Maize Gelée

Corn agar-agar, korn kanten, maize gelée, creamy yellow jello… What was I thinking?

Tomatoes have always been my highlight of summer, but suddenly I am attracted to corn. My mother-in-law loved fresh corn. The first time I went up north with her, to the place on Lake Huron, we stopped at a vegetable stand just so we could have fresh corn for dinner. That was before the house was built and we were tenting. But there was corn for dinner. In later years, she found the “best corn farm in Cheboygan County” and we’d drive miles and miles just to buy fresh corn.

I was thinking about creamy corn soup, but cold, so the idea of a savory corn gelatin came to mind. It’s pretty, but it surprised me how sweet it was! Mr. Tess thought I should have made it a dessert with the addition of vanilla. Read my ideas for experimenting with this recipe at the end of this post.

4 half-cup servings

• 16 ounce package frozen corn
  (I just couldn’t bring myself to experiment with the beautiful fresh corn!)
• 1/2 cup dashi
• 1 Tablespoon usukuchi shoyu (light colored soy sauce)
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper
• 1 tube powdered kanten
• Grated Parmesan Cheese for serving

• Process the corn in a food processor until it looks smooth. I think it would be faster if you at least partially thaw the corn, but I wanted to get started…
• Press the corn through a wire sieve to remove the skins. Use a silicon bowl scraper and be patient. I wonder if a juicer would work to get corn juice? Use 1 1/2 cups mashed corn.
• Cook the corn and dashi just below a simmer for about 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for about 3 minutes until the kanten powder dissolves.
• Pour into prepared molds. Chill. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Perhaps I’ll have time to experiment with this recipe. Thoughts: use less corn and more dashi, soy sauce, and hot pepper? add some miso? red miso or Saikyo miso? use cream, or cream cheese, or yogurt? Or go with the dessert idea and use vanilla?

Other Kanten (Agar-Agar) Recipes from Tess

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