Corn

I love learning new things every time I eat a dish or step into a kitchen or take a cooking class. I was thrilled to discover Maite Gomez-Rejón’s program in Los Angeles called ArtBites, which combines art history and the culinary arts in classes that begin with viewing a collection at a local museum and end in the kitchen. I took a class called “Dining in the Aztec Empire,” in which Maite taught us modern ways to use ingredients that would have been used in what is now central Mexico during the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. I learned this recipe, which uses the ancient ingredients corn and squash, in that wonderful class.

I’m crazy about the deep nuttiness of fregola (Italian couscous) and I’m always looking for new ways to show it off. When cooked in the style of a risotto, fregola gets really creamy and is a change from typical Arborio rice. Fresh corn turns this creamy risotto into summer goodness. The familiar flavors are boosted by the addition of shrimp and a topping of creamy melted leeks, which also makes a fabulous side dish on its own.

Elote—roasted corn on the cob spiked with salty cheese, creamy mayo, lime, and chile powder—is traditional Mexican street food, slightly exotic but homey enough to anyone who has scarfed roast corn at a state fair. It’s also solid party food: guests can garnish their own, and because the pulled-down husk is used as a handle, it can easily be eaten standing up. Cotija cheese, widely available in supermarkets and Mexican tiendas, is a crumbly aged cow’s-milk cheese, weirdly similar to both feta and Parmesan, and either can be substituted here.

These are good as a savory side or drizzled with honey or sorghum for breakfast.

The amount of crab and shrimp you need will depend on appetites and on how well your guests know each other. When you serve crabs in mixed company, even dear friends will shock you with their daintiness, but if it’s a family dinner, as ours is tonight, you might expect people to put away eight or ten crabs apiece. If crabs aren’t available, a seafood boil is equally delicious with just shrimp, especially if they are wild ones, still fresh enough to have their heads on.

If there is one food that can eclipse even the barbecuing tradition of chicken in the South, it’s corn. We eat it creamed; in succotash, corn pudding, and cornbread; and of course straight up as buttery corn on the cob. As a side dish for smoky grilled chicken, slightly charred grilled corn is perfection. Corn husk skewers update the old standby; by adding zucchini or other vegetables such as eggplant, a unique vegetable medley is born. Grilling the veggies together in the husks keeps them from burning, steams them soft, and traps the natural moisture within the cob. Imagine your guests’ surprise, when the husks are peeled back and instead of a corn cob this grilled vegetable combination is revealed.

Memphis in May is a barbecue competition that takes place the third weekend of May at Tom Lee Park on the Mississippi River. It is the largest pork cookoff in the world and is often called “The Super Bowl of Swine.” The Big Bob Gibson Competition Cooking Team has attended this contest since 1997 and to date we have never finished out of the top ten. We’ve won the pork shoulder category six times, won first place in sauce three times, and won the Grand Championship twice. But it is not our success in the competition that stirs the fondest memories of this event; it is the time spent with friends and family while enjoying the relaxing atmosphere. It is a tradition for us to put on a big feed the Friday night before the most serious part of the competition begins. Our menu changes year to year but almost always includes pork tenderloin, bean salad, homemade pies, and this stacked cornbread vegetable salsa salad. I am not sure where this recipe originally came from, but my mother-in-law, Carolyn McLemore, and her friend Joyce Terry always treat us to a big batch at this annual event. It’s good and it goes really well with smoked pork tenderloin.

Spruce up your favorite homemade or store-bought salsa.

Mildly spicy, really homey, and satisfying. We’d like to acknowledge our friend Anne Kenney for the idea for this recipe.

This chunky soup is a satisfying supper in one bowl.

A beautiful-looking meal with a multitude of colors, flavors, and textures just right for hot weather and as a festive cold-weather treat as well.

Any rice is fine for this dish, but Lemongrass Rice (page 181) makes it particularly flavorful. We especially like this technique for cooking eggs for fried rice.

I’ve always considered corn a borderline fruit, so why not incorporate it into the pastry menu? Here I pair it with buttery Madeleine Sponge Cake, my adaptation of the classic seashell cake, with a shatteringly crisp sugar crust. And I pile on the garnishes: kettle corn and freeze-dried corn bring their own special crunch to the dessert, and they’re easy because you can find them readymade in good grocery stores. I use plastic tubes that I’ve had cut to my specifications when I make this panna cotta at the restaurant. You can, too, if you have access to a plastic supply shop; the tubes I use have a 1-inch diameter, and they’re 18 inches long. But you can also make the panna cotta in cannoli forms or muffin tins (see Make It Simpler).