[Sca-cooks] fresh corn

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius replied to Phlip with:
> > I think you're confusing the classic French recipe with what New  
> World
> > farming types do. I strongly suspect that you may never have had
> > truly fresh
> > corn in your life- it's not something that urban folks get, since  
> corn
> > noticeably loses a considerable amount of its freshness within an
> > hour of
> > picking- it's even noticeable after 15 minutes or so. Most city
> > folks are lucky to get corn less than a day or three old.

If boiling truly stops this conversion of sugar to starch, I wonder  
why some specialty outfit has come up with a way to shuck it and  
start boiling the corn while it is being harvested in the field. Must  
be more to it than that. Or it also has to be eaten soon or the  
process starts up again.
> If I buy it in the supermarket, I'd agree. If I get it in the
> farmer's market, it's generally a day old or less, and on the
> occasions when I've grown it in the back yard (how do I make people
> understand that I don't, even now, live in a grey, airtight, concrete
> cubicle?), it was fresh.

Photos might help. It's hard to imagine growing corn on your  
balcony. :-)  I thought corn took a fair amount of land to grow, at  
least to grow enough to e worthwhile. How many ears do you typically  
get from one plant and how much area is needed for each plant? I  
remember one of my grandfathers grew some corn in his garden, but  
that garden was about 50 x 100 ft in a small town (Garland, TX).

> That may be. I could have sworn that I've seen some cans of creamed
> corn with actual cream (albeit miniscule amounts). I'm aware of the
> "fried corn" process (no, Stefan, not all fried corn is fried, it's
> just cooked in a frying pan),

Is this a creamed corn? Or something else? More details?

I did cook a Cajun/Creole creamed? corn dish several years ago. Maybe  
from a recipe from this list. It was wonderful and my guests liked it  
also. But it was rather time-consuming to make.

There are several restaurants around here that now offer fried corn,  
in a batter. They take slices of a layer of the kernels, dip it in  
some sort of batter and then fry it.
> > You're a chef, not a farmer, oh beloved UUY ;-) Some things just  
> don't
> > translate into the big city ;-)
>
> You'd be surprised. We even have cattails.

So, assuming these are the vegetable kind, how do you cook them?

Stefan
(Who, though he lives in Texas, is much more likely to hit venison  
than cattle on the road.)
(home sick for the second day. blah, humbug. What a waste)
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****