Purple Corn, Why Not?

Corn is such a basic cornerstone food, cultivated by indigenous people in North and South America and treated with such reverence in some cultures that it’s almost holy.

Then again, corn today has a terrible rap. It’s considered one of the mass produced, government-subsidized crops that is destroying the small farmer in America and threatening our country’s bio-diversity. For such a simple thing, an ear of corn carries a lot of baggage.

The kind that we eat grilled in the summer is a sugar-rich variety known as 'sweet corn,' while 'field corn' varieties are grown for animal feed, chemical feedstocks, biofuel, you name it. They both look like corn as we are used to seeing it, white or yellow with fat juicy kernels but probably a lot different than the varieties grown in meso-america in prehistoric times. Those were all variety of colors from blackish, to bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white and yellow.

I ate recently at Yankee Pier in Larkspur and had an amazing little side salad made of what looked like purple corn. It was like the usual white corn but the edges were tinged with purple. I'd never seen it beforte and asked the waitress where they found this type of corn. She said that the chef "knew a guy."

I decided to dig a little deeper and asked Doug Canepa, farmer and co-owner of the Mill Valley Market.

"The corn you saw was probably red corn," he said. "We have a little bit for sale right now. Red corn is sweet and nice. It is very hard to find with a short season. We had been looking for it and we were surprised we found it."

Kara Mibach, general manager at Balboa Cafe Mill Valley and a native of Arizona, said that she grew up eating corn of all kinds of colors and variety. Balboa Cafe chef Rick Edge is trying to get his hands on some red corn as well.

"Corn is definitely one of my favorite things about summertime produce," said Edge. "At home I typically like to grill the corn on the barbecue with the husks on and then we rub roasted garlic and butter on it and sprinkle it with grated parmesan cheese. Or just simply grilled and finished with butter, salt and pepper. As far as the heirloom varieties and why we don't see them that much, I really don't know what to tell you. My guess is that like most other vegetables these days, people (and chefs) are just now finding out about them."

Chef Edge also makes a mean cheese corn gratin side dish that's on the menu right now.

Now that the corn stalks are tall and heavy with fat ears, the is finally stocked with fresh sweet corn - though I haven't seen any purple, er, red corn. And there are so many ways to eat it. I like mine with butter, lime, chili powder and a little parmesan cheese, hot off the grill. 

Grilling is one of the easiest ways to cook corn. The heat carmelizes the sugars, giving it a more intense flavor than boiling. Then just snack it right off the cob. Or cut the kernels off the cob and create a spicy, fresh corn salad like I did in this recipe below.

Spicy Corn Salad with Lime

Ingredients:

• 10 ears of corn, grilled kernels sliced off cob
• 1 basket sweet cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1 finely diced jalapeno pepper
• Juice of 2 limes
• 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Grill corn and cut kernels off cob, cool. Slice cherry tomatoes in half. Combine corn, cherry tomatoes, chopped cilantro, chopped red onion and jalapeno pepper in a large bowl. Mix lime juice, vinegar, oil and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Toss into the salad. Serves 4.