I
missed my market fix this week, having been at a conference in Orlando from Friday to Saturday, a blazingly hot,
seriously food impoverished city (at least in my very limited, Disney resort-centered
experience.)

So
this a.m., before it got too hot here in Bloomington as well,  my husband and I took a leisurely drive to the south shore of Lake Lemon.  Not all that far from the Port Hole
Inn is a farm that we’ve come to think of as our own private market. They pile up whatever is ripe – corn, melons,
tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, squash – and post a price list. You just help yourself, leave your money, and
get a cool and breezy drive around the lake in the bargain.

So
lunch today was grilled vegetables with cilantro vinaigrette. It was my effort to recreate a lunch I had at
Restaurant Tallent a week or so ago. Tallent doesn’t open for lunch but Dave, Krissy and I had to work on a
Slow Food trip we’re making to Italy in the  fall and he offered to make lunch if I could come by after noon. (And of course I could; no one in her right
mind turns down a Dave Tallent meal.)

It
was super simple, but super good. All the vegetables were ripe and bursting with
flavor. He just grilled them — cabbage and
onions and corn (the first of the season) — layered some tomatoes with fresh
mozzarella, drizzled everything with a fresh and tangy cilantro vinaigrette, and served it up with some grilled flour tortillas.

I
spent the next two weeks dreaming about that lunch, but forgetting to ask Dave
what went into the vinaigrette. This morning,
vegetables on the grill, I decided to wing it. I squeezed a lime’s worth of juice into the blender, added about a
quarter cup of cilantro leaves, a very small clove of garlic, lots of salt, and
some canola oil (it was about 2/3 oil to 1/3 lime juice but to tell you the
truth, I didn’t measure.) It was a bit
limey, and I remember Dave’s being almost sweet, so I added some sweet white
vinegar. (I used my favorite chardonnay
vinegar, but no reason a white balsamic or something like that wouldn’t do the
trick.)

The
whole thing whirled up to a beautiful frothy green. We grilled the shucked corn directly on the hot
grill along with the cabbage and squash. It was so fresh and sweet that about 8 minutes was plenty.

The
vegetables, all deep yellows and pale greens, were flecked with cilantro and bits
of char from the grill. They deserve a
better picture, but we were too hungry to wait while I worried about
composition, so I snapped quickly and then we ate it all up — a perfect light
Sunday lunch on a hot summer’s day.

This
version of the cilantro vinaigrette was great, but I’ll check in with Dave on
the ingredients and if I am totally out to lunch (so to speak), I’ll post a
correction.