For the last of the dishes I made for our special taco night bonanza, I added a couple of more side dishes that would also go well on the tacos if you wanted to try them that way. This gave everyone lots of choices to make their tacos, whether they wanted beef, chicken, chorizo or even just vegetable to make a vegetarian taco. To go along with the guacamole, salsa, black bean and cabbage slaw and refried beans I wanted to do some kind of quick pickling that did not require a lot of effort on my part and would still give great flavor from the results. I found this recipe from Bon Appetit for quick pickled onions and since I had some radishes on hand already I thought I would throw them in there as well since they go so well with tacos. You can get this dish done in five minutes, let it sit and you are good to go.
Quick Pickled Onions and Radishes
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 red onion, thinly sliced
3-4 radishes, thinly sliced
Whisk the apple cider vinegar, sugar and salt and 1 cup of water together in a small bowl until the sugar and salt dissolve. Place the red onion and the radishes in a jar and pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables. Let the vegetables sit at room temperature for 1 hour before serving.
You can easily make these ahead of time and store them covered in your refrigerator for days before you use them. They do get good pickling flavor to them in a short amount of time and I have been having what was left on sandwiches and in salads all week-long as well so it gives you a great option for not a lot of work.
I also wanted to make something with corn as corn seems to go well with tacos. I found this simple confetti corn recipe from Ina Garten and decided to give it a try. Even though we haven’t hit good fresh corn season around here yet, I made this work pretty well using frozen corn instead and it turned out tasting great.
Confetti Corn
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and cut to 1/2-inch dice
2 tablespoons butter
Kernels cut from 5 ears of corn, or 4 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons julienned fresh herbs, such as basil, chives or parsley
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet until it is shimmering. Add the red onion and saute for 5 minutes until the onion is soft. Stir in the bell pepper and saute the vegetables for about 2 more minutes.
Add the butter to the skillet and allow it to melt, Over medium heat, add the corn, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes, until the corn just starts to lose its starch. Season the mixture to taste and gently stir in the herbs and serve.
You get a great roasted flavor from the corn as the sugars come out and mix nicely with the red onion and the pepper. It has great color and flavor as a side dish for the tacos or to go right on the tacos if you wish. You could also make this as a great side for all kinds of dishes of beef, chicken, fish or pork and I think it would work really well. Everyone liked it so much I never even had a chance to take a picture of it as it was gobbled up pretty quickly.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Now that I am done with the Mexican recipes I made this week, I can get back to some other things I have tried recently that I would like to share with everyone. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
onedadskitchen 