Ep 47: Small Bites: It’s Corn; Making the Most of Summer’s Best

Written By Christine Van Bloem

Check out Small Bites, with episodes 15 minutes or less here to teach you what to do to make summer ingredients shine and how to make dinner…fast!

Episode 2 features fresh, summer corn, with lots of tips and tricks to get the most out of one of the summer’s best crops.

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  •  So if you hear the phrase Knee high by the 4th of July, you know exactly what I'm talking about, right? It's corn, it's time to talk about corn.

    So as part of my small bite series, here we are just. Getting corny today, it's corn and we are going talk about corn, how to use it, how to choose it, how to store it, right?

    This is sort of the thing we're doing. I am Chris Van Bloem and welcome to the EMP Empty Nest Kitchen Podcast. I'm so thrilled to have you here. Listen, I just got back from the farmer's market and I didn't see any corn yet because it's still early, right? But it's been in the grocery store coming from up south and it's gonna be perfect here in Maryland really, really soon.

    And just like peaches, I find it to be, and tomatoes. I find it to be my absolute quest to eat as much corn as I possibly can while it is fresh and in season. Now, frozen corn does a great job, right? I'll make an a ski taste or a a corn dip or something in the winter using frozen corn. No problem. And you gotta remember when they freeze vegetables.

    They do it at their peak, right? So I always kind of prefer frozen over canned, but corn, if we can get it fresh, I mean, do you remember when you were a kid and it was like we had the butter, it was a. A rectangular two piece singing. You put the stick of butter in margarine 'cause that's all we had. And it would press down and it was corn shaped at the bottom so you could butter your corn that way.

    And then we always had corn holders and we had, and they're sharp and we had. Corn dishes. I just found two silver plated corn dishes in the basement with my great clean out, but it is so wonderful and I'll tell you why I never use corn holders. Now of course, I use a knife to butter my corn. Um, but all of those accoutrement that we had to have back in the day, who cares?

    It is about the corn. Now corn, the cob is fantastic, but here is a little dirty secret. I actually have terrible teeth. These are all veneers right up front, these whore, and I've had 'em. I mean, I got the precursor to that back in the eighties when I was in college. So this is not a new thing for me, and I'm always worried that I'm gonna pop one off by eating corn.

    I must have done it at. Some point, so I cut my corn off the cob a lot of the time, unless I'm feeling adventurous and crazy, but corn on the cob. It is really fantastic when you get it fresh, you know there's nothing like it. And let's say that you're going to the grocery store. Have you ever walked into the grocery store and they will actually have a trash bin right beside.

    The corn display and people will stand there and they will shuck that corn and they'll have it all ready to go. They do the work in the grocery store. That is the worst thing you can do. I know. I know. I know. If you are hyper efficient and you're like, this is my moment to shine, this is when I get it done.

    No, this is not, because what happens is that Husk is protecting the corn from drying out, so we wanna leave it in the husk. Until right before we're ready to eat it. When you're choosing corn, I always like to get the fatties right, the big fat boys. I want the ones, I don't like the little skinny ears. I try to get the biggest ears, like the biggest fattest ears that I can.

    I want make sure that that husk is tight. Right. You want it tight on there. You don't want it loose. And to all of you that are pulling some of the husk down to check the corn, don't. It's near unicorn. Okay? Don't, 'cause you're just messing it up for someone else. Sorry, unpopular opinion, but it's near a corn.

    Take it. You can do it if you pick it up and it's heavy for its weight, or heavy for its size. The husk is firm and the silk. It is fresh. It's not all dry and kind of crumbly. You are gonna have great corn, I promise. Those are the hallmarks of what you're looking for when you buy the corn on the cob. Now, when you get home, even though one of my big tenants is we store it at home, the way they sell it at the store, right?

    So if you buy it refrigerated at the store, of course you're gonna refrigerate it here at the house. But a lot of people just take the corn and leave it set on the counter. It's gonna dry out again. We really wanna pop it in the fridge, and believe it or not, it's kind of important that you use it sooner rather than later.

    It just gets a little more dry every day that it kind of waits. So don't worry, I have had corn in there for a week and used it. It's no problem. And do you remember when it came time to cook the corn? I remember my mom would send me out back and corn was 12 years for a dollar back then. Holy bananas. Uh, now this morning I paid a dollar 20, which is an increase from a week ago when it was a dollar for three years.

    So it's going up a little, which is unusual when it's coming more into season, but that is something, you know, that happens sometimes. Um, so. I bring it home, I pop it in the fridge. If I'm ready, mom would send me out and have me husk all the corn. And then sometimes we had a little brush and we would brush it, brush it, brush it.

    Well, now that I'm an Empty nester. I am not doing that at all because you know everything I'm doing in the kitchen, I'm trying to find the easiest way to do it, the cheekiest way to do it, that it's still gonna be really, really good. Right. That's so important. So. I use the microwave. This is kind of a newish thing for me because you can take that ear of corn, put it in the husk, in the silk, the whole thing, throw it in the microwave.

    And I tell you this, if it is perfect peak corn season, it's gonna take about a minute to cook an ear of corn, right? It goes really fast, but I'll do whatever. I can fit in a single layer, which is usually like three ears of corn. And if I'm doing three, I might set it for four minutes. I will tell you this, this is one of the things when I just did my, uh, Mediterranean Magic for midlife cooking class.

