CORN COBS
Level 2
Corn Stock for Steaming Fish
from John Chiakulas of Lettuce Entertain You, Chicago
Here's a classic cooking lesson: broths made with veggies impart such intense flavors to cooking water, they're sure to break your bouillon cube habit. Here a neutral-colored broth from corn holds its own against the boldest borscht or tomato-tinted soup stock.
Finding bouillon cubes too salty and canned stocks too bland, John enhances whatever stock he's using with corn water from corn cobs. "Wherever you'd normally use chicken stock," says John, "consider the natural sweetness of corn." John cuts the kernels off the cob, saving them for the stock at the last minute as a way to retain their crisp, al dente texture. Lining the bottom of the pot with corn cobs, he fills the pot with enough water to cover, allowing for the seafood he plans to add to the pot. After the water is brought to a broil, he lowers the flame to a simmer and adds whatever seafood is in season (mussels, clams, scallops, or whole Dungeness crab). The alchemy begins when the denuded cobs start delivering milky plumes of rich corn flavor into the stock - the process takes about 5 minutes. Once the seafood is cooked through, out come the cobs.
