Creamed KoRn

I’m not going to lie to you. I never made creamed corn before I started making shepherd’s pie. I never had any ambition to make it. I never had it growing up. My grandmother used to make a thousand things but never once do I recall her making creamed corn. When I made it the first time, my wife had to correct me on how it was supposed to taste!

Fast forward to today and I’m still not a master creamed corn maker, but I’m alright. I’d like to give you more deep insight on where creamed corn came from, who made it, maybe some sort of crazy fun fact that would make it a million times cooler, but I don’t have anything and I don't want to lie to you. I really hope the creamed corn communities and lovers out there can find it in their hearts to forgive me for looking like I don’t care about their side of choice. Hopefully they’ll stop cursing me after they see what I have to offer.

On second though, I do have a little corn related story!

A long time ago, when my wife and I used to go to concerts regularly (by regularly, I mean like 4 or 5 a year), something we'll always remember happened...

We were in the line waiting for the doors to the KoRn show to open. The venue was the Hard Rock in Orlando, so it was in the middle of Universal City Walk where all sorts of people, mainly families, were walking from park to park. So we're in this line, more than likely wearing black along with everyone else because you know, KoRn. And this older mother and her younger son stop, tap me on the shoulder and ask me in a mild southern accent, no less:

"Excuse me, but what is this line for?"

"...It's for KoRn."

"Corn? ... *looks up and down the line full of gothic kids dressed in black, with piercings and guys with eyeliner* ... "Why are all these people in such a long line for corn?!"

                                           "Haha.. No, it's a rock band called KoRn. We're here for a concert."

"Oh... Ok." ... *walks away explaining to son that it's not corn-corn*

And there's my KoRn story for my creamed corn post. I don't know about you, but it's still funny to us!

Creamed Corn:

1 can ~ Corn Kernels
2 tablespoons ~ Butter
3 tablespoons ~ Sugar
1 teaspoon ~ Rosemary
a pinch ~ Salt
½ teaspoon ~ Pepper
2 tablespoon ~ flour
2 cups ~ Milk

Notes:

• You can use canned, frozen or even fresh corn if you like. Whatever you have, whatever’s easier.
• Like I said, I don’t know creamed corn. So I don’t know if putting rosemary in it is some sort of slap in the face to creamed corn purists. If so, my bad.
• I’d rather use heavy cream but all I had was milk. If you have heavy cream, omit the flour and just let it reduce on it’s own to get thick.

Let’s get to creamin’:

• To make it easy, just put the corn, butter, sugar, rosemary, salt and pepper in a pan and turn it on medium heat.

• About a minute or two after the butter melts, add the flour to make the roux. Let it cook about another minute or two.

• Add the milk and stir or whisk until you feel like the roux has been incorporated. At this point, if you have the time you can sit there and constantly stir for about 20 minutes or you can be impatient like I was and turn up the heat a bit and constantly stir for about 10 minutes.

When you’re using a roux, whatever you’re trying to thicken won’t be fully thickened until it’s been simmering for a good 10-20 minutes. You need time for all the flour to absorb the liquid and create a creamy product.

• So after 10 minutes of stirring almost constantly, it should be as thick as it’s going to get. Give it a taste and fix whatever seasonings you want to fix. Little more pepper, maybe some more sugar, it’s up to you.

And that’s that. Creamed corn. It sounds like I’m downplaying it, but when I make it I always tell myself I have to make it more often. It’s creamy, tasty, and easy. Hope you like!