    I did it early summer. Oh my gosh. It was so much fun. And this is one of the tricks that I use because listen, we're just not cooking for 10 people anymore. And if we are, then we're gonna send a kid to Husket. We're gonna boil it all, do the whole thing. But this blew everybody's mind. It's so easy. And what happens?

    It's gonna be really hot when it comes out, when you peel it, when you shuck it. That silk comes right with it. It's so easy to do. It's so easy to do. It's made things just incredibly easy for me. I'm teaching a pizza class coming up, and I love to put fresh corn on a pizza. I do some red onion. I do some shredded mozzarella.

    I do corn. I do. And this is the best way to do it because one ear into the micro boom, boom, boom. And there you can have really simple corn on the cob. Cut it off if you want. Don't forget to flip your knife. Use the backside carefully. Carefully use the backside of the knife to kind of milk the corn, and you'll get the most you can out of it.

    Now speaking. Of taking that corn off the cob. One of the great tricks that I've always used is to use a bunt pan, like a bunt cake pan with the hole in the middle and you pop your corn. Now I've seen people taking the corn and shoving it through the hole to, I, I don't think that's gonna work for me. I just put it, uh, with the pointier end down and then.

    Cut it off the cob and all of the corn falls into the bunt pan. Friend Carrie likes to use a clean dish towel and it'll all come down. She has it all gathered on that towel. Easy breezy, ready to go. Now, how are we using the corn? What are we doing with it aside from just corn on the cob? Well, let me tell you, if you're taking it off the cup, save those cobs because when it's C Choda season, you are gonna wanna take those cobs and throw the naked cobs into your milk or your broth or whatever you're using, and it sucks all that corny flavor out of it.

    Oh my gosh, it's so, so good. If you're making a corn chowder or a chicken corn chowder, save it. Save it. A crab in corn chowder. Hello Maryland. Um, if you are doing that, save those cobs because they bring so much sweetness and lusciousness to it. It's really, really lovely. Um, I also make tons of corn salad.

    Like I said, I'll make a corn dip, but I'm about cold right now. I want everything cold. I want to cook as little as possible, so I'll make a super easy corn and tomato salad. And let me tell you, I never had this growing up. This was not a thing. Now it's everywhere and you can do it where you make it. Well, let me tell you.

    I take it, I will make a quick vinegarette and I'll typically use like a white wine vinegar for this. I'll use a nice, nice little splat of Dijon mustard because I love Dijon mustard. I. I'll use maybe a little bit of shallot, and I saw somebody at the farmer's market this morning. It was so cute. He was at the olive basket stand, he and his girlfriend, and I think I intimidated them a little, talking about the vinegar and stuff.

    And I was like, just don't screw it up, man. Just take it easy. Take some vinegar, give it a try. Taste it. You put that vigor in with the Dijon and the shallot. And I had said to him, a shallot, he's like, what's a shallot? And I was like, well, it's kind of like the city mouse to an onions country mouse. And that has got to be the most obtuse description I've ever done, but.

    It. It is kind of true. So I love a shall because it's a little more mild in flavor, which is great. Right. And you don't have to rinse it or do anything like that. You can just use it as is. So I've got a little bit of mint salad. I've got that Dijon, some salt and pepper I pour my vinegar in and something typically light flavored because.

    Corn and tomatoes are the star of the show here, right? We want to let them shine so we don't wanna overwhelm it with a really powerful vinegar. So we'll make that, and then I'll drizzle in the olive oil. While I'm whisking. Now, I typically go two parts oil to one part vinegar, sometimes even one a half oil to one vinegar, because I like things really tart.

    You can play with it a little. It's a vinegarette. So I want you to. Relax and take a moment. Okay? Just take a minute, take a minute with it, play around, get it right. I will do that. Then I will chuck in, uh, halved, grape or cherry tomatoes, corn from the cob, fresh basil from the garden. If people stop by, like sometimes the kids come over, something happens.

    I will pull pasta and throw more of that. I'll cook pasta and throw that into the salad to stretch it out. Works really, really well now. The thing with that is if you decide to add pasta, a pasta is going to first. I like little pasta, like a dini or, um, I don't usually use an orzo for this, but something small, something corn sized is what I'm thinking with it.

    I want all to kind of mix in together. It is gonna suck up your vinaigrette, so you definitely need more of it, for sure. More, more, more vinegarette. And if you want the total recipe, you can go to Empty Nest Kitchen dot com and look under, I think the tab is from the kitchen, and my recipe is right there.

    You can totally make it. And then let me know if you liked it. The last little thing I love to do with some fresh corn, other than just, you know. Sucking it down off the top is I love to make little corn pancakes with it, and then I'll make like a little sauce out of something that I've got laying around.

    You can use yogurt, you can use a little sour cream. You could use a little mayonnaise if that's what your vibe is. Doesn't matter, but they're really easy. Just flour and corn and baking powder, milk, an egg, salt, pepper, that's it. Mix it together and you can make little corn pancakes out of it. So. That's it.

    That's our small bite this week. Just some little tips and tricks for feeling corny all summer long. And remember, the more corn is in season at peak season, the less time that you need to cook it. So go ahead, check out Empty Nest Kitchen dot com for that recipe. And as always, I'll see you next week and I'll see you in the kitchen. 

Christine Van Bloem
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Ep 46: Small Bites: How to Choose, Use, & Store Tomatoes