Comments on: Shrimp & Corn Chowder with Roasted Tomato & Manchego Toasts

By: dhanggit

dhanggit — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 08:41:47 +0000

Great take on the corn chowder soup would a bit dash of saffron on mine :-) I love the shot of the cherry tomatoes on the last I could taste it from here!

By: ami

ami — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:36:27 +0000

Well said MM. I found it surprising that somebody came up with such an absurd (to me) idea in the first place and somebody in Congress is actually taking it seriously.

By: betty q.

betty q. — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 06:54:10 +0000

Corn 101…besides the sticky sap, MM, the silk at the tip ….best if it is really dark brown and the tip of the cob …feels full which means the kernels are nice and plump and not anemic!

Next time you come over, MM, let us know a year in advance so I can plant corn…MIRAI! …the second best corn ever (again in my book!). Best eaten right at the field after plucking it from the stalk. I gave some to my neighbour at the Community garden last year after he saw me eating a cob within minutes of harvesting it! He said he never tried to eat it raw…now he is hooked and planted MIrai in his plot this year after I bought the seeds for him!

Millet, yup, the kernels pass thru your juicer…baka mabungi your juicer if you pass the cobs thru!

You can do the CORN ICE pops too using some condensed milk , corn nectar, buko strips and sweetened azuki beans, etc.

Hey Gejo…did the white Mirai seeds survive?

By: Dianne

Dianne — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 04:39:53 +0000

corn, cheese, cherry tomatoes – my favorites!!! yumyum!

By: ohinuj

ohinuj — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 03:38:34 +0000

Makes me want to go out and by some corn and make chowder. ;)

By: Marketman

Marketman — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 02:06:32 +0000

Millet, yes, I didn’t write it in the post, but I blitz half of the corn to thicken the soup… :)

By: Marketman

Marketman — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 02:01:10 +0000

meekerz, for the most part, I can’t stand many of the “fruit stands” on the way to Tagaytay, for the simple reason that they don’t sell local produce. The most likely local produce are the pineapples, the rootcrops, senorita bananas, coconuts, radishes (near the church), indian mangoes, etc. But the oranges, mangosteens, other fruits are often imported and dropped off from big trucks to most of the roadside vendors. A lot of it comes from Divisoria I am told, and Tagaytay prices are ABSURD. Most of the flowers don’t come from Tagaytay either.

Having said that, there are lots of corn growers in Silang and Laguna. I once bough corn near one of the campuses on the drive up, and I was in the middle of corn fields while they were harvesting it. And it was superb. They also grow it in Laguna. However, it doesn’t surprise me that they import it at other times… Here is a post of corn I bought once that was definitely local. Note the lush fields in back the tractor harvesting. Fresh corn has a sticky sap on the husks where it was cut off from the stalk. The leaves should be incredibly fresh looking, and the “hair” moist. I do ask vendors where the produce is from, and if they can’t come up with a convincing story, I buy something else. :)

Corn is best when cooked within hours of harvesting. An overnight wait already degrades the sweetness of the kernels. When I used to visit my sisters on Long Island in New York for the summer, we used to practically start the pot of water to get to a boil, run out to the nearest suki farmstand and get corn that was on the stalk less than an hour or so before and cook that. It was amongst the best corn I have ever had in my entire lifetime…

By: millet

millet — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:57:46 +0000

his would be a typical dinner for my family too, and we love all kinds of chowder. but because my family prefers thicker chowders, i usually put through the blender part of the corn (or if it’s made with potatoes, some of the potatoes) to thicken the soup a bit. thanks, MM, will definitely try this.

bettyq, you meant kernels, right, not the cobs? so blitz kernels in the juicer, no? just making sure, because it sounds like a great tip (especially the one about freezing the rest – i never thought about that!)

By: meekerz

meekerz — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:31:44 +0000

I like buying fresh ‘just picked from the farm’ fruits and veggies, and I had always assumed that corn being sold on the roads of Tagaytay were from Tagaytay.

On one of my recent trips to Tagaytay, maybe 2-3 weeks ago, I had stopped along the road to buy corn. I asked the Manang if the corn was fresh, and Manang replied “Oo! Bagong dating ito! Kakadating lang itong umaga galing sa Pampanga!”

I have no idea if it was just Manang’s corn, or all the corn along the road. But is corn really grown in Tagaytay? Come to think of it, I mostly see pineapple fields and I don’t recall seeing any corn fields.

By: Marketman

Marketman — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 23:53:18 +0000

PITS, yup, maybe that’s why they are running PHP12-14 a piece these days at the farmstands… ami, definitely a hard thing to implement… and besides, with 80% of the Philippine population not having enough and nutritious things to eat, its a bit bizarre to be focused on “meatless mondays” don’t you think? If we had 50 million less people on the archipelago, we would need so much less food and produce so much less waste or all sorts… I’d much rather everyone focuses on putting the brakes on population growth than on bizarre (to me) things like Meatless Mondays. I would like to take a crack at Spineless Sundays, Twitty Thursdays, Wacky Wednesdays… I jest. :) If half of the folks who eat at fast food restaurants cooked meals at home instead, imagine the thousands and thousands of kilos of non-biodegradable waste that wouldn’t end up in landfills, esteros, rivers, seas, etc.