FFwD: Boulevard Raspail Corn on the Cob

Today´s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is “Boulevard Raspail Corn on the Cob”.

Boulevard Raspail is a boulevard in Paris, France, it was named after François-Vincent Raspail (1794–1878), a French chemist, doctor and politician. Dorie apparently frequents the Sunday organic market there when she spends time in her apartment in Paris and during one of her shopping trips came across this recipe for cooking corn on the cob which calls for baking the ears of corn  for about forty minutes in the oven (turn once after twenty minutes) in order to achieve really delicious tasting corn.

Dorie notes in her recipe that “you do not see much corn on the cob in France” – well, the same holds true for Germany, while you can find two ears of corn that have already been chucked and wrapped or even sealed in plastic (mostly already pre-cooked), it is almost impossible to find corn in the husk around here. So the question quickly turned to "how do I solve this predicament" - after begging a farmer, I was proudly carrying a basket with about eight ears of corn home and could get started with this recipe. I certainly did not want to miss another one of the recipes, especially not this one.

While I placed six of my loot of eight on the grill, I prepared the remaining two ears of corn the way Dorie instructs – oven, twenty minutes, turn, another twenty minutes. Done. We liked both versions.

Dorie also mentions that there is more than one way to serve corn and so I decided to have a bit of fun with the baked kernels, cut them off the husk and prepared some summery appetizers for our guests. Love those tiny Weck jars. They are perfect for entertaining.

Appetizer with Boulevard Raspail Corn on the Cob

Ingredients for the Appetizer

• 2 ears of corn in the husk
• a few almonds (skins off) - I used the lovely Spanish Marcona almonds
• some butter
• two tbsp of local honey (organic if possible)
• coarse sea salt (to taste)
• freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
• a few tbsp of Greek Yoghurt (I used about 250 grams)
• fresh dill

Preparation of the Appetizer

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius
2. Place the unhusked ears of corn on the oven rack, roast for 20 minutes, turn, roast for another 20 minutes.
3. Shuck the corn, let cool. Then cut the kernels off the cobs.
4. While the corn is in the oven, heat a cast iron pan, melt the butter, add the honey and the sea salt and stir with a wooden spoon until everything has melted.
5. Add the almonds and boil gently – do not stop stirring and do be careful - this is hot!
6. After a few minutes, the almonds will be nicely coated, carefully place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and let cool. Once cool, coarsely chop and keep some whole.
7. Stir some pepper and salt into the Greek yoghurt (to taste) and drop a spoonful in each Weck glass.
8. Layer with fresh dill, yoghurt, corn kernels, chopped almonds. Serve cool or at room temperature.

While I liked a new way to prepare corn, I am not quite sure that I want to turn on the oven for about 40 minutes in summer to prepare corn this way, but, again, I always love to learn something new and I took the liberty (again) to play around with this recipe a bit. Considering the fact that the appetizers were well-received and the time it took to find a few ears of corn in the husk, I do not think that Dorie would mind.

If you are interested in more Boulevard Raspail Corn on the Cob as it was prepared and interpreted by my fellow members of the French Fridays with Dorie group, please click here.