Produce
Corn
Also called maize, choclo, sweetcorn
Maize in its fresh, sweet, or giant-kernel forms. Dried field maize is another ingredient — the start of tortillas, not of a buttered cob.
Origin
Mexico and the Andes domesticated maize and built civilisations on it. Most of the world now meets maize as sweetcorn or as an industrial starch.
Flavour
Sweetcorn is sugary and grassy when fresh; the sugars turn to starch within a day of picking. Tinned sweetcorn tastes of the tin and of sugar.
How to use it
Boil or steam sweetcorn briefly in salted water — or char it dry in a hot pan — and serve as a side, or cut the kernels into salsas and corn cheese. For ceviche, choclo is boiled until just tender; sweetcorn is the usual substitute and will be sweeter and softer. Do not drown good corn in a long boil. Dried maize needs nixtamalising or a long cook; it will not become sweetcorn. If the kernels are starchy and dull, hide them in a soup.
Storage
Sweetcorn: fridge, husk on if possible, and eat soon. Drain tins and taste before they go into a salad.
Recipes using it
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