Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook! Glad you’re here!
It’s that time of year when you can’t walk down the street without tripping over piles of fresh, sweet corn, still warm from the farmer’s sun-drenched field. Corn is a super, summertime treat that makes my mouth water just thinking about.
There are lots of different kinds of corn and it comes in all sorts of different colors from red to purple, to blue to yellow or pale yellow.
By far and away, the most common type of corn grown in the US is “Dent” or “Field” corn–and the US grows a lot of it–and I mean a LOT of it. The US grows about 1/3 of the world’s corn. It’s largely grown right through the middle of the country and used mostly for feed, ethanol, corn syrup and corn starch. Although I looked, I couldn’t confirm that this is the same type of corn used to make the corn starch “plastic” we see in doggy or food waste bags. If you know, leave a comment. Field corn is left in the field and harvested when it is mature and dry.
Field corn, however, is not the kind of corn we think of when the weather gets hot and folks start to fire up their backyard bar-b-ques. That crown belongs to “Sweet” corn. Sweet corn is harvested when the weather is hot and the corn in the field is still immature and full of juicy, sweet corn “milk” that bursts out when you bite into it.
Sweet corn, at least the sweet corn that we see at our markets most often, comes in three basic types: white, yellow and bi-color. I grew up with yellow corn, which has more of a true “corn” flavor than does the white corn; Mr. Stone Soup grew up with white corn, which is very sweet. But my hands-down favorite is the bi-color, which combines the sticky, hot summer sweetness of the white corn with the corny-goodness of the yellow corn for a more multi-dimensional mouthful of sweet, rich, tender summertime-in-a-bite.
Another common type of corn is “Flint” corn, which sports brightly-colored kernels and is most commonly seen at markets in the fall. Its kernels have a hard exterior shell, and it is frequently used for decorative purposes; but Flint corn is also an important food source, as it is used to make cornmeal, polenta, masa and grits, which are all important ingredients to many diets around the world.
Popcorn is another common type–its kernels have a very hard external shell and a small, starchy interior, which expands when exposed to heat and “pops” out of the exterior shell to produce the ubiquitous movie-theater treat.
Corn kind of gets a bad rap because of its sugar content. While its probably not a great choice if you’re observing a low-sugar diet, corn is actually very good for you.
Corn is high in manganese, potassium, phosphorus, B-vitamins and is naturally gluten-free. It also actually has a lot of protein, though of the “incomplete” kind. This means that it’s missing some of the essential amino acids to make it a “complete protein.” However, when eaten with the right combination of legumes, or other foods, can become a complete protein.
So what’s the right combination of foods? Well, it can be a lot of things, actually, such as corn and cauliflower, corn and watermelon and even corn and mangoes. Corn is shy on lysine, so what you’re looking for is a food that boosts that particular amino acid to complete the protein chain.
Probably the easiest food pairing that completes corn’s protein is also one of the most traditional pairings: corn and beans, or corn and lentils. The peas and beans that have the highest lysine content are lentils, white beans, split peas, red kidney beans, pinto beans and black beans. So, corn tortillas with beans is a complete protein. Cornbread and a bowl of beans is a complete protein. Lentil soup with corn is a complete protein–you get the picture.
So, to kick off corn week, I am sharing my recipe for cornbread and my recipe for a pot of beans:
Tune in tomorrow when I’ll share my recipe for sautéed corn, which is a great way to enjoy the backyard bbq corn experience without the hassle of eating it off the cob.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
