Native American Corn Frittata Inspired by Blackbear Bosin

This simple brunch, lunch, or supper frittata is inspired by a recipe submitted to the Mid-America All-Indian Center Cookbook by renowned artist Blackbear Bosin. It’s an easy skillet meal filled with veggies and smoky bacon, then topped with cheese. I serve it with a salad on the side, but the frittata can be a complete meal all on its own.

Lately, I’ve had two criteria for my dinner meal planning. One is the menu must be simple. It’s summer, after all. The other is the food must be soothing since the medication I’m on for my autoimmune disease can do a real number on my stomach and appetite. I typically have the ingredients for this frittata on hand, so it makes a fast and easy dish for a busy weeknight supper or weekend brunch.

Last year, I visited the Mid-America All-Indian Museum in Wichita, Kansas. I bought a copy of the museum’s cookbook before I left and was thrilled to find a recipe submitted by artist Blackbear Bosin. He designed the iconic Keeper of the Plains statue on the Arkansas River outside the museum. 

He also painted some beautiful pieces, such as one titled Prairie Fire, which was in National Geographic magazine. Bosin also drew several humorous cartoons featuring Native Americans.

On my first try, I made his recipe just as written, but it didn’t turn out to my liking. I wasn’t happy with the flavor of the frozen O’Brien potatoes, and there was too much bacon and corn and not enough egg. And no cheese.

This notation came at the end of the recipe. I’m assuming it was from Bosin: “This recipe is based on memories of long time past. This is a basic frittata. The ingredients are unique to the Native American cooking style [except the cheese]. Quantities and cooking times will vary based on the number of servings desired.”

Keeping in mind that the dish was meant to be like a frittata, I increased the number of eggs, cut back on the bacon, and added cheddar cheese. I also swapped out the frozen potatoes for diced pre-cooked potatoes, onion, and green pepper. 

The results were perfect—a one-skillet meal full of veggies and protein. I can see myself turning to this dish often when I want a simple dinner packed with nutrition. 

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Public at the Brickyard’s Corn Chowder on the #KSCornTour

A couple of weeks ago I told you about my adventures on the #KSCornTour. But, you know me, what I remembered the most was the food. We ate a lot. I mean A LOT!!! And most of the dishes featured corn—of course!

On our last evening in Wichita, we ate at Public at the Brickyard in the city’s Old Town area. Located on one of the many brick roads in this area, the restaurant was a cozy, warm place to enjoy a meal. They scope out local farmers and beer vendors to bring their efforts to Public customers.

We met up with some Kansas corn farmers to talk about their lives and agriculture in the state, and what they see for the future. It was a fun and informative evening.

The Public folks had a variety of their pizzas on the long table when we arrived. I really liked the Margherita and this Matterhorn, with prosciutto, mozzarella, fontina, and sweet tomato marmalade with fresh arugula on honey wheat dough.

But what I remembered the most was the Corn Chowder. Rich, creamy, slightly sweet, and a little smoky from the roasted corn.

How good was the soup?

I ate the whole bowl before remembering to take a photo.

I considered licking the bowl clean but I try to save that behavior for home.

Before leaving town, I went back to the restaurant and begged asked for the recipe.

Fortunately, they were willing to share…and let me share with you.

The homemade version tasted just as amazing as the restaurant one. With the arrival of autumn’s chill, this is a comforting way to warm up and would be the perfect start to a holiday meal.

Public at the Brickyard’s Corn Chowder

Reprinted with permission

Ingredients:

8 ears of corn, roasted


2 yellow onions, diced


8 cloves garlic, minced


1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced


2 tablespoons vegetable oil


1/4 cup red wine vinegar

4 cup chicken stock

2 pints heavy cream


1/4 cup sugar


Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Method:

1. Roast corn and cut corn off the cob. (Or used frozen corn—see note below.) 

2. In pan, heat vegetable oil and heat onion and garlic. Deglaze with red wine vinegar. Reduce for two minutes. Add chicken stock, sugar, cobs and half of corn. 

3. Simmer 30 minutes and remove cobs. 

4. Puree mixture with electric blender and return to pan. (Be careful not to fill blender too full so you don’t spray hot molten liquid out of the top.) Add heavy cream and remaining corn to pan. 

5. Simmer 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. 


Note: Since fresh corn season was over when I made this, I used frozen corn kernels. There is approximately 3/4 cup of kernels on every ear of corn so you can use approximately 7 cups of kernels for this dish. To roast them, I put the kernels into the pan with the vegetable oil and sautéed them until they started to brown. Then I added the onion and garlic to sauté until tender.

Note 2: I’ve made this in a slow cooker. I placed the frozen corn kernels, diced onion, garlic, and chicken broth into the slow cooker, set on low, and let cook for 8 hours. Remove about half of the corn kernels, and then blend the rest until smooth. Add back the kernels, and the remaining ingredients. Allow to continue cooking until the soup is hot.

Disclaimer: This post and the #KSCornTour are sponsored by Kansas Corn, which is a collaboration of the Kansas Corn Growers Association and the Kansas Corn Commission. They paid for all of my travel expenses and compensated me for this post. However, my writings, views, opinions, thoughts, and cravings are entirely my own.