Fresh Corn Salad

"What?!" you say "a recipe, this isn't a cooking blog!"

Yeah, yeah I know, but Fringe Girl over at the Domestic Fringe is hosting a summer recipe carnival, she says she is desperate (okay maybe she didn't say she was desperate, but she did say she wanted to "steal our ideas") for good summer recipes, that don't involve using the oven.  And since I consider her a new friend I am here to help her out, that's what friends are for.

So here goes.

This is what you'll need.

3 cups fresh Corn cut off the cob or frozen corn, thawed

1/4 cup Red Onion, diced

1 Tablespoon red wine or apple cider Vinegar 

1 medium Tomato seeded, peeled and diced (I forgot to peel mine, worked out fine.)

1 cup seeded and diced Cucumber (I used a whole medium sized cucumber, because I like cukes)

1 Tablespoon minced fresh Basil or fresh Parsley (I used basil, loved it.)

Ranch Dressing or Creamy Italian Dressing, to taste.

Rinse the red onion in water.  Combine diced onion with vinegar and let sit while preparing other ingredients.  DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP or your salad will be overwhelmed by the onion and that is ALL you will taste, if you're okay with "onion" salad go ahead and skip the vinegar, but I really, REALLY wouldn't recommend it.  

(I should state here that I don't really like raw onion, in fact I usually avoid it like the plague, but since I have found this little trick I will try it in other recipes that call for raw onion, like potato salad, I usually just leave them out, 'cause I really can't stand raw onion in things, they tend to overpower the dish and that is all you taste, but I said that already, you know the overpowering thing.  Okay, now I'm just rambling.)

Back to the recipe.

Remove the corn from the cobs.

Here's a little trick I learned for cutting the corn off the cob.  Set your cutting board aside and get out your bundt cake pan, (yes, I did just tell to get out a bundt cake pan) insert the pointy end of the corn cob in the center hole as shown:

and start cutting.

The neat thing about this trick is that all the corn lands in the pan and not all over the counter and the cob doesn't slide all over the place while you are trying to remove the kernels.

See, every kernel in the pan, easy peasy!

(Now if someone has a trick for getting all the silk off of the corn, please share!)

Prepare the other ingredients as instructed and combine with dressing to your taste (I used maybe a 1/3 to a 1/2 cup of ranch dressing).  Chill then serve.  This makes a great summertime salad and is very light and very refreshing and goes with anything you are grilling (ahem, franks perhaps Jill).  We had ours with marinated grilled chicken breasts.   My three year old declared it "Delicious" and Hubs told me "You could make this again".  He even suggested that maybe next time I could add some bacon.  I scooped mine up with a corn chip, like salsa.

Voila!

I got this recipe from our local Fox News affiliate.  It was featured on August 4, 2009 and was made by the chef from a local restaurant, unfortunately the printout I got doesn't list her name or the restaurant's.

Now its your turn, head on over to the Domestic Fringe and link up so we can all steal share each others yummy summer recipes.