[RevDahlia]

Dinner tonight consisted of pork chops with peach barbecue sauce, twice-baked potatoes with goat cheese and chives, and bourbon creamed corn. I was in an overachieving mood. I lifted every single recipe from Epicurious and followed them pretty much to the letter -- unusual for me.

The peach BBQ sauce has the potential to be truly sublime, but I'll refrain from posting the recipe until I have it just right. Or maybe I'll keep my version a secret and give everyone jars of it for Christmas.

The bourbon creamed corn was spectacular on its own, and I did tinker with it quite a bit.

Bourbon Creamed Corn

You need:

2 tb butter
4 shallots, chopped fine
1 red bell pepper, chopped fine
About 6 scallions, white and light green parts only, chopped
1 small package frozen corn, or equivalent amount of fresh corn off the cob (if you want to spend 45 minutes chasing corn kernels around, that is -- frozen is fine)
3/4 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup bourbon (I used Jim Beam -- anything fancier would probably be too sweet)
1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in a small amount of cold water

You do:

In smallish saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add shallots and cook for couple of minutes, then add red pepper and about 3/4 of the scallions. Cook until pepper is done. Then add corn. If frozen, cook until it is warmed up and has thrown off all its water; if fresh, saute till tender. In either case, this will take 3-5 minutes.

Add half the half-and-half (that felt weird to type) and the bourbon. Gently simmer until the booze has become less boozy, oh, about 6 minutes or so. Add the rest of the half-and-half and simmer awhile longer, probably five minutes. Add S&P to taste. (This will take quite a bit of salt.) Red pepper flakes are good, too. Then, when flavors have had a chance to blend, throw in the cornstarch-and-water and cook until everything has seized up nicely. Garnish with the rest of the scallions. Parsley would be nice in addition. There you go.

This is surprisingly good. It would be delicious with ribs or chicken as well as pork chops; it also screams "baffling-but-tasty pot-luck dish" to me. And it's easy! Score.

(You also get to work on the rest of the bourbon while you're cooking. *hic*)