I know summer’s right around the corner because I purchased my first ears of corn from the grocery this week, and know that in a couple more months it’ll be available at the farm markets. My favorite way to eat corn is to cream it the way generations of women in my family did it, and still do as far as I know, but Hubby and the rest of our little family here in Utah prefer it on the cob, cooked on the grill or steamed. [Incidentally, my son-in-law who grew up in Germany is appalled that anyone in his right mind would eat it at all (!) because Europeans all know that corn is pig food. To that I say oink, oink, oink. Simply leaves more for me!]
With near perfect timing, a friend recently sent us a link to a video demonstrating a way to prepare it without having the brush the silks out. It combines taking the shuck off and cooking in a couple of easy steps, so naturally Hubby and I could hardly to wait try it ourselves. I’m here to affirm it works beautifully! Comes out clean as a whistle with nary a pesky silk hanging on! All you need to do for perfection is to slather it with a little butter.
Now this may be all old news for you, but if so I won’t apologize. If you knew already, then why didn’t you tell me!?
Credits: video via YouTube, photo of butter/sugar corn licensed under creative commons (catchesthelight/flickr).
My Wintersong 
Oh, we can do this. I don’t mind the boiling, but finding the silk is a huge hassle for blind me. This is great stuff. Hugs.
You’ll love it!
Out here, we enjoy eating it on the cob. The street stalls come up during the monsoons. It’s great fun eating corn on the cob, grilled on charcoal and then coated with lemon juice by a slice of half lemon dipped in a mix of salt, pepper, garam masala and red chilly powder. Though it is bit of a pain pulling out the stands of silk stuck between teeth, it is still much more fun than the steamed corn we get in paper cups in shopping malls.The Department of Agricultural Science at the Maharaj Sayajirao University at Baroda cultivates the most succulent corn one would come across. They too put up their own stalls during monsoon.
हे रागु! लुक वहत इ जुस्त फौंद! कैन यू रीड आईटी? दोएस आईटी मके सेन्से? You know, I was wondering about corn in India. How could I have forgotten that roasted corn we ate on the beach when we were there for Malu’s marriage?! Also the corn ears Suchi, Shyamala, Swarna and Chitra roasted for all of us in the Redwood Forest in California a few years back! I wonder if the same concept would work, though, with roasted corn. Isn’t the heat part of the secret? ரகு வணக்கம். நான் தவறான கருத்து செய்தார். (புதிய என்ன?) இங்கு நான் தமிழ், மீண்டும் இந்த முறை முயற்சி செய்கிறேன். நீங்கள் திருப்தி இல்லை? ஆலிஸ் மாமி
Aunty, I could make out what’s written in the devnagri (Hindi) script. It reads “Hey Raghu ! Look what I just found! Can you read it? Does it make sense?”.
The software has used the phonetics of english to find the devnagri letters to make it sound english written in hindi. It is not an actual translation, not even a trans-literation. It is english sentences written in hindi.
Remember, the new language called “hinglish” that is the favourite of advertisers in India ?Hinglish is a mix of english and hindi words written in roman script using hindi grammar construct.
The part written in Tamil seems to be completely in tamil in all respects – phonetics, words and grammar. Sadly, I can’t read Tamil though its my mother tongue. I do remember the tamil alphabet I learned from your mother-in-law (my granny) and make use of it to figure out names of places written on buses. I read one alphabet at a time and run them together in my head to make out what a word means. But reading whole sentences? I could make out “Raghu Vanakkam” and “Alice Mami” and then my head got muddled completely. 🙂
Coming back to the corny stuff, I guess it is the smell of burning charcoal sticking to the cob and lime that makes it a unique experience. 🙂
Yes, I figured out the difference in translation and writing English words in Hindi (finally). It’s actually fun and so easy. Too bad we didn’t have this app when I used to write Neelu letters in English. Fortunately the kid’s drawings that we tried to include didn’t need translating. Oh and I’m sorry I muddled your head with the Tamil. It’s so funny that I can’t remember who in the family speaks/writes in what language. For me, it’s easy–American English only, punctuated now and again with U.S. Southern-isms.
That is COOL. I will definitely try it but it is TOO EARLY TO BUY CORN HERE MOM!!!! Btw, son-in-law objects to corn eating unless it has been processed into, oh, tortilla chips, polenta, cornbread…..and so on.
But I bought it at Whole Foods! 49 cents an ear.
I have cooked corn in the microwave for years. So much better than that pot of water. But it never occurred to me to clean it the way he did. I always pulled from the top, leaving some of the silk, but not much. It was easy to remove, but I’ll try the other way next.
You may be as surprised as we were. I still prefer my corn creamed though.
So last night we tried it. Tho I chopped off the end before instead of afterwards, it worked like a charm. Thanks so much.
Last September, Walter had a visit from his Swiss friends, Tom and Iris. Tom had spent 1972 on a farm in Iowa as a exchange student and was introduced to sweet corn. He was very reluctant to eat this cattle/pig food, confusing it with the field corn available at home. I invited Tom and Iris to dinner and served fresh corn and BBQ ribs. Iris snarfed down the ribs, and Tom had four ears of corn. He couldn’t get enough and was slightly embarrassed because he ate every last ear on the platter. Perhaps corn is an acquired taste, like poi (yuck!). There is hope for son-in-law.
Tatjana’s mother wouldn’t eat corn when we served it because it reminded her of rations from the Yugoslavian war and before. So I cut it off the cob and spread some butter on it and she found her way to it.
I’m pretty sure our family would never have made it through the depression had it not been for corn. Somehow that didn’t keep me for having an almost insatiable appetite for it my whole life! Now, pair it a skillet of pan-fried okra and and a pot of green field peas and I’m practically in heaven!