Farmers market fruit and corn

Despite being inundated with an amazing array of vegetables from our CSA every week, we just can't resist visiting the Del Ray farmer's market on saturday mornings to see if there are any berries or fruit for breakfast and snacking. While there this morning, we noticed that fresh corn has already started to make its debut so picked up a bunch. Here is a great recipe we found in a book called "Cooking with Asian Leaves" by Devagi Sanmugam and Christopher Tan that we actually bought after getting a few interesting herbs from the CSA (korean mint, malabar spinach and sweet potato leaves) last year. We love cooking Asian food anyway so this book definitely added some great recipes to the arsenal. This one calls for Thai Basil, which we are growing on our deck and which you can buy at Bangkok 54's awesome store on Columbia Pike for like .99 cents a bag. We've served this dish as an appetizer, with crackers and chips and other dips. It could also be a great topping or side dish for fish or meat.

Stir-fried Basil Corn

(this cookbook was published in Singapore and we think we bought it online from a UK site, so all the measurements are in grams - we did our best to convert before posting but should taste great even if some parts are a little more or a little less.)

3 tbs coriander root (some Asian grocery stores sell this, we used cilantro stems/leaves)
4 cloves garlic
3 chilis
2 tbs cooking oil
2 1/4 cups corn kernels (can use frozen)
1 tbs grated palm sugar (gula melaka or could use brown sugar, plain sugar)
2 tbs fish sauce
1/3 cup thai basil leaves

- pound coriander root, garlic and chilis coarsely
- heat oil in a wok. add the pounded ingredients and cook, stirring constantly for about 1 minute or until aromatic
- add in the corn kernels, grated palm sugar, fish sauce and basil leaves.
- stir-fry over high heat for about 5-8 minutes until the corn is cooked (with fresh summer sweet corn cook only 2-3 minutes)
- serve hot (it's also good at room temperature or even cold)

Enjoy!