How long to cook The less white corn is cooked, the better the flavor and texture. White corn can be roasted, grilled, blanched, steamed, or pureed. White corn's bright and sweet flavors lend well to pastas and salads. It pairs well with tomatoes, basil, cilantro, lobster, pork, chanterelles, truffles, shelling beans, cream, nutty cheeses, peas, summer squashes, fennel, citrus and scallops. Corn is dried and ground into flour for baked goods, tortillas, cereals and used as a crust/crisping agent for dishes both savory and sweet. Corn is also used for oil, as a sweetener in foods and beverages and as a base for beverage alcohol. | Fruit The fruit of maize is a caryopsis, a dry indehiscent single seeded fruit. The pericarp (ovary wall) and testa (seed coat) are fused to form the fruit wall. Fruit also called kernel or grain and seed. Kernel composed of three main parts – the embryo, endosperm and fruit wall. Each ear contains 200–400 kernels which can be variously colored blackish, bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white and yellow. Both the kernels and milk of white corn are creamy white in color. The kernels have a very high percentage of sugar and water in their composition. When at their prime ripeness (the milking stage) the kernels will be tender, sweet and succulent. As the ear matures the water content decreases, the sugar turns to starch and the kernels become tough with a doughy consistency. | Culinary Uses - Maize grain is the basic staple food for the population in many countries of Latin America and Africa and an important ingredient in the peoples 'diet'.
- Young, immature cobs of the sweet corn type are used as vegetable.
- Very young female inflorescences are savored as a fancy vegetable in stir fries or salad in Western countries and in Asia.
- Raw unripe kernels may also be shaved off the cobs and processed into a variety of cooked dishes, such as maize purée, tamales, pamonhas, curau cakes, ice creams, etc.
- Sweet corn kernels are boiled or steamed and often used as a pizza topping, in salads or garnishes.
- Dried maize kernels are also processed into hominy or nixtamal or by soaking and cooking in an alkali solution usually lime and hulled.
- Maize meal is made into various types of porridge or cooked corn meals in various cultures such as polenta in Italy, angu in Brazil, mamaliga of Romania, meali pap in south Africa, sadza , nshim a and ugali in other parts of Africa.
|