Saving Sweet Corn & Skillet Salsa

Do you remember a while back when I shared a photo of the sweet corn truck at our local farmer's market?

If you arrive early enough in the morning, it is piled high with ears, and half the town is waiting in line to buy a dozen for 5 dollars!

How can you tell if the ear is ripe and ready to be cooked?  Just pull back a bit of the husk and check and see if the top most kernels are plump and yellow.

 

Corn is everywhere here- in fact, if we look out our windows at home, we can see it across the street.  I remember running through corn fields as a little kid, feeling like a tiny creature in a land of giants.   Playing with faceless corn-husk dolls.  Riding a fat little pony through a knobbly, harvested field in the fall.  Walking along the edge of a summertime field at night watching the thousands of fire flies float like constellations above the tassels.

 

After we returned from the market, I decided to use two of the ears now and save the rest for later.  The two "now" ears were used to make a delicious "skillet" salsa with some tomatoes from the market and jalapenos from our garden.  Served warm with tortilla chips it was amazing (and totally gluten-free)!

 

As for the other ears, we now have a little stash of sweet corn in the freezer for the fall.  It's pretty easy to slice off the kernels with a good sharp knife.

 

But once the kernels are gone, that doesn't mean that you've gotten all of the corn goodness out of the cob. 

 

Run the dull side of a knife along the cob and be amazed at how much corn pulp it releases.  This is the good stuff with awesome sweet corn flavor!

 

So we packaged it up and tucked it away in the freezer so we can be reminded of fields of lightning bugs when the snow is swirling outside.

 

~Mesydotes