What We’re Cooking This Week: Naomi’s Corn, Chayote & Cherry Tomato Salad With Naked Barley

Jim Dixon wrote about food for WW for more than 20 years, but these days most of his time is spent at his olive oil-focused specialty food business Wellspent Market. Jim’s always loved to eat, and he encourages his customers to cook by sending them recipes every week through his newsletter. We’re happy to have him back creating some special dishes just for WW readers.

When asked to make something to share for Naomi Pomeroy’s memorial potluck and dance party, I looked back at what I’d written about her for inspiration. In an October 2002 review of her Family Supper dinner club, I found this: “At my first Family Supper, the meal started with a salad of sweet cherry tomatoes, fresh corn stripped from the cob, and crunchy, cucumber-like chayote squash, all tossed in a lime vinaigrette with fresh oregano.”

While fresh local corn and cherry tomatoes are everywhere this time of year, chayote is more elusive. Hispanic markets, as well as WinCo, tend to carry a more diverse range of the squash and melon families than most big box grocers. These specimens provide more texture than flavor, so use cucumber instead if you’re not up for the search.

Naked barley seemed more obscure 20 years ago; it’s an ingredient Naomi would’ve embraced. Naked barleys are varieties that easily shed their tough outer hull. Less imaginative growers call it hull-less barley. They’ve been around forever, but not widely cultivated as a food crop. Prodded by the plant researchers at Oregon State University’s Barley World, Anthony and Carol Boutard planted small plots of different varieties from Japan, Nepal, Italy, Arabia and North Africa to see what grew well at their Willamette Valley farm and, more important, what tasted best. After a couple of harvests, they still couldn’t decide, so they kept growing them all and called the mix Migration Barley.

When the Boutards retired and sold the farm, we bought all of the last harvest to sell at Wellspent Market, but other varieties are available online.

Recipe

2 ears fresh corn, shucked

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

2 chayote

1½ cups naked barley

Leaves from 6-8 sprigs fresh oregano, coarsely chopped

Zest and juice from 1 lime

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Kosher-style sea salt to taste

Cook the barley in salted water to cover for about 40 minutes, then drain and cool. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, remove from the heat, and add the corn. Let sit for at least 5 minutes, then remove and cool. Stand the ears on end and slice the kernels off.

Cut the chayote in quarters from top to bottom, then remove the small seed pod in the center (it’s edible but has a different texture, so I prefer to cut it out). Cut the quarters in half lengthwise, then slice into thin pieces.

Combine the corn, chayote, tomatoes, barley and oregano. Add the lime zest and juice, vinegar, and olive oil, and toss well. Taste and add salt as needed.