Recipe – Skillet Corn With Bacon and Sour Cream

It’s that time of year again, the time when my college friends and I get together and have a potluck.  I’m very lucky that we are all so physically close, and still so emotionally close, and that we have fun getting together, sharing food, catching up, and playing games.  I also like the new format our get-togethers have taken recently which is thematic potlucks.  There was a casserole party last year, and we’ve had an Italian theme night, and Summer Foods.  This time around, the theme was southern food, and despite ostensibly being a southerner I was stumped for side dishes.  It does not help that someone else was making biscuits, so cornbread was out.  Or that so many southern side dishes are hot (which isn’t much fun on a sweltering day), or else contain foods that I’m not crazy about and thus don’t really want to buy and keep around my house.  Really what I’m saying here is that I’m picky and was drawing a blank.  It’s a tough spot to be in.

So what did I do?  I googled.  Literally “Southern Food Side Dish”.  Because sometimes the simplest search works.  This lead me to an “about.com” list of southern side dishes and I think I may have whispered to myself “Jackpot”.  And since it was still summery out, I wanted to do something with corn.  Because corn is both southern AND delightfully summery.  What did I do with that list?  I used “Ctrl + F” and typed in “corn”, and was met with a variety of recipes.  And then it was just a matter of choosing one.

So how did I end up with this one?  Well, my thought process was this: Skillet – I have one!  Bacon – I like that a lot!  Sour cream…I’m sure it cooks down to taste fine?

And it did.  The whole thing is very odd looking as you cook it, and afterwards is still not the most attractive of dishes.  But the good news is that with a fresh sprinkling of parsley and crumbled bacon on top, it looks sort of fancy.  Not fancy-fancy, but still enjoyable.  Even better, it tastes pretty good – a nice combination of sweet from the corn, creamy from the (duh) sour cream, a little extra crunch and depth of flavor from the pepper and onion, and some chewy saltiness from the bacon.  Plus, it reheats in the microwave nicely, so the little bit you’ll have leftover after bringing this to an event will be just as good a few days later.

Also Also – it’s so fast to make.  I had another recipe that had demanded way too much time and attention beforehand, and so having something that came together in the course of about 15 minutes?  The best.

Skillet Corn With Bacon and Sour Cream

Yield: 6-8 side servings

6 slices bacon
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped green bell pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
2 cans (12 to 16 ounces each) whole kernel corn, drained
1 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Instructions:

In a large skillet, fry bacon; drain, crumble, and set aside. [Alternatively, microwave with lots of paper towels around it, 1 minute per slice]

Pour off bacon grease; melt butter over medium-low heat. Add onion and green bell pepper; sauté for 2 minutes; stir in flour and salt. Gradually add the sour cream. Heat until it just begins to bubble, stirring constantly; add corn and heat through; stir in half of the crumbled bacon.

Transfer corn and sour cream mixture to a 2-quart casserole or serving dish; top corn casserole with remaining crumbled bacon and chopped parsley.

Details: Skillet Corn With Bacon and Sour Cream, from SouthernFood.About.com