Creamed corn is a sweet and silky treat. Corn has natural thickeners in it - they don’t call it “corn starch” for nothing—so this dish doesn’t need any additional thickeners. If you are used to either making creamed corn with added starches or you usually just buy it canned, you owe it to yourself to try this easy and classic version.

The real trick to making creamed corn is in how you slice the kernels off the cob. You want to release as much of the starches as possible to thicken the dish, and the best way to do this is to “shave” the tips off of all the kernels on your first pass, and then cut the remaining part of the kernels off in the second pass. After you slice off all the kernels, scrape down the cob with the back of a chef knife to get as much of the pulp and milk as you can.

As always, you can jazz it up with herbs and spices. This is just a great basic recipe to get you started.

Creamed Corn

Ingredients:

• 1 small yellow or white onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 ears of corn, shucked and cleaned
• ½ cup water
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• A heavy pinch of sugar (optional—omit if your corn is very sweet)
• ½ cup heavy cream

Slice kernels off the cobs as described above.

Heat a saute pan over medium-low heat until hot. Add the butter and swirl to coat the bottom.

Sweat the onion with salt and pepper until softened and translucent. Don’t let them brown, so adjust the heat down if the onions are starting to take on color.

Add the corn kernels and all the pulp and milk you scraped off of the cobs along with the water. Add a pinch more salt and pepper and the sugar (if using). Bring to a boil, stirring constantly and mashing the kernels against the bottom and sides of the pan to extract all the starches.

Add the heavy cream and reduce slightly until thick and creamy. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Eat creamed corn as is, or stir in some minced fresh herbs.

Related Topics

Cooking Corn on the Cob

Creamy Corn Soup Recipe

Grilled Corn on the Cob

Jersey Sweet Corn

Tuscan Bread Salad or Panzanella

Tuscan Tomato, Cucumber & Bread Salad

Right now I am into everything Tuscan, Italy because I just finished reading The Reluctant Tuscan (I will talk much more about this wonderful book in another post) and am now reading Frances Mayes Under The Tuscan Sun, another delightful book about an American buying a home in Tuscany and the effect it has on them.

My wife and I honeymooned in Tuscany years ago and I forgot just how beautiful the hill towns are and how different the life style is compared to the United States. These two books describe in wonderful detail the everyday life of Tuscan families.

After reading The Reluctant Tuscan and halfway through Under The Tuscan Sun I have a new understanding of my childhood experiences with my best friends from Italian decent. I spent a lot of teenage summer weekends at  Pasqual Benvenuto’s home and never understood why they had these huge Sunday meals in the basement set up as a second kitchen with his family and their extended family.

We would spend hours eating and talking and watching his family yell at each other, then hug and kiss. It looked bizarre to me then but now I understand it is just part of their culture. Food and the act of dining together is a huge aspect of the Italian lifestyle and now I want to learn everything I can about Tuscan cooking.

Tuscan Tomato, Cucumber & Bread Salad

Last night I had the opportunity to prepare this simple salad with fresh local ingredients that we always have on hand while vacationing in Avalon at the Jersey shore. I brought down some wonderful extra virgin olive oil given to us by a friend and some six year old Pedroni’s Aceto Balsamico di Modena (Balsamic Vinegar of Modena) but you can use a less expensive balsamic vinegar and have great results.

Let me quote Frances Mayes as she describes how to simply put this salad together,

“Panzanella, little swamp, is another tomato favorite, a salad of oil, vinegar, tomatoes, basil, cucumber, minced onion, and stale bread soaked in water and squeezed dry - a true invention from necessity. Since bread must be bought every day, Tuscan cooking makes good use of leftovers.”

Nothing could be easier. I used 3 small tomatoes cut up in small bites, half a cucumber also cut up into small bites, minced onion, fresh local basil, 8 slices of leftover hard baguette seasoned with salt and pepper. Like many Tuscan cooks, I added the olive oil and vinegar by eye but you should know the typical ratio is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar.

