Lunchtime With The Bride

I'm worried that I may be getting The Bride a little too used to me being home for the summer.  :)  Yesterday, as the day came to a close, she said that she would be home for lunch, and that she would like a salad (SURPRISE!).  I wanted something a little interesting, so I picked out the Sausage Salad With Arugula on page 357.

In reality, the only item that was grilled was the corn.  To grill corn, as I have done for this blog in the past, you have to soak the husk.  So I placed the ears in a roasting pan, filled it with water, and then used a plate to keep them submerged.

That step takes approximately half an hour, so I used that time to finish my prep work.  I started with my heirloom tomatoes, which are starting to really come in now.

Just before the corn was done soaking, I had finished my mise en place.

Now that the husks were soaked they were much more pliable.  I pulled them back without actually removing them from the ear, all to expose those nasty silky fibers.

A piece of cotton string secured the husk leaves back in place, and they were ready to meet the heat.

The ears take about twenty to twenty-five minutes on the grill, so I used that time to start the rest of the salad.  The first ingredient to go into the saute pan was sausage.  The recipe calls for andouille, which is usually made out of pork.  The Diet restricts me to red meat (and yes, despite pork's slogan, it IS a red meat) so I needed an alternative.  Kroger and Sons at Findlay Market does sell a chicken andouille, but I didn't have time this morning to run down there.  Thus, I settled for chicken and apple sausage.

After the discs started to brown, I added the onion, bell pepper, and garlic.

Once the sausage mixture was done, I turned off the heat and waited for the corn to complete its time.  When you grill corn, the husk will look destroyed, but in that process it protects the kernels from direct heat and so they become perfectly roasted.

To remove the kernels when the cob is still hot, use tongs to hold the ears upright while you use a knife to easily liberate the kernels.

Add those into the andouille mixture and you are almost done.

 

Arugula by itself is fine, but why limit yourself to just one flavor and texture?

I tossed the arugula with some other baby greens to make the salad more interesting.

The Bride pulled into the driveway, so I had one last step to complete.  On the right is a bit of chicken stock.  I heated that in the microwave, added it to the tomato mixture on the left, and then stirred.

This was added to the andouille mixture, which was then used to top the salad.  Lunch was ready!

There is a whole lot going on in this salad.  Flavors are all over the place (in a good way) and there is a wide variety of texture, especially since I added different greens.  Overall the acidity is quite bright, making it a lively salad.  It was also a good call to use the chicken apple sausage; it worked amazingly well.  Overall, I would say that I probably won't make this again, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.  Well done, Weber.