My (new) favourite thing to do with corn

I got the idea, recently, to make a roasted-corn pudding, but wasn’t quite sure of what consistency I wanted. So I just took a stab at it, and it worked very nicely. I don’t know whether it was the consistency that I had in mind, but I liked the result. And that’s what counts, now, isn’t it?

Thaw and drain a pound of frozen corn kernels, or remove the equivalent amount of corn from fresh cobs. Give a fine dice to half of a good-sized onion and ¼ of a sweet red pepper. And chop a decent bit of fresh herbs — thyme, or rosemary, or tarrogon would work nicely, but anything you like is fine. Preheat the oven to 450F. Sautée the onion and pepper in olive oil, with a bit of salt and pepper, until they start to soften, then add the corn and herbs and sautée a little longer.

Transfer the mixture to the oven, and roast it, stirring thoroughly every ten minutes or so, until it starts to brown nicely. Take it out and let it cool a bit. While it’s cooling...

Grate some cheddar cheese — you figure out how much. Beat two eggs and then beat in a cup and a half of milk. Stir the cheese into the corn mixture, then add the egg/milk mixture, and put it into a small crock, a soufflé pan, or some such vessel.

Bake it, uncovered, in the 450F oven for ten minutes. Turn the oven down to 350 and let it bake until it’s nicely set. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for five minutes or so before serving it.