Golf Night Corn Salad

This week it was team Herald's turn to make dinner for Women's league. With my golfing abilities, let's face it, this was probably my only opportunity to do something well on golf night :) For the past couple of years, I've been using this recipe for corn salad. It's a great recipe, my only problem with it was an aesthetic one - because the cilantro was blended into the dressing, it made the whole salad green, so you couldn't see the beautiful colors of the corn, tomatoes and avocado. So, I started playing around with it, and this is what I came up with.

I saw a great tip from Rachael Ray for cutting corn off the cob without making a huge mess - turn a small bowl upside-down inside a large bowl, set your corn on the small bowl, and cut. All (most) of your kernels end up in the big bowl instead of all over your kitchen. I find that cutting the cob in half so that you have a flat surface on one end to stand it up makes the process a little less dangerous :)

You could us the corn raw when it's in season, but I've never been a fan of raw corn and found that pan roasting brings out the sweetness, so I like to get a little bit of color on it:

Ok, enough rambling. Time for the recipe. I made a huge batch for golf night, so I cut the recipe in half here - It could probably be halved again and still be enough for a family of four, but leftovers are yummy :). All amounts can be adjusted to taste, but I tried to replicate the proportions I used last time as well as I could remember them.

Golf Night Corn Salad

• 1 Tb olive oil
• 1 Tb butter
• 6 ears of corn, cut off the cob
• 1/2 of a jalapeno pepper (adjust to taste - using 1/2 a pepper adds a little flavor but not much heat, so if you like it spicy, I'd go with a whole), finely minced.
• 3/4 canned or cooked black beans
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced (I like to make them about the same size as the corn kernels)
• 8 oz. cotija cheese (Queso fresco or buffalo mozzarella can be substituted for a milder flavor. Cotija's a little bit more like feta, which would also work but is a little stronger than cotija)
• Juice from 2 large limes
• 1/4 C fresh cilantro, chopped fine.
• 1/4 C olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 3 avocados, diced

1. Heat 1 Tb olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add the corn and 1/2 tsp salt, and saute until the corn has some color (see pic above), about 8-10 minutes.
2. Transfer corn to a large bowl and allow to cool.
3. Add pepper, beans, tomatoes, cheese, lime juice, cilantro and olive oil and mix. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 
4. Fold in avocado gently - I do this at the very end so it doesn't break up too much and turn into guacamole :)
5. Chill until ready to serve (at least an hour)