Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook! So glad you’re here!
First things first–please check out my new feature on the side bar “What’s Cooking in My California Kitchen Tonight?” Today, I’m featuring grilled spatchcocked chicken, hasselback potatoes, grilled asparagus and cherry cobbler. In the post, you’ll find a list of ingredients and links to all the recipes for a great menu for your dinner tonight!
And now on to the main event:
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. 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. 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.
This week, I’m continuing my dive into grilled foods and today, I’m featuring grilled corn on the cob. This method of cooking up this summertime treat couldn’t be easier!
Corn kind of gets a bad rap because of its sugar content. While it’s 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 proteins, 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.
Fortunately, grilled corn on the cob will play well with all sorts of different grilled proteins, such as steak, chicken and pork, which are all good sources of lysine, so this is a win-win in my book–great summertime flavors and pairings that complete the protein chain.
If you’re a vegetarian, beans or peas, such as pinto beans, black beans or lentils are also high in lysine and will complete that protein chain.
Tune in on Friday when I’m going to feature fresh corn salsa salad–
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