The bread was soaked in water and squeezed as dry as possible. At first I didn’t think it would taste very good but after dressing the salad and letting it sit for a while, the bread gave the salad a wonderful texture and absorbed some of the seasoning with the juices from the vegetables. It was amazing.  And it went great with a chilled bottle of Prosecco!

Just because you are at the Jersey shore doesn’t mean you can’t find innovating food and be stuck eating sausage and peppers, overcooked fried flounder or any of the other foods we equate with beach resorts. Last night we had a fabulous meal at a relatively new restaurant called Jay’s On Third in Stone Harbor, NJ and a few nights ago we dined at Quahog’s Seafood Shack  for one of my favorite entrees, Grilled Barbecue Pacu Fish Ribs.

Jay’s opened last year and we heard about it from some friends who dined there last week. Don, from Texas and a big steak fan, described the Hanger Steak with BBQ butter sauce as one of the top 5 hanger steaks he has ever eaten and his wife Kim loved the Tuna Tartare & Sashimi.

Chef – Owner  Jason Hippen, whom I met after the meal and found very personable, put together a great culinary resume before opening Jay’s  On Third. He graduated culinary school at the Academy of Culinary Arts in Mays Landing and over the years worked with some of the top chefs at some of the most esteemed restaurants including Jeffery Chodorow’s Red Square, Stephen Starr’s Buddakan, Morimoto, Sumile and Aureole in New York City.

I read a 2008 review of Jay’s On Third in the Shore News Today that said,

“After graduation, he found a job in Philadelphia that changed the course of his career, but it didn’t come without some humbling advice from celebrity chef Morimoto, of Iron Chef fame.

“Boy, did he ever kill me. ‘Get rid of your bad habits right now,’ he would tell me. ‘This is a five-star restaurant. I don’t care what you think you’ve learned so far.’ But that job really boosted my career,” Hippen said.”

Chef Jason, who grew up in Wildwood, NJ, told me his mom is from Thailand and his sous chef , who also graduated from the Academy of Culinary Arts, is from the Philippines  and their menu really brings out the cultural heritage from both regions. I enjoyed a delicious Red Snapper with long beans, aromatic Jasmine rice, toasted cashew nuts and a Thai coconut Langoustine sauce that was incredible. I’m hoping to interview Chef Jason and get him to share this recipe with me.

The kids split the Grilled Hanger Steak Medallions that were served with fresh local fingerling potatoes, green asparagus and a BBQ butter and there was nothing left to share with their dad. Lucky for me someone else ordered the steak and I was able to glom a bite.  My wife ordered the salmon special, which was served with a pureed pesto and asparagus.  I didn’t get much of that either!

We started out table sharing the Crisp Calamari appetizer served with Japanese Chile salt, Napa cabbage & lime aoli as well as the “Tempura” Gulf Shrimp with asparagus & Japanese seaweed. I only wish there were more of them, they were so delicious.

Because Jay’s On Third is BYOB, we enjoyed his “fresh and fragrant” food with a Ferrari Carrano fume blanc and a Burgess Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines worked well with everything on the table.

We never got to the desserts because everyone wanted to go to Springer’s Homemade Ice Cream but I’m sure they would have been delicious. A few of us enjoyed wonderfully prepared espressos after dinner before the march to Springer’s.

And one last thing I would like to mention is the service was impeccable. You may have heard me say this in other posts, but to me I don’t care how good the food is at a restaurant if the service is off, the meal is ruined.

Here at Jay’s, the 66 seat dining room was run like clockwork. Granted the room wasn’t full because it was late on a Monday night, but you got the sense the staff knew what they were doing and were professional. Really makes a difference in the dining experience.

I hope to interview Chef Jason soon and share with you some of his thoughts on cooking and maybe a few of his secrets for those amazing sauces. You can learn more about Chef Jason and Jay’s On Third at his web site.