Sweet-ass Succotash

Back during the Great Depression food mostly came out of a can. A tinny version of Succotash using canned corn was choked down so regularly it coined the catchphrase “Suffering Succotash”. Nowadays with an abundance of fresh food we no longer need to suffer any boring fodder and we can enjoy virtually limitless variety. This pasta is so expletifly good that it may soon spur a new explurge “Sweet-ass Succotash!”

Pass that Succotash Pasta, sucka!

200g small shell pasta or orecchietti (little ears)

2 corn cobs

4 slices bacon, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 cup of white wine

½ cup fresh or frozen broad beans (fava, lima or edamame), shucked

1 cup sour cream

3 sprigs chives, finely chopped

good pinch of salt

nice crack of pepper

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

PROCEDURE

Bring a large pot of salty water to a boil. Hold the ear of corn upright on the cutting board. Use your chef knife to slice straight down the sides of the corn to trim off all the corn kernels. They will be popping around like popcorn so be careful about the bouncing kernels. After you trim off all the kernels remove all the corn milk by using the dull side of your knife to scrape down the length of the cob. The chunky milky stuff that comes out is the corn milk, or corn cream. Cook the bacon in a frying pan over medium high heat until crispy. Remove crispy bacon with a slotted spoon so the fat stays in a pan and set aside. Keep the pan off the heat until the pasta water is boiling. Dump the pasta in the boiling salty water. It should take 8 minutes to cook the pasta, so set a timer. Get the pan with the bacon fat back on the stove over high heat and toss in the red pepper, cook until soft, 3 minutes. To the red peppers, add the white wine, all the corn and broad beans. Bring it all to a rapid boil and let it bubble while the pasta cooks. Drain the cooked pasta in a colander and immediately dump it back into the same large pot. Pour the corn sauce and all into the pot. Add the sour cream, a good pinch of salt, a crack of fresh pepper and the blue cheese. Stir it all around so it is nice and smooth. Serve it up all steamy hot and garnish with chives and crispy bacon. gets along with bacon, broad beans, butter, chives, crab, cream, hot sauce, pepper, prawns, salt, sausages, scallops, squash, sweet peppers. fresh pick Pick corn that is tightly wrapped in fresh green husk, not dry and crumbly husk. Watch out for mold around the silk (stringy bits). The sugars will start to convert to starch within a few hours, so get as freshly picked as you can get for maximum sweetness, or better yet pick your own. Cook corn the day you buy it since the sugars are turning to starch by the hour and tomorrow you might have chalky cattle feed. Finding organic corn is just shy of impossible but you can at least get it fresh and local. Quickeat Here is the best way to make proper creamed corn. Hold the corn vertically on the cutting board and slice straight down with a chef knife to cut off all the kernels. Then using the dull side of your knife scrape out all the corn milk. Place it in a blender and fill it half way up the kernels with milk. Blend until very smooth… then blend for 3 more minutes. The mix should resemble a smooth milkshake add more milk if it’s too chunky. Pour into a small pan, bring to a light boil over medium heat, stirring evenly and cook over medium until it reaches desired thickness, season well with salt and stir in a little butter for old-time-sakes. For a little heart-tugging and good cooking check out Clara’s Great Depression Cooking. tidbit Go to the grocery store and nearly everything has been touched by genetically-modified corn either as feed for the animals we eat, food colouring, corn oil, industrial packaging or the dreaded hyper-refined corn syrup which sneaks added calories and sweetness into most processed foods.