The Ultimate No-Brainer Corn-Black-Bean Salad

By now you understand the concept of mis en place and you've already chopped several items for other recipes. So let's get going, because this is the easiest cold salad you'll ever make; and folks rave and demand the recipe. You'll need:

• An average can of corn, drained. In the U.S. I'd use white shoepeg corn, but corn's corn, right?
• A can of black beans (rinsed well).
• 1 small onion chopped finely
• About a cup of chopped peppers (any pepper will do -- Anaheim, bells, those long red/green peppers that we get in Costa Rica) or any combination of peppers.
• A handful of well-washed cilantro, roughly chopped (and if you hate cilantro, flat-leaf parsley works very well).
• 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil, but any oil will work.
• 2 tablespoon of sugar
• 5 tablespoons of vinegar. Balsamic is my favorite, but anything other than white distilled vinegar will work nicely (apple cider, red wine, sherry, etc. -- rice wine vinegar is wonderful).

That's it. So let's go. Place your sugar and vinegar in your serving bowl and allow that sugar to dissolve. Stir occasionally to encourage the sugar to dissolve. When the sugar is fully dissolved, add the oil and stir/whisk the heck out of it. You can't whisk too long, but let's not get obsessive about it.

Now simply dump everything else in that bowl and stir, stir, stir. This salad is best if placed in a water-tight container and placed in the refrigerator for at least an hour . . . tuning it upside-down and right-side-up periodically to spread around that sugar/oil/vinegar sauce.

And there you have it. A great cold salad that goes well with any Mexican or Southwester theme, such as chicken tacos. Note: adding chopped avocado to this makes a richer salad. Add a small can of garbanzos for a change. Add leftover chicken and avocado and you've got an entire low-carb meal. That was easy.