For years, food magazines have piled up on surfaces everywhere in my house, with their tempting glossy cover photos of each month’s culinary treasure. I subscribed to Bon Appetít in my early 20s, almost before I could afford it, and felt bereft along with about a million other subscribers when Gourmet magazine shut down. Cook’s Illustrated is another favorite, and who doesn’t love Saveur or Food & Wine?
These and other culinary magazines do so many things for cooks: take us on virtual trips to exotic places and make the different cuisines accessible, expand our ideas about what’s good, teach us new tricks and expose use to new kitchen gadgets, and inspire us to elevate our cooking game. They also connect us with recipes that become staples in our kitchen, like this 2005 recipe for Serrano Ham and Corn Pudding that can now be found in Epicurious.
This is truly a fantastic recipe.
I encourage you to try it. Made as written, the dish is spicy comfort food that serves as a terrific side dish. I have served it at Thanksgiving instead of the traditional creamed corn, as a side for barbecue instead of the predictable potato salad or corn, or even as a main dish for a weeknight dinner with a simple salad to complement it. Yum.
You can really kick this recipe around and it still performs for you. Try substituting a different meat (chopped ham, smoked turkey, andouille sausage) or leaving out the meat altogether. You can use a different cheese, such as cheddar or Monterrey jack, substitute cream for the sour cream, corn meal instead of masa, vary the kinds of peppers – everything I’ve tried out of creativity or convenience has worked. I LOVE THIS RECIPE. If I can settle on a single favorite variation that’s different enough, I’ll add it to the Glover Gardens Cookbook.
Leave me a comment if you intend to try your hand at the Serrano Ham and Corn Pudding. I’d love to hear what you think of it.
Commenting on my own post because it’s just sooooo good! We made this dish last night to serve with bone-in pork steaks, and wow! It had been awhile but now we are putting this marvelous corn pudding in the regular rotation.