect them to last that long.

Mine came out very delicate and crisp. Maybe a little to crisp, because I rolled out the batter very thinly. And I forgot to cut them before I put them in the oven. I remembered after half an hour, but the damage was already done, and they very hard to cut in even squares. But don’t be like me. Cut them before you bake them, and it shouldn’t be a problem. Make them as thin as you want. But these are delicate babies, I tell you, so you’ll have to be very gentle. But for a clumsy girl like me, that’s hard. So next time I’ll probably make them a little thicker, and bake them a little longer. The taste is amazing either way. Crispy and crunchy and filled with so many good things, you can’t help feeling good eating them. You can add some spices to your liking, if you want some extra flavour. I added a little pepper and tzatziki-powder, just to spice it up a notch, and it was perfect. But don’t overdo it, the seeds are great on their own!

Pair with a slice of cheese and a cup of tea or whatever tickles your fancy. Feels good. Tastes good. And it does you good. No goofy add-ins here, it’s all natural. You’ll never return to store bought crisp bread again.