Roasted peppers are my latest obsession at the farmers market — Billy’s roasted peppers. They’re only going to be there for a couple more weeks, but they’re simple to freeze to use later. The wonderfully smoky aroma that fills the market when they’re roasting gets me every time. One whiff of that and I’m a goner. The whole experience provides such a pleasant jolt to all my senses. Billy has poblanos, anaheims and bells — red, orange & yellow. Try a couple of each to find your favorites. Peppers of every shape, color and size are plentiful this time of year so you can also roast or grill your own.

Last week I bought a couple poblanos and several anaheims. I made a quick casserole by stuffing them with steamed cubed potatoes, lots of grated Beecher’s Just Jack cheese and smothered the whole thing in a variation of Sally’s brilliant roasted tomato sauce adding some tomatillos and a little cinnamon at the end. Bake for around 30 minutes at 350 degrees. If you like the cheese bubbly, turn on the broiler for a few minutes at the end. Fresh, fast, local, filled with flavorful goodness, now that’s hot.

And what’s not hot? I’m sorry to say, in my opinion, it has to be corn. At the end of the season it’s still good but I’ve had my fill. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing better than that first ear of fresh corn each summer. The tiny white kernels are so tender they can be scraped right on a salad without any cooking at all. But now, if it were just up to me, it wouldn’t even make it into our kitchen except that I’m married to a man from Iowa and Lily seems to love it.

I ended up with two perfectly nice ears of corn last week destined to be my last until next year. I put together a soup using the corn & my new fav roasted chilis and it was the perfect blend of the two. Best of all, I used the corn cob and silk to make the lovely broth — what a surprisingly sweet way to end the corn season.

Corn & Roasted Chili Soup Recipe

2 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cob and reserved. Save the cobs and silk (minus the brown tassels) for the broth

4 cups of water

1 large onion, chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

2 pieces of bacon, chopped into 1″ pieces (you can omit the bacon and just use butter or olive oil instead)

2 roasted chili peppers, seeds and stems removed (I used Anaheims but Poblanos would add more spice to the mix)

3 small potatoes, cubed

Juice of one small lime

Chopped fresh cilantro

Put the cobs, silk and water in a medium saucepan with 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, them simmer covered for 30 minutes. Strain broth using a fine mesh sieve.

While broth is simmering, cook bacon in a medium saucepan. When it’s crisp, remove the bacon and add the onions and garlic to the bacon fat, cooking until lightly browned.

Chop chili peppers coarsely and put in a blender or food processor with 2 cups corn broth and half of the corn kernels. Blend until smooth.

Add corn chili puree to onion garlic mixture along with the rest of the corn broth and the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the remainder of the corn kernels and simmer until tender, another 3-5 minutes.

Just before serving, stir in bacon, cilantro, lime juice and salt to taste.

Inspired by Kemp’s Creamy Creamless Chile Corn Chowder recipe at Gourmet. com

Bye corn. See ya next year.

The succotash I grew up with — frozen lima beans and corn — hardly did justice to the ancient origins of this combination. Originally, it was a Native American dish using two of the oldest and most important foods in our culture, corn and beans. Succotash doesn’t seem to be well known in the Pacific Northwest but is chock-full of vegetables available now in our local markets and will make a great addition to your summer repertoire.

Sweet corn is best eaten on the day it’s picked. Alice Waters reminds us that seeing a worm at the tip is a good indication that no pesticides have been used and that, of course, is a good thing. Corn on the cob is one of the simplest ways to eat it, but I love corn cut off the cob. Wrap up a packet of cut corn dotted with butter in foil, and place on the grill with your meat or fish — couldn’t be easier.

There are several methods for cutting corn off the cob and lots of kitchen gadgets to make it easier. It seems the main issue is containing the kernels once they are cut. For years, I’ve been laying the corn on it’s side and cutting it that way. I could have sworn Charlie taught me that method.

When I asked him to help me me with these photos, I was informed he has a completely different method. At least he humored me by demonstrating the “old” method, which I still believe is a good one. The new and improved way is to first cut off the stem from the bottom (the stem might interfere with making a straight cut down the side) and then cut the ear in half.

This will give you a flat edge to set the ear on vertically. A shorter piece is easier to control too. Whichever method you prefer, to make this succotash, you need corn from two ears.

There are lots of ingredients but you can buy practically everything fresh from local vendors – the only essentials are corn & beans.

Ingredients:

1 small onion – I used a red Torpedo onion from Willie Greens

1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and diced – from Billy’s Organic

Kernels from 2 ears of sweet corn – from Rent’s Due Ranch

1 cup beans – traditionally limas but I used romano beans from Willie Greens , blanched and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced -from Mair Farm-Taki

1/4 cup chopped cilantro -from Stoney Plains Organic

1/4 cup chopped basil from Lets Us Farm (Tolt’s)

2 T butter

2 T dry white wine or vermouth

1/3 cup water

2 T olive oil

1 1/2 lbs large sea scallops

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Pull the muscle off the side of the scallops and discard, pat dry with paper towels and salt lightly.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet. Using tongs, lower the scallops in, allowing them to brown well on one side, then flip over and brown on the other. Remove from the pan and set on a warm plate, loosely covered with foil while you cook the succotash.

Lower the heat, add onion and bell pepper to the same skillet you cooked the scallops in. Cook until soft, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in corn, beans, wine or vermouth, water and 1t salt. Cook until the vegetables are nearly cooked through and 1/2 of the liquid boils away. Add the cucumber and cook for another minute. Stir in butter until it melts, then add cilantro and basil. Add any juice from the scallops. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Spoon the succotash on plates and arrange the scallops on top.

This version of succotash was inspired by Jerry Traunfeld in The Herbal Kitchen.

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