Hot southern mess

We’re currently experiencing the nastiest weather of the summer. Think Amazonian rain forest-African jungle heat and humidity. I’ve said (so many times) before: I hate Southern summers, love the food. Today’s lunch was the last of our sweet corn, the first of our field peas, some of Stoic’s perfect tomatoes and a neighbor’s honey-sweet cantalope. I guess it’s worth it as long as the air conditioning keeps plugging along.

Going into a drawer for a shopping list this morning, I found this recipe for a field pea and sweet corn salad. I wasn’t impressed the first time I made  it, except for the fact that it used a lot of both.

This second time I doubled the dressing (heavy on the fresh lemon juice) and used green onions instead of chives (which are to onions as a FB ‘like’ is to kissing someone you love). Zowie, I believe is the correct culinary term.

We had about two dozen ears of corn left in the vegetable drawer. I tossed at least half  (they’ve been in there for a couple weeks — the average time between most farm fields and the supermarket). I sliced off the healthy-looking kernels and stir-fried them in light  butter with salt, pepper and a generous sprinkle of ground nutmeg.

I cooked the peas in vegetable broth with onion, garlic, 1 teaspoon of thyme, 2 garlic cloves, half of a small onion, a bay leaf , salt and pepper. They bubbled for about 25 minutes, with a lid partially covering the saucepan.

While waiting for the peas, I mixed together 6 tablespoons olive oil, 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 6 tablespoons chopped scallions, 1/2 teaspon hot sauce (half what the recipe called for), 1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper.

Drain the field peas and combine with dressing and corn. Best after it sits overnight, covered, in the fridge, but who could wait?

And, oh yes, the recipe called for 1 cup peas to 2 cups corn kernels but I used what I had — probably about 3 cups of peas, maybe 2 cups corn.