This recipe from Cooking Light called my name from the minute I saw it on my computer screen. I knew it would go well with our favorite chicken (luckily my electric spice mill came in the mail, so making that was easy!)I doubled the recipe, using the dozen ears of corn from my trip to Central New York.
I wanted the bacon to be really distinctive, so I stopped at Star Provisions specialty market for advice. The fellow behind the meat counter was incredibly helpful, and set me up with Benton bacon cut into lardons. This stuff had the most amazing hickory smell. I fried it slowly and rendered off the fat. It cooked to a beautiful brown color and tasted salty, smoky and chewy - perfect for my recipe!
Making creamed corn produces a total mess - the cutting and the scraping makes corn bits fly all over. Also, I forgot that when making creamed corn, I shouldn't cut all the way to the bottom of the kernels, so I had less "milk" and pulp when I scraped the cobs, and probably too much kernel.
At any rate, something went wrong in the proportions of ingredients, so I ended up with way too much liquid. I poured some liquid off. I added more corn kernels. Then I sifted more cornstarch into the skillet and simmered it for a while until it thickened. Finally it reached an acceptable consistency.
With the bacon on top it was beautiful and I served it right out of the skillet. It looked just as wonderful as the picture on the Cooking Light website. (I didn't photograph the food in front of my dinner guests, however!)
The Verdict:
We loved this corn. It tasted fresh and creamy and the bacon was the perfect complement.
I will make it again, but I have to figure out where I went wrong since it was very stressful to have to "rescue" the dish. That probably serves me right for trying new recipes on dinner guests!
1 comment:
That picture of your ears of corn is absolutely beautiful. I can't stop staring at it. Creamed corn and bacon sounds sinful (but in a good way!) I'll have to try making my own.
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