Paging Doctor Corn Cob....

Drew read today in the Wall Street Journal that a hospital in Iowa recognized a disconnect between the patients they were serving and the predominantly foreign-born medical staff they employed; in short, the doctors at the hospital were having trouble connecting with the patients at the "bedside manner" level, resulting in a sub-par medical experience on both ends.  The hospital is working to solve this by mandating classes taught by two University of Northern Iowa sociologists who educate the doctors on topics covering the University of Iowa Hawkeyes sports teams, Midwestern dialect, and the importance of corn; homework assignments include directives to attend State and county fairs.  Drew often (half) jokes that he would love to go back to the University of Chief Illiniwek for a PhD in sociology, so Carle Hospital, if you're reading, can we strike a deal?!?! 

(Article Here)



So all that talk of Iowa corn is a nice segway into a Thomas Keller recipe we made last weekend while Liz and Drew were home in Champaign:  Creamed Summer Corn.

Liz and Drew started the recipe off right by shucking a dozen ears of fresh "Peaches & Cream" sweet corn straight from the Urbana Farmer's Market.

After the corn was shucked, it got a quick rinse in the sink where Drew took a vegetable brush to it to remove every last silk, a practice that garnered Drew some laughs and weird looks from the Merees.

So in all honesty, the recipe unintentionally got a "Ad Hoc" spin very quickly when Drew began to boil the ears of corn in batches.  According to the real recipe, the corn is not to be pre-boiled, but again, Drew's love of a new spin (read: lack of reading thoroughly) resulted in a new twist.

After cooking the corn in two batches, we let it cool, and Drew began slicing the corn off of the cob.  The real TK recipe starts here & calls for the chef to not only preserve the corn kernels, but also the corn "milk," the white liquid that drains out of the cob.  A quick trick to "milk the cob" is to flip the blade of your knife and run the dull side of the blade along the stripped cob over a bowl.

When all the corn cobs are sliced, melt 3 tablespoons of butter over medium heat before adding the corn, the juice of two limes, and salt & pepper to test.  The real recipe calls to cook the corn over medium-low heat for approx. 15 minutes or until all the liquid has evaporated and the corn is beginning to sizzle.  We cooked our about 5-7 minutes since we had pre-cooked the corn.  After the liquid soaked up into the corn, we added in 3/4 of a cup of heavy whipping cream, salt & pepper to taste, and chili powder to taste to balance the sweetness of the corn. 

Admittedly, this was not the best recipe to put an "Ad Hoc" spin, but the end result was good and well liked by the crowd we had for dinner.  But as I imagine they're teaching the doctors in Iowa, you can't go wrong with good, fresh corn!