Corn and Pepper Relish (Preserving Summer Bounty)

Buffet on Table: Bloggers Choice

Day 24: Preserving Summer Bounty - Roasted Confetti Corn

We are reaching the final stretch of this month's nonstop blogging for 'Buffet on Table' and the theme for this week is 'Blogger's Choice'. I thought it was going to be a breeze to come up with a theme and do 3 posts.
I couldn't even decide on the theme until last week. I was flip flopping on few themes, I'm going to jot them down here, so I remember them for later --dinner menu ideas, dhaba recipes and Bengali desserts. Then suddenly I thought of posting recipes for preserving the summer bounty/ harvest.

I planted some tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and chilies in a raised bed garden for the first time this year. I mentioned about my home grown zucchini in this post. Unfortunately after giving me the very large 13" long zucchini, the plant decided to call it a day and die on me :-(

First up is this Roasted confetti Corn. This corn of course is not from my backyard garden, but from the farm I went with Usha, Mir and Nisha couple of weekends ago. This was the very first time I picked corn and it was so much fun. So with the 6 ears of corn and some of my own peppers from the garden that I brought home, I made this roasted confetti corn to be frozen and used enjoyed in many different dishes in the colder months too.

Recipe from Vegetarian Times Magazine:

Ingredients:

Fresh Corn Kernels - 4cups (from about 4~6 medium size corn)
Onions - 2 medium, chopped
Red or green bell peppers, or poblano, banana or hatch or toher sweet to mildly hot chilies
Garlic - 2 cloves, finely minced
Ground Cumin - 1½tsp

Salt & Pepper - to taste

Method:

• Heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add the corn and cook for 4~6 minutes or until they turn dark brown in places and begin to smell 'roasted', stirring often.
• Add the onions and peppers, and cook for 4~5 minutes or until the veggies soften.
• Stir in the garlic, cumin and 1cup of water, season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 8~10 minutes or until all of the liquid evaporated and corn begins to brown again. Remove from heat and cool completely. 

How to Freeze:

Once completely cooled, spoon the mixture into resealable freezer bags or freezer jars. Make sure to leave room for expansion. Remove the excess air from the freezer bags, if using, by laying them flat and squeezing out. Label bags or jars. Stack the bags flat for an efficient storage.

Thaw and Use:

Defrost the food in the bags or jars before using.

Ideas for using this Roasted Confetti Corn:

• Stir into prepared salsa.
• Add to recipes in place of fresh or frozen corn.
• Stir into cooked white or brown rice.
• Use in quiche or quesadilla filling.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 56.

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