Roasted pepper and corn salsa/relish

Since the move to the burbs I have been taking advantage of the Skokie farmer's market. I never really got to any in the city because Rory and I were never up early enough to hit them.

The Skokie market is pretty small, I was hoping they would have someone selling fresh eggs and locally-produced meats but no dice. The produce options are pretty great though. A couple of weeks ago Rory's family came over and I cooked some corn on the grill and made a fresh blueberry cobbler. This week my folks are coming over and I bought some Red Haven peaches for peach cobbler.

I also wanted to try and make my own salsa so I bought just about everything for it at the farmer's market Sunday and was very happy with how it turned out.

6 ears of corn husked
2-red bell peppers
1-orange bell pepper
1/2-large red onion diced
Juice from two limes
1-TBLSP olive oil
1-TSP ancho chili pepper
Salt and black pepper to taste

Prepare your grill for medium low heat.

Roast peppers on the grill over direct heat until they start to turn black and blister. After black and peeling place the pepper in a brown paper back and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Meanwhile take husked corn and place directly over the heat. Watch the corn carefully, a little color is a good thing but you don't want the corn to get too black. It took me a good 10-15 minutes to get the corn where I wanted but the charcoal was pretty low heat. I was being cautious because I hadn't cooked corn on the grill like this before.

After the corn is done set aside and start working on the pepper, peeling the skin off and then removing the seeds and dicing with the red onion. Place the corn on an end in a shallow bowl and remove the kernels with a sharp knife. I used a technique similar to what was described here.

Add the corn to the pepper and onion along with the lime juice and ancho pepper. Taste and salt and pepper to your taste.

I had purchased some tomatoes to put in here too but they weren't quite ripe enough so I didn't use them. This is probably more of a relish than a salsa but it turned out great. The fresh ingredients really popped and I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out. I could have added a little more heat to it but that would have been about it. And there's always next time. Also, everything except for the limes were purchased at the farmer's market using locally produced ingredients.

An awfully good burger

With the weather finally turning decent in Chicago, Rory and I decided to grill a couple of weekends ago. For the first grilling of the season we decided to go simple: burgers.

Now some people may say you need to do all sort of things for a good burger. And it's true, sometimes special ingredients can make some difference. But for a really tasty burger you really only need three things.

First is the beef. You need fat so it doesn't dry out so use an 80/20 mix.

Second and third: salt and pepper.

I bought a little more than a pound of ground beef added a good amount of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, mixed it up, and formed three patties.

I cooked it over charcoal for 3 to four minutes a side, added some nice sharp cheddar cheese, grilled onions and crimini mushrooms on a toasted bun and that's it.

The burger would have been just as good without the onion, mushrooms and cheese. The key is the fat in the beef and not overcooking it. I'm craving one right now just thinking about it.