Kernel of truth: chefs across the U.S. cobble together items made with corn

Nation's Restaurant News, July 26, 2004 by Florence Fabricant

Corn certainly can be on the menu any time. But summer and early fall are the seasons for the best, usually locally grown and freshly picked ears, and also when customers expect corn to be featured. Typical is a straightforward presentation at Tierra Mar in Westhampton, N.Y., where a steamed one-and-one-half-pound lobster with drawn butter comes with corn on the cob and steamed local asparagus.

At Trattoria Carl Anthony in Monroe, Conn., the executive chef and co-owner, Sam DeVellis, now is using corn from the region in several dishes. He chars it in the husks on the grill and then strips the kernels off the cobs and mixes them with Sardinian fregola to serve as an underpinning for slow-roasted Tuscan beef ribs. He also uses the charred corn with seared scallops and sunshine squash. Sweet corn kernels go into two polenta dishes, one with a veal chop and roasted onions, another as a dessert, a polenta upside-down cake with fresh strawberries. "When the corn season is over, these things come off the menu," he says.

DeVellis' charred corn is a tittle less typical than roasted corn, which is showing up in many operations. Kittichai, a new Thai restaurant in New York, has roasted-corn chowder with crab and sweet basil. Benjy's in the Village in Houston also gives roasted corn an Asian accent in gingered-beef salad with Granny Smith apples, roasted corn, jicama and cilantro-lime vinaigrette. The restaurant also serves crunchy chicken that is nut-crusted and comes with marbled, melted onion-potato gratin and a roasted-corn reduction.

Backstreet Cafe in Houston smokes corn to fold into crab cakes with a pool of citrus beurre blanc and combines corn with jicama for a salsa paired with grilled salmon and black bean cake. Like Trattoria Carl Anthony, Backstreet Cafe is not content with just one or two corn dishes. Corn pudding comes with grilled Idaho rainbow trout in a roasted-tomato Champagne sauce.

The Beacon in Sag Harbor, N.Y., is one of many restaurants that use corn in house-made succotash. Its pan-roasted striped bass comes with white beans, shiitake mushrooms, pepperoncini and roasted-corn succotash. Nic's in Los Angeles serves blackened Alaskan halibut with sweet corn succotash and spicy avocado. Pacific East in Amagansett, N.Y., grills Balinese tiger shrimp to plate with sweet corn succotash and burnt orange sauce. And Corbin & Reynolds in Long Beach, N.Y., has come up with macadamia nut-crusted Chilean sea bass with vegetable and shrimp succotash, sauteed spinach, roasted shallots and pine nuts.

White corn puree becomes the sauce for Thai grilled half lobster with mac 'n' cheese croquette and asparagus at Belles East in Southampton, N.Y. At Pinot Blanc in St. Helena, Calif., a sweet corn puree and corn beurre fondue become the sauce for Maine lobster. The restaurant's red-wine-braised rabbit comes with white polenta, sweet corn and oven-roasted tomatoes.

At Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas, Calif., the accoutrements for a peekytoe crab salad are white corn, smoked bacon and tarragon. Mockingbird Bistro in Houston tosses red pepper linguine with roasted chicken, corn, mushrooms, asparagus and Parmigiano.

A thick and creamy corn and lobster bisque is a seasonal soup of the day at Car6 Luxembourg in New York. At Oasis in Sag Harbor, N.Y., seared scallops come on a bed of sweet corn and parsley risotto with a carrot emulsion drizzled around. Norman's in the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Fla., serves barbecued short ribs of beef with summer sweet corn spoon bread, sherry pickled cabbage and Creole mustard sabayon.

Roger's in Miami Beach, Fla., offers an inventive side dish of vanilla creamed corn and also serves its veggie burger made of chickpeas, brown rice, oat bran and herbs with corn salsa. Once corn is pickled into a salsa or relish, it is no longer tied to the seasons. At the Hearthstone Inn in Camden, Maine, Maine crab and shrimp cakes are served with sweet corn relish and Caribbean remoulade weeks before the local corn is ready to be picked.