Sun low in the sky through the kitchen window, magpies cawing in the trees. Warm weather settling from the spring day, the day’s work complete. No longer able to delay the inevitable I peer into the fridge gathering my pre dinner thoughts right hand resting on the fridge door handle considering what’s before me and what I could come up with. Much like a child mindlessly staring into the chilled void who announces to whomever is listening “there’s nothing to eat” I consider the options before me thinking similar. An inarticulate response to what is more likely a ‘what will I cook’ thought. My mulling mind is interrupted by a ting from my phone signalling an incoming text message. Ah my sweet friend procrastidistraction. Picking up my phone I scroll through to see what’s there to find a message from old friends asking “feel like some visitors?” “Hell yes,” I reply. They live some distance away and were in our little village for an appointment and thought they’d grab some take away for dinner and a ‘drop in.’ “No,” I insist, “no need to buy anything, come around I’ll throw something together.” Funny how a little unexpected pivot fires up the creative juices.
Such calls used to be a normal part of life. ‘The drop’ we’d call it, where if you were passing by you’d pull up and knock on the door just to say hi, imbibe in a cuppa, or something stronger depending on the time of day. It doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore. You hear of a friend saying they were over our way and thought they should have reached out but didn’t want it impose or the like. That was just never a thing in the past, we just assumed you could knock on the door and have an impromptu catch up, the kind that’s often the best kind of visit. I miss those days finding texting and social media has unwittingly filled that void. Lives busier and communities more spread out dropping in is much harder and seems like just another thing on our already busy lists.
Growing up dropping into Nana’s house was always met with glee and welcoming cuppa and baked treat. Her cupboard was always stocked with something delicious, quite possibly an excuse to satisfy her own sweet tooth as much as welcoming visitors, but this was normal as it was for her generation. Many of us would have grown up with similar memories whether your Nana’s cupboard was filled with her favourite store bought snacks (Arnott’s Fruit Slice or Custard Creams in Nana’s case when she hadn’t baked) or ones of a homemade variety they could always roll out the welcome mat and indeed cookie jar. It’s a habit some of started our adult lives with but it seems to have waned amongst leanings towards healthier pantries and busy lives. Do we hide when there’s an unexpected knock at the door in the way we allow our phones to ring unless we recognise the caller id?
My leaning is still very old fashioned. I still struggle to ignore a ringing phone. Remember racing to the landline when it rang trying to beat siblings to answer it? Or clamouring to answer the door with excited anticipation in case it was a visitor? Those spontaneous little moments that could brighten your day seem to be gone in favour of filling that gap with scrolling in the hope of feeling a similar joy from a post or comment from a friend on socials when it could be as simple as finding the time to drop in once in a while.
Any way circling back to that text. I’d been considering trying to replicate a corn dish we’d enjoyed in a Mexican restaurant a year ago. Corn cobs were served on a chipotle cream robed with mounds of finely shredded Queso Cotija like a fluffy christmas snow storm. Trouble was one corn cob wasn’t going to cut the mustard for four adults. How else to pad out an idea but with pasta and call it a pasta salad. Throwing a few extras into the mix keeping it on theme resulted in what looked like a substantial salad but in fact was gobbled up. Alongside various meats and sausages defrosted quickly in the microwave and thrown on the BBQ it proved to be an unexpectedly delicious meal. I’ve since made the salad as much out of desire as curiosity. Was it more delicious due to the unexpected delight of a spontaneous visit or was it genuinely delicious. The answer? Both!!! 100% both!!
This salad is an excellent holiday season one in my opinion. With the addition of black beans it will happily nourish a vegetarian, can be made with GF pasta should you require and is pretty fuss free. It will also offer an excellent use for leftover corn from last nights dinner. Australia and its distance from Mexico means we don’t readily find queso cotija on our supermarket shelves. We do however enjoy a wide range of Italian style cheeses and parmigiano reggiano is a perfect alternative here with it’s hard salty characteristics.
Ingredients:
200 gm pasta, small shaped preferably something curly to trap the dressing
1 small/ ½ large red capsicum finely diced
1 400 gm can of black beans or kidney beans drained and rinsed
¼ white onion finely diced (sorry I know it’s an annoying measure but you could make old school tomato and onion sandwiches for a picnic with the remainder. I’m definitely feeling nostalgic)
1 small handful of parsley leaves chopped, or coriander if you’re not like me.
1 spring onion/scallion finely sliced
2 corn cobs peeled
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese to serve
Dressing:
½ c sour cream
¼ c mayo, I use Kewpie
2 ½ Tb chipotle chillies in adobo sauce
Method:
Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl and set aside in the fridge.
Using either a BBQ or griddle pan, if you have one, heat over a medium low heat. Coat the corn cobs in olive oil and sprinkle with salt flakes. Cook in the pan or BBQ turning frequently to cook through and char the kernels here and there. When cooked all round remove and place on a plate to cool, set aside.
Cook pasta to aldente in salted boiling water. It will absorb the dressing later and soften a little more from that so try not to overcook it. We also want to retain some resilience for when we mix it and prevent it breaking up. When cooked, drain and rinse under cold water to both cool it and stop it cooking in the retained heat. Tip into a large bowl and add capsicum, onion, beans and parsley or coriander.
Shave corn kernels from one cob and stir though the pasta with the prepared dressing with a good pinch of salt and half the spring onion slices.
Tip onto your platter, shave kernels off second corn cob and sprinkle on the top. Using a microplane or similar fine grating implement grate the cheese over the top showering the whole salad in mounds of softly falling shards of salty cheese, sprinkle with remaining spring onion and your done. Dig in!
Finds & Forays
We all know how full our heads are at this time of year and trying to come up with ideas for what to cook either for the fam, visitors or xmas get togethers feels like another item on the list. So thank goodness for this fab new Substack. For the cost of a fancy coffee or a cooking mag Soph is bringing the weekly entertaining menu selection off our lists and filling it in for us. As always thoughtfully curated easy meals from her encyclopaedic menu mind saves the day and are reliably easy and delicious. I think a subscription might also make a fab Christmas gift for someone (or yourself) who’s always stuck for such inspo.
On the topic of Christmas we hosted our first Christmas catch up last weekend. I made this always pretty dish though improvised to use up macadamias that I already had and plonked a lovely globe of burrata on top. Can recommend! Even the plainest eater at the table went back for thirds so I take that as a win.
Finally I’m excited to try this refreshing drink. Suitable for non-drinkers and cocktail lovers alike it’s super pretty and perfect for our hot summer festive season.
Wishing you a wonderful, happy, festive weekend. As always thanks for reading.
Best
S x