Corn Pudding

Ruth Reichl’s My Kitchen Year resonates with me like no other book on food and cooking. The concept of kitchen year should be entered into a dictionary with a proper definition as a year of recovery, reset, a year of pulling thoughts and getting acts together — a preparation to move on in a different new way after a dramatic change.

Different people find different ways to move on — intuitively or rationally. My first kitchen year happened in 2009. Long story. There were more. What started intuitively, over time, became rationally justified. When things happen, I go to my kitchen, put on an old movie and pull out an involved recipe. With time, the recipes become less involved, the movies more consuming.

Every time kitchen year hits and I pull My Kitchen Year off the shelf, different recipes come to the forefront.

“And everything old is new again. Pretty pictures…”

Corn pudding, if you have forgotten starchy and mealy “horse corn,” as Ruth calls it, in your refrigerator or, as in my case, lots of fresh cooked corn leftover from a party where a heatwave cut the appetites is a nice boost for the mind and the other five senses. It made a nice light dinner for the heat wave we were going through. The next day, I had if cold form the fridge as my breakfast. Tom had it for lunch tempered to room temperature on his commute to the city.

WHAT WENT IN

— about 5 cups of corn kernels

— 6 Tbsp butter, melted

— 1 cup heavy cream

— 2 Tbsp sugar

— 1/4 cup flour

— 1 tsp salt

— 5 eggs

THE PROCESS

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Ruth starts by simmering cobs that were stripped of their kernels in cream over low heat to infuse it. By the time I found the recipe, my cobs were discarded to the point of no return so I simmered a cup or so of kernels instead. To reduce 1 cup of cream to 1/2-3/4 took me about 15-20 min. Let it cool. If you’re infusing with cobs, obviously, take them out and discard. I did not discard my kernels.

3. Melt the butter in a pan where you’re planning to bake your pudding and swirl it around to coat the pan. I used a deep dish pie pan.

4. In a large bowl, combine corn infused cream, pour in the butter from the baking pan and mix in the rest of the ingredients beating eggs in one at a time.

5. Pour the mixture into the battered pan and bake for about an hour until it turns gold and set.