Home › Salads and Salad Dressings › Tomato-and-Corn Salad
Tomato-and-Corn Salad
Peel 6 ripe, firm tomatoes, cut off the top and scoop out the centre with a spoon. Fill the hollowed tomatoes with cold boiled corn, cut from the cob, and mixed with mayonnaise dressing. Place the tomatoes on a bed of lettuce leaves and leave on ice until wanted.
A cold stuffed-tomato salad of the sort that carried the summer table before refrigeration was general. The instructions are complete as written; what needs saying is mostly about proportion and drainage.
- Peeling the tomatoesDrop them into boiling water for 15-20 seconds, then into ice water, and the skins slip off. Do not leave them in longer or the outer flesh softens and the shells will not hold their shape.
- Drain the shellsAfter scooping, salt the insides lightly and invert them on a rack for 10-15 minutes. Tomatoes shed a surprising amount of liquid, and undrained shells will thin the dressing into a puddle on the lettuce.
- Boiled corn means barely cookedFresh sweet corn needs only 2-4 minutes in boiling water; the recipe gives no time. Today's supersweet hybrids are sweeter and more tender than the older sweet corn varieties and turn starchy if overcooked. Cool it fully before it meets the mayonnaise.
- How much cornSix medium tomatoes take roughly the kernels from 3 ears, about 2 cups. Add mayonnaise a spoonful at a time until the kernels just cling together, around 1/3 cup.
- The scooped-out centresThe recipe does not say what to do with them. Chop and drain the pulp and fold a little into the corn, or set it aside for a sauce or soup rather than discarding it.
- MayonnaiseA period mayonnaise is raw yolk and oil. If you make your own and are serving anyone elderly, pregnant or immune-compromised, use pasteurised eggs; commercial mayonnaise is already pasteurised.
- "Leave on ice until wanted"This means the icebox, so refrigerate. Thirty minutes to an hour is right; much beyond two hours and the tomatoes weep and the lettuce wilts.
- YieldSix tomatoes, six servings as a first course or side salad.