Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Corn recipes

Vallen just posted about one of my favorite treats of all time--Esquites (elotes).
That's corn with mayonnaise, chile, lime, and cheese (I prefer cotija).
This yumminess is available from cart vendors down in Mexico.
And don't even think about turning up your nose at the mayo--try it.
Delicious.

I found some similar recipes online, but some add epazote (an herb I have growing in my garden) and/or cilantro.
This recipe from Recipezaar looks good.
Or a similar recipe from Saveur.
Some add serranos and chopped onion.
Some add lard.
I've personally never seen a version with a bunch of extra stuff, but perhaps different regions offer different recipes.
The Hunger has a version with jalepeno.

This got me to thinking about Gulliver's.
Gulliver's used to be a restaurant in Mission Valley in San Diego.
It offered diners prime rib served by wenches.
After a couple of hepatitis scares, the brand new brick building was razed--I always thought it was such a waste.
But what I loved about that place was the creamed corn.
Jen gave me a cookbook of recipes that had been featured in the Los Angeles Times, and I was thrilled to see Gulliver's corn printed.

Creamed Corn
8 ears corn
1 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon MSG (optional)
Butter
2 teaspoons flour
Grated Parmesan cheese

Cut corn from cob and place in saucepan with whipping cream. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.
Stir in salt, sugar and MSG.
Melt 2 teaspoons butter in small pan and stir in flour.
Do not brown.
Stir butter-flour roux into corn and cook until slightly thickened.
Turn corn into ovenproof dish, sprinkle with cheese, and dot with butter.
Brown under broiler.
Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Interesting variations are available online. I like this one, from Cooks.com, that has a dash of cayenne.

This recipe from Health Nuts for Mexican Creamed Corn looks yummy too (though I'd use regular cream cheese).

I still want to see the movie King Corn.
I don't think all the negative controversies about high fructose corn syrup are myth.
I do personally believe the stuff is crap.
And along the same lines, I think genetically modified food is scary scary scary.
Too, if you don't already know about some of the ethics violations of Monsanto, my gosh, get some information (scroll down the page...the article is quite long).

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

So what does epazote taste like Barb?

9:26 PM  
Blogger Patty said...

There was a Gulliver's in Irvine too. I had saved the creamed corn recipe from the LA Times a long time ago but never got around to making it. If I don't have it anymore, now I know where to find a copy. Thanks, Barb!

1:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Barb, my email is mikeinsac@sbcglobal.net.

8:27 AM  
Blogger Vallen said...

Must be the season. There was just a recipe posted in the S.J. Mercury for "Drippy Corn" 'casue you have to bend over to eat so it doesn't drip on your clothes.
I always use epazote when I make black beans. We can get it fresh but it also comes dried. I can hardly make Mexican food without it.

9:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We're having chicken issues in the UK at the moment. Have you been to the compassion in world farming website? I've put a link on my posting.

1:42 PM  

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