I heart eggs and corn

Do you heart eggs and corn? I think they are a match made in deliciousness heaven.

Let’s just start this post by admiring my beautiful thick-whited deeply yellow-yolked eggs. Those are no ordinary eggs, my friends.

This is something I’ve been wanting for months and finally got!

 

Farmer’s market free-range eggs! In a cute purple box! Whoo!

Obviously the egg is incredible and edible and you really don’t have to do anything super fancy with it. I’ve had my share of these guys just scrambled, hard-cooked, etc.

However. This month’s issue of Eating Well was exceptionally fantastic (actually, Eating Well in general is kind of amazing. I got it for free with expired airline miles but am going to renew it because I love it THAT MUCH) and included multiple recipes with one of my favorite combos: corn and eggs! My culinary arts teacher in high school was from Puerto Rico and she turned us on to corn omelets and it’s kind of just been an ongoing love affair for me since.

I saw the recipe for Corn and Basil Cakes and went yesssssss. Are we surprised? This is apparently the month I make recipes ending in “cakes” and “patties”.

They were a hot mess in the pan, but unlike some of my recipe *issues*, this was entirely due to human error. Arguing with one’s sister and putting down pancakes should not be done simultaneously.

But, in fact, they flipped GORGEOUSLY. They get an A+ in terms of flippability (especially since I definitely forgot to oil the pan, eesh! Thank God for nonstick).

On the flippability scale, these get an A+, the sesame carrot patties get an A, the zucchini pancakes get a B, the mushroom pecan burgers get a C, and the cod cakes, which were probably messy due to my own poor decision to use salt cod, get a D-.

Anyway, the finished cakes were marvelous.

Eating them we were trying (and failing) to figure out what the flavor reminded us of, but there is something tremendously nostalgic about the combination of corn and basil.

The flavor and texture were wonderful- light, fluffy, and summery. 

Since the corn cakes were so delicious and fancy I seriously slacked on the accompanying dishes.

The first night we ate them (Sunday) we had ‘em with beans and greens (more fun if said in a twang-licious Southern accent).

 

Beet greens wilted by cooking them in a few tablespoons of boiling water, then combined with the remainder of a can of Bush’s vegetarian baked beans, made more palatable with the addition of apple cider vinegar and a healthy quantity of Texas Pete’s.

Then Monday we had the leftovers with some lazy beet soup. The main ingredient, no duh, was these beets, who were clearly on steroids.

Roasted them and then whirred them up in a blender with the last (hurray!) of my sister’s abandoned V8 and just salt, pepper, a bit of allspice, and a splash of balsamic for seasoning, chilled in the fridge to let the flavors meld.

But wait! This month’s issue of Eating Well contained yet ANOTHER exciting eggs and corn combo I had to make immediately!

I saw the recipe for Tomato-Corn Pie and went yessssss yessssssss!

Just to go through the process a bit, you begin with a whole wheat crust, enriched with olive oil, which means it already smells amazing raw. This was, as they promised, a very “forgiving” crust and easy to work with.

 

Question: have people worked with whole wheat pastry flour before? Is it a worthwhile investment? I didn’t bother and just used regular whole wheat.

Okay so as usual, me cooking anything turned into a whole comedy of errors.

They said to weigh down the crust with pie weights or dried beans. I am not hardcore enough to own pie weights and didn’t want to waste dry beans (once you bake them you can’t eat them). So I poked it with a fork and crossed my fingers.

And, surprise surprise, the un-weighted crust promptly poofed up. So I took it out of the oven hot and put a pan on it, which did not particularly work. Whatever.

 

Aaaaaand then I realized that though I thoroughly scanned the recipe to search for any mention of greasing the pan which it did not call for and thus I did not do, I was supposed to line the whole thing with foil! Oi oi oi.

So removing the pie was a royal pain.

But you know what? It still looked good and tasted good.

I will say that while I have nonstop raves for the other recipe, this one I think of more as a work in progress. I’d like to think of a way to make the tomatoes a bit less wet (perhaps pre baking them on a cookie sheet?) and also the cheddar cheese seemed a bit redundant- I’d either omit it or use a cheese with a more assertive flavor, like goat cheese.

And I wanted more corn!  

But still a good ‘un. Check out the layers!