Corn Pudding, Kentucky Hot Brown, Malay Apples, and Pesto Pasta with Summer Squash

Isn't this a lovely buncha Malay Apples?  Read about them below...

Corn Pudding
Southern comfort food, and a great thing to do when the sweet corn comes ripe in the field.  My version uses plain yogurt instead of heavy cream.  You can make this with frozen or even canned corn, but it's really much better with fresh kernals off the cob!

Kernals from 3 ears of Corn -- about 1-1/2 to 2 cups
1/3 cup Red Bell Pepper, diced small
2 Eggs, beaten
1/2 cup plain Yogurt
1/3 cup Sugar
2 Tbsp melted Butter
1/3 cup AP Flour
1/4 cup Yellow Corn Meal
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/8 tsp Salt
optional (smoked paprika dusted on top)

Whisk everything together and pour into a greased 8x8 baking dish. 

Dust with paprika if using.  Bake 45 minutes at 350F until the top is getting a bit brown.

The texture is 'softer' than cornbread.  You can cut corn pudding into squares to serve, or use a large spoon to transfer to your plates.  Serve along side almost anything from ham to chicken -- to my Black Bean Rissoles:

Kentucky Hot Brown
First came the humble ham & cheese sandwich.  Add Welsh Rarebit (Mornay cheese sauce on toast),  and the sandwich is elevated to French cuisine stardom as the Croque Monsieur.  Then along came Fred K. Schmidt, at the Brown Hotel in 1926 Louisville, KY.  Fred added slices of turkey breast inside, and crispy bacon outside, and carried this sandwich to culinary godhood, which he called the Hot Brown!

Although I have made my own Hot Browns at home, I feasted on this example at the Boone Tavern in Berea, KY last weekend during the annual Berea Traditional Dulcemore Gathering which I help host.

Try it yourself:
Slices of turkey breast
Slices of ham
Mornay Sauce (white sauce with cheese) from scratch or a packet
Strips of fried bacon
Toasted thick cut bread like sourdough

Stack it together, pour the hots cheese sauce over, add crispy bacon, and chives and cherry tomatoes for garnish.  Delish!!!

Malay Apples
Remember a couple weeks back when I featured Rose Apples?  This is a related species called the Malay Apple  -- Syzygium malaccense.  These I also found in a local garden.

These are larger and rougher shaped than the Rose Apples, which are growing nearby.  And of course the Malay Apples are mottled red and cream rather than being green,  Not nearly as wonderfully perfumed, either.   When ripe, the outer skin is waxy as you can see at the top of the page.

Inside, the pit of the ripe apple isn't as loose as those on Rose Apples.  The flesh is firm like an apple or pear, and not super juicy.  Very neutral in flavor. 

Here I've stewed 16 chopped apples in a cup or so of water, with 1/8 cup of sugar and a 1/2 tsp of Chinese Five Spice. 

Certainly a "quite nice' and  different dessert fruit, when you can find them in season...

Chickpea Pasta, Pesto and Summer Squash
So here I am trying another brand of non-wheat-flour pasta.  This time it's Banza brand Rotini made from chickpea flour.  The last time I tried somethings similar,  the pasta dissolved into mush.  We'll see...

Banza Non-wheat Rotini 

Basil Pesto to taste

1 Zucchini, sliced into matchsticks
1 Yellow Squash sliced into matchsticks

Mushrooms sliced into matchsticks

1/8 cup diced Red Onion
Olde Thompson Everything Italiantm spice blend to taste

Cook the pasta to package directions.   Drain and rinse.  Meanwhile saute the onion, squash and mushrooms with a dash or two of Everything Italian seasoning.

When the pasta is drained, toss gently with a 3-4 tablespoons of  pesto, plate, and top with the sauteed veggies.

This brand of non-wheat pasta turned out very nice!  The pasta has a bit of nutty taste that went very well with the pesto and sauteed squash.