Last night I blanched and froze three heads of broccoli...and set off the smoke detector in the process 'cause I forgot to turn on the hood fan over the range. Scared the bejeezus out of the cat. And probably my neighbors.
Today (after turning on the hood fan and pointing the living room's big standing fan out into the kitchen) I blanched 1/2 a head of cauliflower (that all that was in the crate. Still pretty big, though, even for a half), a bag of string beans (green, wax, and purple--though the purple ones turned green when they hit the water. Boooo.), and four ears of corn. Everything but the corn went into the freezer. The corn, along with some tomatoes, onions, a clove of garlic, and some bacon became this:
My Grandma Ruth used to make it, and she called it Mexicorn. I think it was a fancy word for summer-leftovers-that-need-to-be-used-up. Everything in this picture (except the bacon, of course) came from my CSA share. One of the tomatoes I used was yellow and green striped, green on the inside.
It doesn't look all that appetizing, but it tastes wonderful. Hence, this post's title.
Here's how it's made, if you'd like to try it:
Ingredients:
Bacon (I used 4 pieces, one for each cob of corn.)
Corn, cooked, cut off the cob (preferably. I've done it with frozen. It's not the same)
Onion (I used 2 tiny red ones and small white one)
1 clove of garlic (that's my own little addition. I don't think Grandma cooked with garlic)
Tomatoes, diced, preferably fresh.
Salt to taste
Ground pepper to taste
1. In a sauté pan, fry bacon until it's crispy. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.
2. Fry the onion and garlic with the bacon fat.
3. Add corn, stir.
4. Add tomatoes, stir.
5. Crumble bacon, add to pan. Stir.
6. Add salt and pepper, stir.
7. Remove from heat when mixture is throughly combined and heated through. Serve.
8. Try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting.
I have no idea what the Weight Watcher's points are for this, and I. Don't. Care! It's mostly vegetables anyway. Okay, so they're covered in fat and mixed with bacon, but it's not like I eat this everyday. I've been waiting for the corn to start coming so that I could make it. I've had a little bit, and now I'm gonna quick toss the rest in the freezer so I don't eat any more today.
Later this evening I'm going to try a fennel bulb and potato au gratin recipe that the CSA put in the bulletin this past week. Wish me luck! The fennel smells great, let's hope it tastes as good and freezes well.
I'm also going to cut up the rest of the tomatoes, the cucumbers, some onion, and the radishes and make some sort of marinated salad with them. I'll probably just throw Italian dressing on it and refrigerate it.
On tomorrow's agenda -- Cream of carrot soup. With leeks and ginger and a yam, too. I made this earlier this year, never took a picture, didn't think to freeze it in time and the soup went bad. Gonna make it again now that I know what I'm doing.I'm also going to cut up the rest of the tomatoes, the cucumbers, some onion, and the radishes and make some sort of marinated salad with them. I'll probably just throw Italian dressing on it and refrigerate it.
And pretty soon I'm going to make a recipe Pioneer Woman talked about over on her cooking blog for a pineapple-zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting. I'm going to bring that in to work. One of my co-workers is going on maternity leave very soon, and I feel like making a little fuss. We already threw her a shower, but I just want to do this. I also want to try the recipe, get rid of my zucchini , and have a piece of cake without having the rest of it leftover later. I'd say that's four birds, one stone.
Off to got pack up the mexicorn before I eat more of it!
4 comments:
Wow.
That looks really, REALLY good.
Can't call it "Mexicorn" around here, though, or The Oracle won't go near it. He doesn't like Mexican food.
So HE says. I just think he's never had GOOD Mexican food.
It's not really Mexican, at least not what I consider Mexican. No chiles or chili powder or anything like that. I guess that's really Tex-Mex.
Grandma was from Iowa. I don't think she'd ever had Mexican food when she made this. I think it was more the color scheme she was referring to.
Maybe if you call it "Confetti Corn?"
Soup. Soup. Soup. Nature's way of using up any amount of veg. Don't worry about real stock - get good stock powder or cubes (do you have Marigold over there?). There's a book called The Soup Bible by Debra Mayhew - brilliant.
When you've made it, then you can freeze it.
I have to be in a mood for soup. If I blanch and freeze the veggies, then I can make soup if I want, or just have 'em by themselves, which is really how I prefer them.
I have recently made soup. Carrot leek soup, to be exact. I have a picture, I'll post it. And another of what I did with the fennel.
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