Corn Pudding with Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic Toast

There’s a really great restaurant under the Williamsburg Bridge in my little Brooklyn nabe called Diner. It’s in one of those weird, out of place, sorta hard to get to Brooklyny locations but it’s worth the search. The printed menu is simple and they always have a ton of incredible-sounding specials that the dirty-but-beautiful wait staff explain with great flourish while underscoring the specials by scribbling them down in pen on your paper tablecloth.  Dramatic. I’ve yet to be anything but thrilled with the specials, but perhaps that’s why they’re called “specials.”

Anyway, so I went there last week and ordered 3 brunch meals, though I was only dining with one other person. After assuring the waiter that I could handle that much food (I’m from the Midwest, thank you very much, and I haven’t eaten for 15 hours.) I was served a bowl of warm corn pudding with eggs on top. I couldn’t get over the sweet, creamy corn taste of the pudding and vowed to try it on my own. I think the key to this dish is fresh corn, so make it now before the last of summer’s corn runs out.

I noticed in this Wednesday’s Dining section of the Times a piece on soft boiled eggs for more than brunch. The nerve – eggs for dinner! So I suggest to any of you ovo-eating vegetarians out there to try this pudding topped with soft boiled eggs. I served mine with some bacon-style smoked tempeh strips, though some tofu strips would work well too. The roasted tomatoes added color and a nice acidic accompaniment to the sweet-n-creamy pudding. (I’ll be adding the recipe for the roasted tammys soon.  Update: the recipe for the Roasted tomatoes is here) And do not forgo the garlic toast. Make the toast any which way you like, but it’s imperative for dipping!

Serves: 4 (add a protein of your choice for a main dish)
Time: 45 minutes

Corn Pudding

2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, diced
8 ears of corn
1 ½ cups of half n half
1 cup milk
1 tbsp honey
¾ tsp salt
2 tbsp flour, cornmeal, or masa harina

Heat the butter in a large pot and sauté the onion until translucent.

Meanwhile, cut the corn kernels off the ears. Add the kernels to the pot and pour in the half n half and milk, honey, and salt. Cook on low for 20 – 30 minutes.

If you’re like me and are thrilled with the mess you’ve already made when you cut the corn kernels off the cob then get out your handblender and blend away at the corn while it’s still in the pot. Alternately, you can carefully pour ¾ of it in a blender (you want a few kernels to remain whole for texture.)

Put the corn back on the stove and sprinkle in the flour, cornmeal, or masa harina. Cook a few more minutes until thick.

To Serve

Tempeh strips, tofu strips, or soft boiled eggs
Roasted tomatoes (recipe coming soon)
fresh cracked pepper
fresh thyme
garlic toast

Serve hot in small bowls with a sprinkle of black pepper, fresh thyme, a protein of your choice, roasted tomatoes and garlic toasts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Stovetop & Skillet, Summer, Autumn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.