What is the baby corn in chinese food

The truth about baby corn

Gourmet

Published November 27, 2016 3:34pm EST

By | Fox News

Baby corn is ubiquitous in Chinese takeout, but have you ever stopped to think about what it actually is and where it comes from?

Is it a genetically modified ear of corn? An immature ear of corn? Some other maize-like vegetable that's been shrunk by culinary aliens?

Unlike baby carrots, which are whittled down to size by man or machine, baby corn is just an ear of corn before it's grown large, picked in late spring or early summer, before the stalk is fully grown. It’s tender and easy to cook-- but it hasn’t hit the mainstream because it’s burdensome to harvest.

Baby corn is harvested, usually by hand, as soon as the corn silk begins peeking out. Thailand is the primary producer, but it is also grown in India and Kenya.

“Baby corn has a different texture, more of a snap to it,” says Cara Hermanson, chef at Tarallucci E Vino in New York City, who uses baby corn in her seasonal restaurant specials.

“Canned baby corn is cooked a little bit, so instead of having these layers of slightly sweet and earthy and very vegetal, it tastes like the liquid. It’s crunchy but mushy at the same time. It doesn’t have the snap, the crunch and the life that fresh corn has.”

It’s a fun vegetable. And let’s face it — it’s pretty cute, as far as vegetables go. It's also pretty versatile. You can eat it raw or cooked, or you can pop the whole thing, cob and all, into your mouth.

But does it offer the same nutritional value as regular corn? Not really.

“Because it’s only picked a couple days before the corn is mature, there’s not as much time for the minerals and nutrients to become as nutrient dense,” says Los Angeles-based nutritionist Shira Lenchewski.

But it does have an upside. “At the same time, there’s less sugar,” Lenchewski says. “It’s interesting, because there’s less minerals and nutrients, but also less sugar.”

Since fresh baby corn isn’t always available, manufacturers often load it up with salt and preservatives, further negating any potential health benefits.

“Because you really can’t find it anywhere close to here, it winds up being shipped, probably in a plane, and it’s being canned. It’s definitely not healthier than regular corn,” Lenchewski says.

Where Can I Eat It?

Baby corn doesn’t have the cachet of a superfood darling like kale, but it’s cropping up on trendy menus. “People just don’t sell it,” says Simpson Wong, chef at Chomp Chomp in New York. “In middle America there’s so much corn, honestly, I think that they don’t know how to use it.”

Top Chef alum Marcel Vigneron loves baby corn and uses it in a dish playfully called UniCorn Bone Marrow at the LA hotspot Wolf. “I like to use baby vegetables,” Vigneron says, “because they work with tasting menus and small courses, and they have really nice flavor ... and appealing texture. It’s not as sweet and starchy as full grown corn. It’s not super sugary. It’s a little more vegetal.” He also uses it in one of his featured dishes, Corned Beef.

“I made my own pastrami and served it with baby corn,” he said. “It’s a play on words. Corned beef ... get it?”

But for now, it’s found mostly in stir fries, peeking out of your Thai noodles and in some Indian dishes, like baby corn masala. Baby corn doesn’t have a lot of taste, but boasts plenty nooks and crannies for sauces, the same way a pasta like rigatoni is great for picking up meat sauce.

Can I cook it at home?

You can if you can find it, and there’s a good chance you will at an Asian market. If the canned version is all you can find, drain the baby corn and dry it well.

Making a stir-fry is a simple way to incorporate it, but how about tossing a handful into a batch of chowder or salad? Roasting baby corn really brings out its sweet flavor, and it’s a cinch.

You can also enjoy it raw. It’s like snacking on a carrot stick, but much cooler.

What is Young (Baby) Corn? How Do You Cook It?

If you’re a fan of Asian food, you have probably encountered baby corn in stir fries and soups. Baby corn is big in Asia especially in Chinese cooking where it figures prominently.

What is young a.k.a. baby corn?

Should we take its name literally to mean that the corn ears are plucked before their time?

Yes.

Food activists might claim that sounds all wrong — if a single corn can feed a person, where’s the logic in feeding him a dozen baby corns to make him feel full?

I suppose it’s a culture thing. Some cultures don’t eat pork, some don’t beef, we eat corn that weren’t allowed to reach maturity.

How is baby corn produced, exactly?

There are two methods for producing baby corn, either as a primary crop or as a secondary crop in a planting of sweet corn or field corn. In the first method, a seed variety is chosen and planted to produce only baby corn. In the second production method, the variety is selected to produce sweet or field corn (Galinat, 1985). In this method, the top ear is allowed to mature for sweet corn or field corn while rest of the ears of the plant are harvested for baby corn.
“BABY CORN: A WONDERFUL VEGETABLE” in the International Journal of Science, Environment and Technology

Ideally, baby corn should be harvested while they are two to four inches long. The best ones are no more than three inches long.

Okay, they look pretty in any dish. But is baby corn nutritious?

Well, that depends on what you mean by nutritious. If you’re a keto dieter, baby corn would be your friend. At that immature stage, no sugar has been deposited in the kernels yet and low in carbohydrates.

If you’re into a low-calorie / high fiber diet, baby corn is low in calories, high in fiber and, therefore, supplies the bulk that satisfies the stomach.

Between fresh and canned baby corn, which is better?

If you abhor additives, well, the fresh ones are better, of course. No added sodium nor sugar. There are a couple of drawbacks though.

1. In terms of flavor, fresh baby corn doesn’t have much.

2. With baby corn longer than three inches, the core is a bit tough and it’s not exactly palatable. Hence, the necessity of cooking larger baby corns separately before throwing them into a salad, stir fry or soup. An easy extra step, really. Boil in salted water for about ten minutes and they’re so much better.

These drawbacks are the big pluses of canned baby corn. Just open the can, drain the corn and that’s it. It’s been salted and sugar has been added. Plus, of course, the fact that the canned variety is available in almost every grocery store any time of the year.

Buying canned baby corn

Not that all canned baby corn are equal in every aspect. With some brands, the baby corn are large; with others, the baby corn are no more than two and a half inches in length.

Since canned food go by net weight, you get less number of baby corn if they are large. So, if you customarily serve them whole and you’re particular about everyone getting an equal share, with the larger baby corn, each person will get less number of baby corn on his plate.

In Asia, however, we don’t eat on a per plate basis. Asian dining is family style — all dishes in serving platters or bowls at the center of the table and each person gets how much or how little he wants.

And since baby corn is often an ingredient of stir fried dishes and soups, I find it best to cut them in about the same size and shape as they rest of the ingredients — into two portions if they are small or in three portions if they are rather large.

In effect, the number of pieces that end up in the serving platter is about the same.