Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Indian Corn at the Union Square Farmers' Market

Smarties? M&M's..?

I intend eating these.

This was met with some incredulity and not a little pity at work. You don't eat that. That's for decoration!

Ugh? That? Aren't they, Those?

I am going to eat them. They are beautiful. And hard. I figure one could treat them like samp?

Watching the final episode of HBO's John Adams last night (remarkable more for the make-up techniques aging Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, the good, authentic-aiming accents of the cast, and the supporting performances - especially by Stephen Dillane as Jefferson, than for the likability of the central actor, whose performance repelled me, slightly [was it supposed to?]. Make-up did go overboard perhaps with the teeth, in the end... Very distracting), I noticed Abigail Adams slowly shucking an ear of hard corn. Hm. Then today I saw these at the market.

So...boil, then slow-cook with something delicious, like...butter? Some cheese? Like grits? Or can one start off as with risotto, and add moisture gradually?

Counsel?


Um. Ten minutes later and after some research. I don't know. Soaking them in lye water to get rid of the husks? To create hominy, or pozole...and is the lye* really necesssary for the husk removal or is it to free Vitamin B - niacin - without which corn-reliant diets resulted in pellagra, a disease of malnutrition?

I need a small drink.

Update: 11/20/10 -  what would I do now with Indian corn? Make pozole, of course!

* use baking soda instead of lye. Trust me.

4 comments:

  1. I would reconsider. If it's like underwater, pretty means toxic. ;-)

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  2. Sooooooooo...no more cherry tomatoes, or cherries, for that matter, or kiwis, or red currants, or broccoli, or..what else is pretty: grapes, no more grapes? We're not underwater!

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  3. maybe some kind of polenta...?
    I don't know for certain, but if it's a kind of feed corn, then I expect it'll need a lot of soaking (or you'll need the teeth of a half-ton ruminant) to make it palatable. And maybe a long session with a mortar and pestle --it may be the kind of corn that was ground between rocks before cooking...

    I commend your adventurousness. This stuff can hang unmolested on doors for weeks, even urban wildlife leaves it alone.

    Halloween sends his regards. (also Beau and Patches, who are not very e-literate)

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  4. My Croft - note there has been no post about the corn yet :-) I am saving it for the weekend. I'm a wuss. Love back to Halloween, Estorbo owes him.

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