Do you watch Master Chef? It's on Fox on Monday and Tuesday evenings. It's a cooking competition between home cooks. These folks haven't worked in restaurants or been chef's anywhere. So it's more relateable. Well sort of relateable. I doubt I'll ever be able to butcher anything and those guys can. Last week they had a challenge of making a desert using corn. One of the contestants made corn milk and then used that to make a corn shortcake. I had it stuck in my head all week and eventually looked up what I thought would be a long, messy task in the kitchen.
Google "Corn Milk"
Reading, reading...
Oh, it's just cooked corn off the cob and a cup of water, blended and strained? Welp...
Yeah thats really all it is.
Corn Milk
- 1 large ear of corn (or 2 smaller ears, about a cup of corn if you're using canned corn)
- 1 cup of water
Blend corn and water together and strain liquid through a fine sieve. If you want it thicker, perhaps to replace whole milk or cream, add more corn.
Here's a few facts about using corn milk. It's a great milk substitute. It can be used in both sweet and savory dishes. But don't use it in hopes of saving calories. It has the same amount of calories, cup to cup, as 2% milk. However, it has less fat. It does have sugar, but it's natural sugar. And, my favorite part is this - you know where it's coming from. You know you don't have to worry about hormones or poor conditions for animals (I mean you still have to worry about those). Corn is easy to find locally in most places within the US. Support your local farmers and make you some corn milk! (Or get your cows milk from local farmers - that's a really good thing too.)
Moving on to a yeasted corn bread, perfect for sandwiches. It's a tasty way to shake up the regular sandwich. It's a little on the sweet side so I paired it with spicy additions like black bean hummus with jalapenos and grilled turkey coated in some Emril seasoning. Balance, baby. Balance.
Sweet Corn Yeast Bread
- 1 pkg active dry yeast
- 3/4 cup warm corn milk (test warmth on your wrist. You can use water or regular milk if you prefer.)
- 1 tblsp honey
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tblsp olive oil
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
In a bowl, mix milk and yeast a few times with a wooden spoon and let sit for about 5 minutes. Stir in honey, salt, and cornmeal. Start adding flour, 1/4 of a cup at a time, and mix in well. Continue to add flour until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and starts to form a ball. Dust a cutting board with flour and knead dough until its smooth and elastic, adding any remaining flour to fight off stickiness.
Place dough in a oiled bowl, roll around in the bowl to coat, and cover with a towel and place in warm place for about an hour, or until dough has doubled.
Once dough has risen, knead dough for a few turns and then form into a loaf. Place on a baking sheet, cover with a towel, and let rise for another 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. When bread has finished rising, bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool before slicing.
Now let's make a sammich.
As I mentioned, I made my sandwich with spicy black bean hummus, turkey, avocado, and tomato. I liked the heat mixed with the sweet. But you could try this with anything. You could even make a breakfast sandwich with it, using a fried egg or just some jam!
But if you wanna make it like I did, here's my recipe (well it's really dad's recipe) for black bean hummus.
Spicy Black Bean Hummus
- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 4 or 5 slices of jalapeno
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tblsp olive oil
Pulse all of the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Store in an air tight container.
You can use that hummus as a condiment or just eat it as a dip with chips or on a tortilla all rolled up!
And just in case you were wondering, I did end up copying Master Chef and making shortcake using this recipe, but replacing milk with the corn milk I made. And it was too good to even talk about.
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