Eat Like No One Else » Corn

Michael Symon’s Sweet Corn Ice Cream

admin — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:02:09 +0000

Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla – these are flavors of ice cream that you find pretty much everywhere you find ice cream. One flavor you might have trouble finding is sweet corn. Unless you were looking in my freezer right now. Yes I made sweet corn ice cream. Seems strange doesn’t it. I was motivated to make this after watching an episode of the Cooking Channel show “Cook Like an Iron Chef”. The show is hosted by Iron Chef Michael Symon. He picks one ingredient each show and makes it the star of several dishes. Now in the episode Michael also adds popcorn and caramel-candied bacon to the ice cream, but I just decided to try the ice cream all by itself. Here are my notes from preparing this ice cream. For the full recipe visit Cooking Channel’s website.

1. The corn including the cobs are placed with the dairy. This is where the flavor will be imparted to the ice cream. So don’t rush through this step. I took a little taste as I went along and it seemed like the flavor wasn’t all that strong, but don’t worry it will be before the mixture hits the fridge.

2. I decided to skip adding the vanilla beans or any vanilla whatsoever. I wanted to make sure the vanilla didn’t overpower the flavor of the corn. Since I hadn’t made this ice cream before, I didn’t want to end up with a more vanilla tasting ice cream than a corn one. In the end I was happy with it, without the vanilla.

3. In the show, Michael puts the mixture over an ice bath to cool. Since I wasn’t working with the time line he was, I just placed it in the fridge until the mixture was thoroughly chilled. I actually left it in overnight and churned it in the morning in a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker.

This turned out to be an uniquely delicious ice cream. Imagine frozen creamed corn. It had a real nice corn flavor without being too weird. It would be fun to serve this up to some unexpected guests who thought they were having vanilla ice cream.

Recipe Grade: A-

Bobby Flay’s Blue Cornmeal Pancakes

admin — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:31:34 +0000

Ever get tired of the same old pancakes? Do you make pancakes from a box? If your answers are yes, then you should give this recipe for Blue Cornmeal Pancakes a try. This is a Bobby Flay recipe. This is the first time I have given one of this recipes a try. Below I will share with you my experience from trying this recipe. For the full recipe, visit Food Network’s website.

1. Blue cornmeal has it’s own unique flavor. I have used it before to make cornmeal muffins. It added a nice dimension of flavor to those muffins and to these pancakes. I like the cornmeal sold by Bob’s Red Mill. It’s stone ground, so it has more character than the generic store brand stuff.

2. Bobby added blueberries to the pancakes. I usually only buy them during blueberry season, so I just left them out.

3. I used buttermilk as oppose to just regular milk. Mainly because it was about to expire. I often use buttermilk in pancakes. \

4. Bobby says to add a little more milk if the batter was too thick. That was the case with mine, so a little more milk made the batter easier to work with.

5. I cooked my the entire batch in two stages on my electric griddle. An electric griddle makes cooking pancakes a much faster job.

Even thought I changed a couple things, I still could grasp that this is a good recipe. It produced a delicious fluffy pancake. The cornmeal doesn’t overwhelm the flavor, just adds to it. Bobby also made Orange-Honey Butter and Cinnamon Maple Syrup to go along with the pancakes. I didn’t do that this time, but I plan to give those a try in the future.

Recipe Grade: A-

Blue Cornmeal Muffins

admin — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 01:55:21 +0000

A recipe that has become a stable in my house is for Honey Cornbread Muffins. In fact it was part inspiration for my honey cornbread cracker recipe. Thank you to the Neeleys of Food Network fame for coming up with the original cornbread muffin recipe. Click here for the full recipe.

Last week, I found blue cornmeal sitting on a store shelf and decided to give it a try in making these delicious muffins. The results were wonderful. The muffins came out with a nice blue hue to them. And I believe the muffins themselves were actually more tender than muffins made with their yellow counterpart. I have used the blue cornmeal twice and both times I had the same result.

The blue cornmeal was made by Bob’s Red Mill. Check to find it at any store near you that sells their products or purchase it online.

Essential (My Must Have 5) Kitchen Tools for Thanksgiving

admin — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 20:42:26 +0000

As you prepare for the big turkey day, there are some things that you can get for your kitchen that will make your life so much easier. Time is important when preparing for a big meal. So having the right tools at your disposal will save you time and stress. Some of these things are pretty obvious, while others are things you might not have thought of before.

1. Roasting Pan
You need something to cook your turkey in, that is where the roasting pan comes in. Most come with a rack that you can place the turkey on to make taking it from the oven to the plate you will carve it on easy. Pick a heavy duty roasting pan. Don’t go for the dirt cheap ones you find so often this time of year. Thin pan don’t distribute heat very well. So this is an item you want to invest you money in. You can use these pans for more than just turkey, they are great for beef roasts or whole chickens. You can also place them over two burners to use as a really wide pan, great for making gravy with your pan drippings.

2. Electric Knife
This item differs from the roasting pan in that it is alright to go with a cheaper model. Alton Brown (of Good Eats fame) even recommends picking one up at your local hardware store. You don’t want to be carving the turkey without one of these things. It’s a must have. They are also great for slicing any roast and even cutting up a loaf of bread.

3. Probe Thermometer
In a post earlier this week, I spoke about those pop-up timers found in turkeys (click here to read that post). I recommended that you ignore the pop-up timer and use a probe thermometer instead. This will tell you exactly when your turkey is done and you can watch the progress as it cooks. I also use them for any meat I roast in the oven.

4. Electric Skillet
Whenever I am find myself in a situation in which I have to bring a side dish to a potluck or family meal, I think to think of a way to use my electric skillet. This enables me to heat or re-heat my food easily in the last minute, so that is it pipping hot when it is time to eat. One dish I cooked for last Thanksgiving was Alton Brown’s Creamed Corn.

5. Heating Pad
You might not think of this one, but a heating pad is great to have for Thanksgiving. Just like the electric skillet is a way to keep food warm, so is a heating pad. Let’s say you are making some yeast rolls. You can set them on a heating pad turned to low and keep them warm until it’s time to eat. Keeping all the food warm is one of the biggest challenges on Thanksgiving day, so it’s great to have tools that you can use to accomplish this.

Harvesting Corn – Peaches & Cream at 9 Weeks

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:26:15 +0000