Corn

I stepped in to a Japanese market by Columbia yesterday afternoon and picked up this bottle of Korean corn tea.  It is made from "parched corn" and contains no calories or sugar.  I have yet to taste it.

How do you cook your corn-on-the-cob?  Many years ago I was invited to a colleague's house for dinner.  Before eating we all had to hold hands and say grace.  I'm not really a hand-holding, grace-saying sort of person, so I took this as a really bad sign (though, I should also say I don't put much truck in omens either).   I don't remember the rest of the meal but I do recall corn being served.

There are two kinds of people in this world.  Those that like their corn cooked through and through and those that like it heated up just enough to get the kernels hot.  I'm one of the latter.  Be forewarned, if I serve you corn it's going to be dropped in boiling water for a minute.  Two at the most.  The kernels need to burst with the essence of corn when bitten into.  That night at my co-worker's we had thoroughly cooked corn. 

It is interesting how tastes can differ.  Four of the five of us offered effusive praise of the corn.  I recall giving a value-neutral "I've not had corn like that before" assessment.

Comments

[cheryl]

I put a couple of ears of corn in a glass pan (6X9"?)add a quarter inch of water, cover it with Saran Wrap and steam it in the microwave for several minutes, until I can smell the fragrance of corn.

I like my corn full of flavor, too.

[judy Petrie]

5 minutes boiled. I think it depends on the corn - ripeness, variety, when it was picked. The bread and butter corn we had as kids, picked and shucked just moments to eating, was the best in my memory. I think the corn gets starchier if you boil it too long. I don't have roof of that but that's my hypothesis. Perhaps I can suggest that Emma test it for her 4th grade science fair project this year.

[Joe]

It never occurred to me to microwave corn. Now I'll have to give it a try.

[jenchung]

My mom microwaves corn, too. I will check how much water she uses, but I actually think she covers it with a water paper towel. She also uses this method to cook string beans, since I like plain string beans--it comes out pretty well.