Bean and Corn Salad

I love my Bean and Corn salad for many reasons. It can be tossed together in 10 minutes. It goes with almost everything. It's pretty. But most of all, it tastes great. I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with this salad and there are probably dozens of variations. This is mine.

The basic ingredients.

Drain the beans. You can rinse them if you'd like, but I don't. I just give them a quick drain and toss them in a bowl.

Then chop a red bell pepper. I usually cut them in a half inch dice.

Next slice up the scallions. I usually use only two scallions and include the white and green parts.

Measure a cup of frozen corn. You can either just dump it in the bowl or toss them in a preheated and well seasoned cast iron skillet to roast the kernals. I usually skip the roasting. I like that the frozen corn chills the other ingredients of the salad quickly.

Next take a bunch of cilantro a cut off a good sized bunch.

Then chop it up.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Do you like my handy dandy salt pig? I keep it on the kitchen island and filled with Kosher salt.

Here comes the tricky party. You can select what ever seasoning will go best with your meal. I usually go with a couple of teaspoons of chili powder, a pinch of cayenne pepper and a dash of cumin. I don't measure, I just put what feels right in the salad, taste and adjust until I like it.

Next you will need to squeeze the juice of one lime into the salad.

Lime juice is the only dressing I put on this salad. I suppose you could put in some olive oil, but my hips and the salad are better without it.

See this lime? It's exactly what you don't want to buy. It's almost juice-less.

I should have popped it in the microwave for a few seconds and rolled it on the counter before I cut it open. That would have helped bring out the juice a bit.

This is the live action shot of me squeezing the lime. Notice no juice is coming out. It took squeezing with both hands and assistance from my photographer to get the juice out of this guy.

Then stir everything up and adjust seasonings as needed.

See? I told you it was pretty!

Especially for my loyal readers (yes I have an active imagination), the steak with Gorgonzola crust.

Start with a couple of tenderloins from your favorite neighborhood butcher and some crumbled Gorgonzola.

Grill the steaks on one side for five minutes over high heat. Turn them over. Let grill for 5 minutes. Move steaks off of direct heat. Put crumbled Gorgonzola on top of steaks and cover the grill for another 2 minutes. Steaks should be perfectly medium rare. And look like this:

After the rest a minute or two, put them on a plate, add some salad and be the hero you always knew you could be.