At this point in the summer, gardens are overflowing with eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn and peppers.  It’s hard to come up with new recipes and figure out how what to do with all of summer’s bounty.  When seeking inspiration, I turn to recipes I’ve already made.

Often an adjustment to the technique, such as reducing the active cooking time or changing the method of preparation can have a huge impact.  When we started getting corn and jalapenos every week from our CSA, I realized that my original recipe for Corn and Jalapeno Puree worked just as well with a few less steps.  In this redux, I stopped wasting time waiting for a giant pot of salted water to boil.  With fresh corn available, just grill it.  It really doesn’t need much cooking time.  Plus, you can grill the jalapenos with it and bring out a smoky quality to the dish.

Spicy “Creamed” Corn
Serves 2.

Ingredients
2 ears of corn
1 jalapeno
1 tbsp of butter
1/4 cup of diced onion
1/3 cup of sour cream
Grated parmigiana or pecorino
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat the grill to medium high.  Grill the corn for 5 minutes, turning every couple of minutes.  (Tip: you can leave it in the husk if you want, but you’ll get more flavor if you peel the husk and silk away).  At the same time, grill the jalapeno, turning until charred on all sides.

I was being lazy and didn’t remove the husks.

Next cut the kernels from the cob.

Instead of making this mistake, cut the corn directly into a bowl so it doesn’t go all over the place.

Let the jalapeno cool a little, then seed and chop.  (Because our peppers are from an organic CSA they seem to be extremely hot. One is plenty of heat.)

Melt butter over medium heat in a cast iron pan. Add onion and cook for 1 minute until softened.  Then add corn and jalapeno.  Season with salt and pepper.  Press down so it gets a little crusty, but stir so that nothing burns.  Cook for about 5 minutes or longer depending on how much of a crust you want.  Lower the heat and add in the sour cream and cheese.  (You can omit the sour cream, but if you do, it won’t be “creamed” and you might find that you need it to balance the heat.  You can substitute with Greek yogurt or creme fraiche too.)

Note: If you want a smoother consistency, puree in a food processor or with an immersion blender like I did in the original version.  However, I recommend doubling the recipe, if you intend to do that.

Taste and add more seasoning or cheese if needed.  I served this with Chorizo Stuffed Squid.  This time I grilled the sausage at the same time as the corn, saving another mess in the kitchen.  And since there was plenty of heat in the corn, I went with sweet sausage.  Amazing how little changes can have such a huge impact on a dish.

To drink: A Reisling will work well with the spice.  Try one from the Finger Lakes from Hermann J. Wiemer!