Creamy Corn with Sugar Snap Peas and Scallions (Page 534)

RECIPE #778

• Date: Sunday, July 6, 2008 -- 8pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: Matty's Apartment
• Fellow Chef: Rachel
• Dining Companions: Matty and Eric
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

In retrospect it is a mystery why I didn't make this recipe earlier. I suppose I was scared off by the title. I read "Creamy Corn" as "Creamed Corn" and every time I glanced at this recipe I had visions of some scary concoction from a can that I wouldn't wish upon anyone. It turns out this recipe is nothing like the creamed corn that scarred me as a child. In fact, this "Creamy Corn" is hardly creamy at all. In that whole big vat of veggies that you see before you there was only a quarter of a cup of cream. This recipe was very simple. We cooked scallions in the cream until the cream thickened a bit and then added blanched sugar snap peas and corn. Then we just seasoned and served. It was simple but delicious. This was a perfect summertime vegetable dish. The wonderful freshness of the corn was complemented beautifully by the sugar snap peas and scallions. The small amount of cream gave it just the right touch of richness. I love this kind of dish -- simply prepared vegetables in a little bit of fat. This was an excellent variation on that theme. Yum!

Here is the recipe.

My special gentleman and I went out to dinner tonight at the restaurant where we had our first date, nearly two years ago. It's a Korean barbecue place. Although we both like it a lot, we don't go there so often. In fact this may only be the second or third time we have been back since that first date. The details of that first "date" are a source of dispute. Matty claims that I asked him out, which is true in the sense that I did suggest we go to dinner, but false in that I hadn't intended for it to be a date. In fact, I was casually dating someone else. Matty had just moved to town and we met in the math department common room. We had a little chat and found out that we lived in the same neighborhood. So I suggested we hang out -- it was meant to be friendly, not romantic. The evening clearly evolved into a date though, and Matty claims that was my secret plan all along. Luckily, in this age of email, I have it all in my archives. So here is the "date" invite. Feel free to vote on whether my email suggests "date" (as Matty claims) or "hanging out as friends" (which was how I intended it!).

Hi Matt-

Hopefully this is the Matt who faints and falls down stairs in Paris, otherwise whoever I am writing to is probably horribly confused. This is the Teena who can't do a pull-up. :)

Since we're neighbors, I was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner in Inman some night this week. I still haven't tried most of the restaurants, so I thought we could do some joint exploring. Are you free at all?

Teena