Corny Sunday

Yep, this post is all about corn.  Corn is everywhere this time of year and it's so economical to stock up.  "Puttin' Up" is something we do in south to preserve the delicious flavors of the summer season.  One of the easier things to put up is corn.  Lucky for us!

We made a trip to the SC State Farmers Market and I scored corn for $4 a dozen.  We bought two dozen and got to work the next day.  I did not refrigerate it.  I recently read that you should cook or eat fresh corn as soon as possible.  The corn can start to loose it's flavor in the fridge.  Since the whole point is to preserve all the fresh flavor possible, that's the route I took.  

I read and Pinned a few articles about freezing corn.  Most all of the recipes call for you to cook the corn on the cob for a few minutes, and then blanch in cold water to stop the cooking process.  I basically did that, but just used cold water instead of ice water.  It's been 100+ degrees here for going on 4 weeks, so the ice we have is for our drinks!  

Then, I used a serrated knife and cut the corn off of the cob.  Don't forget to  run your knife back across the cob after you've cut it to get all the yummy juices out.  Then you add the corn to freezer bags and as my niece and nephew would say- "Da-Ta-Da-Da!" 

Unless you're me and take it a step further.  I saw on one of my favorite shows, A Chef's Life, that she makes corn stock/broth for her restaurant.  It had never crossed my mind.  So all 24 of those empty corn cobs went back into the stock pot of water and loosely followed this recipe from Saveur's website.  I added kosher salt, pepper, a bay leaf and dried thyme. Just make sure you strain the liquid to keep all the little bits of corn or bay leaf out of the final product.

I tasted it and it's definitely milder than chicken stock, but a lot more flavorful than vegetable stock.  If you're new to broth and are interested in an intro, one of my favorite podcast, Real Simple's Things Cooks Know, did an entire episode on broth, which is basically stock in my book.  They say that broth is "having a moment" and is the "it liquid of 2015." 

I'm excited to try something new with the broth.  You can use it as a base for soup, or a substitute for vegetable broth.  I want to try making corn risotto.  Some other great ideas are mentioned in this Garden and Gun article.  

What do you think?  Are you in to homemade stocks/broths?  How do you use them?