Makai Nu Shaak (Corn Cooked in Milk with Chilies and Coconut)

This months Saveur magazine has a wonderful feature on milk. It spans milk history, different types of milk, and of course includes milk-based recipes that are crying out to be tried.

I tagged a couple recipes right away. Jon Snyder of Il Laboratorio del Gelato in NYC stepped up with an interesting Milk Gelato recipe. For you gelato buffs, he is also the guy who started Ciao Bella Gelato when he was some absurdly young age (like 19 or something), and eventually sold it. I tried the Ciao Bella Malt Ball gelato at the Fancy Food Show last year and it was stunning. Il Laboratorio has been receiving an obscene amount of press and acclaim recently, and I look forward to visiting them next time I am in Manhattan.

As anyone who has been reading this site knows, I've been on a quest for a great authentic gelato recipe, and came pretty close last week with my stracciatella. Jon's recipe caught my attention because he uses a ratio of 1 cup heavy cream to 3 cups whole milk (I've read Sicilian gelato is supposed to omit heavy cream / eggs), and he adds apricot preserves to his mixture, which sounds delicious. We are having a super spicy Thai Curry dinner tomorrow night, so I think I will try his Milk Gelato for a nice cooling dessert.

Onto the recipe of the day, Makai Nu Shaak. Saveur notes this is a variation on creamed corn originating in the Indian state of Gujarat. Ingredients include: fresh corn kernels, milk, ghee, cumin seeds, serrano chilies, ginger, tumeric, grated coconut, and a generous dose of cilantro.

How often do you cook creamed corn? For me the answer is: never. Until now. This recipe sounded (and appeared in the magazine pic) to look delicious, and I was not disappointed. It came together easily, smelled delicious, and provided a nice unexpected flavorful twist to a dish I always thought of as something my grandma might make. The extra flavors and rich texture somehow made this a more contemporary (and healthy!) side dish that I would absolutely make again. I expect it to be a big hit with friends and family.

I started off by combining the corn kernels and milk in a saucepan. I let it sit there and simmer way down while I was chopping the other ingredients. In my big skillet I heated a bit of ghee (which you can now find for a great price at Trader Joe's for you West Coasters), tossed in the chilies, tossed in the corn, added the coconut and cilantro, and that was it. Delicious.

This big lesson I learned from this recipe is not to turn my back on some of the old classics so quickly. With a little international influence, or a new ingredient or two, you really can change the entire perception of a dish.