Posole

One of the foods I miss most from the USA is hominy. Occasionally you will see an overpriced can for sale here, but never dried hominy. For years, I've been hoping to try making it from scratch -- starting with field corn, and nixtamalizing it (cooking/soaking with slaked lime) -- but I couldn't even find field corn for sale.

Then, suddenly field corn turned up in my favourite continental grocery store. So, I made a trip to the Thai grocery store to pick up some slaked lime. I consulted a long-bookmarked post on the Cooking Issues blog. And then today I made nixtamal, and posole.

Only took 6 years or so...

Corn on the cob

I got over my Western-Mass.-induced corn snobbery and bought a couple of ears at the market this week. I decided to go for the classic corn on the cob, and then I felt the need to go all southern for the rest of the meal: seitan ribz; kale cooked collards style, with smoked coconut flakes and magic shroom dust; broccoli, not really fitting into the theme; and biscuits. I based the BBQ sauce on the apricot one in Veganomicon, but used dried apricots and a few random smoked prunes in place of the fresh apricots, used less of the sugary ingredients, and added some vinegar.

Thai corn fritters

Last month I went to a festival celebrating Buddha's birthday. I'll admit it, I was there for the food. There was a wide array of vegetarian food stalls, and after I checked them all out, the thing that caught my eye was the stall offering Thai corn fritters. I love those things, so I lined up, money in hand, only to find that they had run out. Curses! All was not lost -- I ended up grabbing some delicious sesame balls filled with mung beans.

But Thai corn fritters are great, so I decided to make some. The thing is, once I mixed up the batter, it was kind of delicate (I put so much corn in that it would barely hold together), and the thought of forming individual fritters and trying to flip them without destroying them... well it seemed like way too much work. So my bright idea was to cook one enormous fritter, and -- success! We cut slices of this like a pizza, and had it with the traditional accompaniment of sweet chile sauce.

 

Corn, basil and coconut soup

Hot soup on a hot day... sometimes it seems like the right way to deal with the heat. I found this soup while randomly googling for uses for corn stock. Mine included corn stock, coconut milk, lime zest, ginger, jalapeno, veggies (zucchini, chard, carrots, corn, onions), yuba knots, and ramen noodles, plus basil and lime juice.

Corn chowder meets leek and potato soup

This was good. The soup started with sauteed leeks, some corn stock (corn cobs, leek tops, onion, carrot tops) and a diced potato, cooked until the potato was soft. I added a little bit of mimiccreme and pureed it, then added 3 ears worth of corn kernels, another diced potato, and a cup of this unsweetened coconut milk beverage (which tastes better than you might expect something labeled a 'beverage' to taste) and simmered until the veggies were done. Yum!

Cans save the day

I threw this soup together using various canned goods from the pantry, and it was good. Tomato, hearts of palm, okra and field peas, plus some leftover brown rice. We had it with soda bread, made with a mixture of flours (mainly spelt and oat). (I'm trying to empty out the pantry before our upcoming move -- all the little bits of random grains are getting ground up in the spice grinder.)
In the soup there was also some corn stock that was made in the pressure cooker (6 corn cobs, about 4 cups water, 20 minutes on high pressure, natural release). I had been intending to make high intensity polenta with the corn stock... that'll have to wait for next time we have a bunch of corn cobs.

I got the canned okra and field peas from the local discount shop, and they were brands I'd never seen before (maybe they're from the south?). I'd never had field peas before, and it looks like the name can refer to any number of peas. These ones were tiny and red, and I liked them.

Summer pizza

I don't know what possessed me to make pizza on the hottest, muggiest day in recent memory, but I did, and it was good. Prepare yourself: this pizza had corn on it. (Weird for an American pizza, but apparently not so in Asia.)

The pizza was inspired by this one, which used a recipe originally from this book. The toppings were mozzarella, thinly sliced onion, zucchini, fresh corn, red pepper flakes, black pepper, almond feta, a little more mozzarella, and after it cooked: cilantro and some lemon juice. This combination tasted very fresh and light, perfect for the hot weather.
The crust was wonderful: a great combination of crispness and puffy chewiness. I used my old favourite olive oil dough, from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I used AP flour, and added some vital wheat gluten. It was baked at 500 for about 8 minutes. These are roughly the measurements I used to make two pizzas: 168 ml water, 3/4 t yeast, 1 t salt, less than 1 t sugar, 1 T olive oil, 1.6 c AP flour (170 - 200g? I eyeballed it. Bad baker!), 1 T vital wheat gluten.

Corn soup

Last summer we went to a dinner at a local restaurant that was offering a menu based on Charlie Trotter's book Raw. One of the highlights was a raw corn soup, garnished with hearts of palm and curry oil. (I don't own the book, but luckily this recipe is available in the Google books preview.)
My little stick blender wasn't quite up to the task of pulverizing the corn completely, so I strained the soup and used the leftover corn to make corn oysters. Yum!

Corn oysters

Corn whats? Here you see Creole Corn Oysters -- they're kind of like little pancakes, but with a creamy centre that tastes intensely of corn. I found this recipe in Rebecca Wood's The Splendid Grain, but she mentions that she first learned of corn oysters from the 1885 book La Cuisine Creole by Lafcadio Hearn.
Wood suggests serving them with sour cream and caviar, or with a spicy sauce, or for breakfast with syrup, but I like eating them plain. (Actually, this time I added some minced chives, but I'm not sure I noticed them -- all I tasted was corny goodness.)

Creole Corn Oysters (adapted slightly from The Splendid Grain)
4 ears fresh corn
1/2 cup milk of your choice
1 t oil
1/2 c flour
1/4 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/8 t nutmeg

1. Grate the kernels off the cobs using the large holes of a box grater, and then with the back of a table knife, scrape the cobs to get the remaining corn. You'll end up with a sort of corn puree.
2. Combine the corn, milk and oil.
3. Combine the dry ingredients, and add to the wet to form a thick batter.
4. Heat a griddle over med-high heat, and grease it. Drop tablespoonsful of batter on the griddle, cook until the bottom is browned and the top starts to dry. Flip and brown the other side. Keep warm while cooking the remaining batter.