Sockeye salmon with sweet corn relish

This one's a quickie, because I'm supposed to be working from home right now, and I actually have a fair amount to get done. But writing grant proposals is not as interesting as writing about the awesome wild sockeye salmon I had last night.

Now, anything that has "sockeye" as part of its name is a winner in my book. But what made this dinner truly delicious was the sweet corn relish with purple basil, and for that I need to give a long-deserved shout out to my CSA, Farm Fresh To You.

We've been getting a produce box from FFTY for nearly two and a half years now. We started off getting a box every other week, but about 6 months ago we switched to every week in an effort to eat less meat and more vegetables. The funny thing is, we get a regular-sized box. I think households of two usually get a small box, but clearly we are not a typical set of two.

Every week I take it as a personal challenge to use all of the produce. This has led to many good and a few dubious dishes. I find winter produce tougher to be creative with; for months we were getting loads of cabbage and kale, and after awhile all I could manage was sauteing it dully in olive oil and garlic, or throwing it into yet another soup. But in the summer, all the produce feels like a treat, and all of it seems to go together effortlessly. Last night's warm corn relish consisted of sweet white corn, red onion, orange lipstick peppers (really!), and purple basil cooked in butter. It took about 10 minutes and made a sunny little bed for the sockeye salmon, which is a stunning shade somewhere between watermelon and cantaloupe. Summer on a plate!

Eating less meat will continue to be a struggle for me; I can't quite reconcile my omnivorous self with my soft-hearted, animal-loving self, but having beautiful, seasonal produce delivered to my door is a step in the right direction.