Painted mountain corn experimentations..ended up with edible food!

[goodlife]

I had quite good crop of this corn this year..and I was wondering what to do with all the seeds, so I set myself for little food experiment.
I read of different ways of using maize..people all over the world have their traditional recipes and my mind couldn't decide what to do..
SO...with with a bit of ideas that stuck to my little brains from my readings, I set to my task.
First I slightly toasted the seeds in small portions on dry pan...then I put them through grain mill to get slightly coarse corn meal..then I made 'porridge' with the meal (water, milk, salt, butter and heaps of chilli powder) and slow cooked it into thick 'paste'.
I left it cool over night..hoping it to set thicker.
Today I took some of the 'paste' that was still slightly too 'wet' for my liking and mixed it with a bit of flour...dropped spoonfull on frying pan and fried into 'cakes'.
And...'nom, nom'....'hmm'...YUM! I actually made something edible AND nice out of the corn!
Here it is...

[goodlife]

[goodlife]

Oh..and...they were quite 'hot' with the chilli I added...outside nice and crunchy but inside soft and stodgy. Tasted quite nutty and slightly popcorny like.
I still got pan full of the 'porridge' in fridge..so its easy to take small amount at the time from it and add different incredients to it...maybe some chopped nuts, egg and some herbs...more like veggie burgers then..
And I could see me doing these and cooking on barbeque..getting some smokey flavour to them...and eating with freshly made salsa....

I MUST grow MORE, MUCH more of PM corn next year! 

[galina]

That looks a lot better than 'edible'.  Looks really nice and you have mapped out a lot of interesting ways of using your polenta.

Have you ever made Southern Corn Bread?  Very good indeed.  Lots of recipes on google.  They often ask for buttermilk, which I substitute with milk, soured with lemon juice.

Another nice one is to put ground corn flour into pizza dough.  Makes it look yellow (but with Painted mountain corn, it could be any colour)

Happy experimenting.

[GrannieAnnie]

Goodlife, your experiment seems much more reasonable than the one below

http://ecemadeeasy.com/posts/painting-with-indian-corn/

[GrannieAnnie]

oh, and I've read you can pop ornamental corn if it has pointy seeds. Think I'll try that with ours tonight.

I only grew about perhaps 12 stalks of the mini-ear-sized Indian corn which gave enough for a wreath and shocks for the front porch (and some leftover for next year's seed.)

[goodlife]

Goodlife, your experiment seems much more reasonable than the one below

http://ecemadeeasy.com/posts/painting-with-indian-corn/

Ah...such a fun for some...I would fine it waste of good food. But, each to its own...

Have you ever made Southern Corn Bread?

No I haven't..though I've seen recipes and its been in my mind for while now to try to make some..sound very yummy.
When I grounded all different colours together...PMcorn meal turns out to be beige...actually quite 'meaty' brown colour when cooked.
I've read you can pop ornamental corn if it has pointy seeds. Think I'll try that with ours tonight.

I've read you can pop ornamental corn if it has pointy seeds. Think I'll try that with ours tonight.

Well..how did it turn out?

I had some more 'cakes' this morning for breakkie...this time I chopped little bit of chorizo into mix..egg and some breadcrumbs...OH...now that turned out to be nice start of the day indeed...tummy is very happy and I feel like I'm 'fueled up'...ready to go to work and prune some apple trees in orchard..

[GrannieAnnie]

We found some forgotten cookies I'd stashed and had those instead of popcorn. Will give a report later.

Historical note: we were always told corn was an American food but then I read they found a picture in an Egyptian tomb of a servant carrying a platter of food and on top was what looked like an ear of corn. Guess that blows away our rights to corn.

[goodlife]

Historical note: we were always told corn was an American food but then I read they found a picture in an Egyptian tomb of a servant carrying a platter of food and on top was what looked like an ear of corn. Guess that blows away our rights to corn.

Saying how much common Egyptians and Incas have common with their 'pyramids' and other historical finds...makes you wonder if Egyptians managed to sail over and bring corn with them?...I recall reading something about the Egyptians travels, but can't remember if it was fact or fiction...note to myself to find out about it!
I understood that corn is originate from South America...but American's have taken it into their staple everyday diet and they developed lot of their 'own' dishes from it??

[Jayb]

Yumm those look lovely, well done you 

[goodlife]

Found nice and easy recipe to do with my PMcorn flour ..  http://www.grandmasdesign.com/media.php?state=TR
It looks very simple to do and all the incredients are just 'normal' everyday stuff even the recipe is 'foreign' (Turkish)