Nutty Corn Cakes with dabu-dabu sambal

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Place half the corn, the peanuts, spring onions, ginger, garlic and cumin in a food processor. Mix until finely chopped and a bit mushy.
• Transfer the mixture to a bowl and mix in the egg, rice flour, red peppers and the rest of the corn.
• Head the vegetable oil in a skillet. Once hot, form the corn mixture into patties and fry both sides until golden brown. I had a bit of trouble with this until I hit on the idea of using an egg ring to hold the patties together until they were cooked well enough.

Serve with dabu-dabu or some other spicy sauce.

Barbecued corn on sale in a Chiang Mai stall.

If you travel into the hills around Chiang Mai, you will likely come across some fields of corn, especially during the rainy season from May to September. Like carrots, corn is grown by the Meo villagers who live in the mountains. They are one of many ethic groups commonly referred to as "hill tribes" in the guide books. Most of the corn will be taken down to Chiang Mai and sold in the Muang Mai wholesale market once it is ripe. Some of the corn, especially ears that aren’t quite up to size, will be sold at road side stalls that you will find if you travel through the hills. The sellers will steam the corn without removing the husks and silk. For these simple country folk, "nature’s packaging" is the best. Customers buy a few ears, peel the husks back and eat the corn right off the cob. A half dozen ears may set you back as much as 25 U.S. cents.

While fully ripe sweet corn is popular as a dessert in Thailand, baby corn is what most people think of when you mention Thai food. The small undeveloped whole cobs are used in everything from curries to stir-fries. As most people know, corn is a New World vegetable, so it must have come to Thailand at about the same time as the chili pepper. There is no tradition regarding why Thais began eating baby corn. It is probably simply because the small cobs are crunchy and not too sweet. Whatever the reason, cultivating baby corn is much more labor intensive than growing the corn to maturity. Farmers must remove the tassels from the ears to prevent them from being pollinated.