Friday, July 25, 2008

"Corn"ering the local farm

It’s almost the end of July and I have been scouring my favorite local haunts for the freshest of the freshest vegetables that I can lay may hands on.

At Ramirez Farms (a stones throw from my suburban home) the produce of the week is Corn. I picked up six ears of corn (3 for $1.00) and a bunch of sunflowers. Cheap and plentiful at this time of the year I headed home with my small but bulging cloth bag. While driving the mile and a half back home I wondered what to make? Maybe corn soup or some salsa as I had a few red and green bell peppers in the fridge!

Once home, I placed the corn on the kitchen island and took off to check my e-mail…come on I know you do that too!

Dinner time came along and I still wasn’t sure what to make until I tasted a few of the raw corn kernels.......wish I could describe how sweet and crunchy the corn was! Instinctively I knew I HAD to make Corn Curry. The recipe for this dish is loosely based on a traditional western Indian ~ Gujarati dish, Corn Kadhi that is mildly sweet and sour. The dish is served as a main course with Phulka’s, an unleavened flat bread or steamed rice......... Me, I like to pour some in a bowl and chow it down with a couple of slices of Foccacia bread.



Corn Curry

Ingredients
6 ears of fresh corn, shucked and rinsed
4 tsp ginger-green chili paste (GG paste)
1-cup yogurt
2 tsp gram flour - besan
1-cup milk
4 tsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp musturd seeds
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp coriander powder
2 fresh green chilies, sliced
4-8 curry leaves (optional)
¼ cup fresh cilantro – finely chopped
4+1 cups water (more if needed)
2 tsp sugar
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste

Method

Cut four ears of corn into 2 inch thick slices. Cut the kernels off the remaining two ears of corn and keep aside. Pressure-cook sliced corn with four cups of water, salt and 2 tsp of GG paste for 6 minutes. Whisk in the gram flour with the yogurt, mixing well to avoid lumps.

In another pan heat the oil, when it starts to smoke add cumin seeds & musturd seeds and allow it to sputter, throw in sliced green chilies, curry leaves, remaining GG paste, cumin and coriander powders and the corn kernels. Allow this to sauté for 6-8 minutes on a medium flame just until the corn is cooked. Pour one cup water, yogurt mixture and cook on a very low flame stirring frequently to prevent the mixture from splitting and until raw smell of the yogurt mixture disappears and the gravy has thickened. Now add the pressure-cooked corn slices, sugar, salt to taste and chopped coriander and cook on a low flame for 5-8 minutes. If the curry seems too thick add 1 cup of milk and cook for a few more minutes and take it of the fire. Add the lime juice and serve warm with Rotis or steamed rice. Enjoy!

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As the title suggests this blog is about Vegetarian food - Recipes and Musings and as an homage to my mother, aunts, uncles, extended family & friends and International travels with my better half C, and to all those who have feed me with the most amazing and scrumptious foods and indulged in discussions that inspired me to enter the kitchen and have a blast! Finally it would be very unfair not to mention my dearest son KD, who occasionally lets me know……”Mom, you are the bestest cooker”!
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This recipe is my entry to the Weekend Breakfast Blog- Summer Feast an event created by Nandita of Saffron Trail and hosted by Sia of Monsoon Spice.