Cornspicuous Taste

I began collecting recipes when I was seven or eight years old. One of the recipes I collected was a peanut butter candy served in the school cafeteria. I don’t remember the details, but apparently I went up to the cafeteria lady and asked her for the recipe and she asked me if I was going to get my mother to make it. I told her no, I was going to make it myself — and I vaguely remember doing so.

The second recipe I collected was for something called Indian Pudding that was featured in a book on the Pilgrims. It was essentially a cornmeal gruel sweetened with maple syrup. I’ve no idea why it appealed to me enough to try making it, but it did. At any rate, it was that combination of corn and pilgrims that made corn pudding pop into my head when I found that corn was an ingredient in this month’s Paper Chef.

Our American values are not luxuries but necessities, not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself. ~ Jimmy Carter

There may be some irony in thinking to celebrate our Independence Day with a plant cultivated first by those we stole this country from, but there you have it. And the truth is, if you were to pick a single native plant as symbolizing the Americas corn would have to be it. There are more acres devoted to corn than any other cultivated plant in the entire world — and it has spread to the entire world.

Corn pudding, at least as I know it, is a slightly sweet but basically savory dish. I wanted a dessert so I decided to add sugar and elected to use brown sugar because I thought it would complement the corn and because I knew the molasses flavor would complement the ground coriander. Pine nuts fit into a dessert scheme as well. Lastly, I wanted red white and blue and berries and yogurt were a perfect garnish for this pudding.

Corn Pudding
Serves 8.

2 tbsp butter
4 c fresh corn
2 c half and half
4 tbsp light brown sugar
6 tbsp flour
1 tsp coriander
4 tbsp butter — melted
1 tsp salt
6 ea eggs
1 c pine nuts — roasted

Heat oven to 350F. Butter a 3 quart souffle dish with 2 tablespoons butter.

The best tip I’ve run across for cutting corn off a cob is to stand the corn on a kitchen towel. This is far more convenient than trying to cut into a bowl and the towel is the right size and does an excellent job of catching the kernels.

Whisk together all remaining ingredients, except corn and pine nuts, in a large bowl. Stir in corn and pine nuts and pour into souffle dish.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until golden brown on top. (Note: the pudding will puff up quite a bit and then fall after being removed from the oven.)

Serve with honey-sweetened yogurt and fresh berries. This a great dessert, very fresh, and not too sweet. The berries and yogurt add a lot besides color so don’t skip it.

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