Recipe: Jayne's Corn Pudding
This is a good recipe to have in your back pocket as summer and corn season draw to a close.
My friend Jayne is an over-the-top woman, big loud laugh, dauntless enthusiasm, relentless good cheer. Everything about her is a little bit More, from the “y” in her name to the plus signs on the ingredient list below. “Always better with LOTS of butter and cream!” she says. And before you shrink from such artery-hardening extravagance, get real: you’re not going to eat the whole thing all by yourself.
This is a good recipe to have in your back pocket as summer and corn season draw to a close. It’s easy to freeze corn — parboil, slice off kernels, etc., look online — and keeping a few flat zip-lock bags of it on hand will add some variety to your winter meals. Jayne first served this to me with grilled swordfish and salad, and I follow that general guide with, perhaps, a platter of roasted and skinned red/orange/yellow peppers marinated with good olive oil and garlic; they’re a good flavor contrast and the colors are a boost on dark days. In the summer, a platter of tomatoes can’t be beat.
I have also served this as a starter topped with mushrooms sautéed until browned in butter and oil. The oil raises the burn temperature of the butter, so it won’t burn as easily. Throw in a little soy sauce, not too much, maybe some garlic at the end, a little left-over chopped broccoli rabe, whatever you like. The idea is to give a salty/bitter contrast to the corn pudding, and I prefer the pudding in this case to the usual polenta.
Speaking of the end of summer, take a lesson from the squirrels before it’s too late. I use herbs from my garden to make chive, rosemary, and tarragon butters, and make sorrel and basil pestos with olive oil. (Don’t add anything else to your pestos — those usually include garlic, nuts, cheese — until you thaw the pure herbed oil.) My friend Inge makes tarragon and chive blossom vinegars, delicious, and I preserve very, very hot peppers in vinegar. So simple to do, they keep forever, and you can chop them later into oil (wear gloves) to make a spicy oil. (But strain the peppers out after a week or so in the fridge, and keep the oil cold.) Directions for all of these are easily found online. f you can be bothered to do a few of these now, you will be one happy squirrel when the snow is deep.
The original recipe uses six ears of corn. I freeze the corn in six-ear bags. An 8x8 Pyrex dish is good for that amount. For a double recipe, I use an oval gratin dish, or a lasagna pan would work. The number of servings will depend on whether it’s a side or a starter. I have served the double recipe with the mushrooms as a starter to a table of ten, with leftovers. It’s rich, so say eight to ten as a side, maybe fewer, or more, depending on what else is on the table. Six moderate servings as a side is a good guess for the smaller recipe.
By the way, you can make this with drained, canned corn. It’ll still be good, but not quite as good. Once you’ve got the summer corn in the freezer, it’s as easy as using the canned. You can assemble this a few hours before baking it, keep it in the fridge until then, covered. It takes only minutes to put together, and couldn’t be easier.
Jayne's Corn Pudding
Approximately 6 servings as a side
To make the smaller amount:
6 ears cooked corn (I like to use butter and sugar corn. Scrape off the kernels, use the back of the knife to ease out the “milk” from the cobs. This should be around six cups of corn, more or less, don’t go crazy. If using canned corn, six cups.)
3+Tablespoons butter, melted (The plusses are in case your fresh corn amount isn’t exactly six cups. Use your judgment.)
1 c.+ heavy cream
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ground pepper, or less, at will
4 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp. cayenne — use more or less at will
Stir all this together in a big bowl. Put into a buttered baking dish, sized for single or double recipe, see above. Bake at 350 degrees 20-25 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. If the knife seems almost clean, take the pudding out of the oven. It will keep cooking from its own heat as you let it rest. Rest about 10 minutes and serve.
