corn is the answer

The next time someone asks, "Do you think all this 'eat what's in season' stuff is bunk?" I will tell them this story: September Corn.

Listen, I grew up in Iowa. Every summer we got the best corn, the freshest corn. Naturally, it was sold off the back of a truck. Not always the same truck, not always in the same place, and not always from the same guy, but there might as well have been a law. You cannot get any better corn anywhere than what some guy in small-town Iowa is selling off in late summer off the back of his truck. As a kid, I ate a lot of it. When anyone asks "How'd you get so smart?" my standard answer is still this: corn.

So I crave it, and I love it, and it says summer to me. Somehow it got to be the third week of September already and it was my first time down at the market in a while and I saw ears of pale yellow corn in bright green husks and I said, Okay, six of those. Then a few stands down, I saw butter-and-sugar corn, and I bought six of those too. At home I husked a couple of each (always a hassle, which is a good reason to have kids) and dropped them in a pot of boiling water, and they came out all gleaming and I buttered and salted and peppered them and took a big bite.

Worst corn I've ever had in my life.

Here's the deal. Corn on the cob should only be eaten in season. That's the time that you give it just the lightest butter-salt-pepper treatment (or, if you're a purist like my dad, butter and salt only) and gnaw it off row after row typewriter-style.

The rest of the year, buy it frozen from Trader Joe's and do this:

 

Corn, jalapenos, and red (or orange, or yellow, but not green) peppers. Dress it with lemon juice and olive oil and maybe a scallion or two. If you want, season it with cumin and coriander and a cubed radish. Try vinegar (red wine) instead of lemon juice, or a shallot instead of a scallion, or add black beans for heft, or spin it however you like. But do not let the corn stand on its own. No good will come of it.

Take it from an Iowa girl. 

Comments

[Kari]

A few years ago, we were living in the South, & I had the hardest time making myself by corn on the cob at the grocery store. We are back in Iowa again, & the way you describe it, that is the ONLY way to buy corn!

[Natalya]

I made this for dinner tonight. Thanks for the inspiration!