A Cheesy Corn Dip for Super Bowl Noshing

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You are going to need snacks on February 7 if you plan to watch the Broncos play the Panthers in Super Bowl 50. It is practically un-American not to. Of course, you could just eat snacks and not watch the game, especially since the Patriots aren’t playing.

This oozy, gooey, cheesy dip is yummy, hot, and topped with tomatoes, scallions, and cilantro which unfortunately do not mitigate very much the effects of the sour cream, cream cheese, and cheddar or Monterey jack that permeates the mixture of corn and green chili peppers. Serve it with multigrain chips, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.

Pat Mitchell, an island neighbor, brought this dip to a holiday party, and I had a hard time keeping my snout, er, nose, out of it. She kindly sent me the recipe a couple days later and I tried it out on the evening that the Patriots beat Kansas City to win the division payoff. There were three of us working on it, but there was enough to go around the next night with Denver v.s. the Steelers.

It is quick to assemble. I often, but not consistently, have a little four-ounce can of green chilies on hand. Less often do I have a can of white corn which the recipe calls for. The typical can of that is at eleven ounces which is a scant two cups. You could use yellow corn, or top off the smaller can with come yellow corn (canned or frozen). In any event, don’t worry about precision in this recipe because a little more or less will make very little difference in the outcome.

As far as the chili and the red pepper flakes are concerned, this ought to be a matter of personal taste. Use them or not. If you are hanging with a twelve-alarm chili crowd, well, dump it in. If you belong to the milk toast end of the spectrum, leave it out. I thought the amount suggested seemed a little mild so I rounded up a little, but Toby went and got his bottle of hot sauce anyway with which he adjusted each mouth full. Suit yourself.

May the best team win. This cheesy dip will grease your enthusiasm if you back the winners, or comfort you if you favor the losers.

Pat's Cheesy Corn Dip
 
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces of cream cheese
  • 2 ½ cups grated cheese, cheddar, Monterey jack or parmesan
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 2 cups white corn kernels
  • 1 cup, or 4 ounces, diced green chilies
  • ½ teaspoon chili powder
  • 1-2 cloves minced garlic
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • Red pepper flakes to taste
  • 1 medium tomato
  • 4-5 scallions
  • Bundle of cilantro
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease a medium casserole or a nine-by- thirteen glass baking pan.
  3. Mix together all the cheese, sour cream, corn and chilies and blend thoroughly.
  4. Stir in chili powder, garlic, salt and red pepper flakes and pour into the casserole or baking pan.
  5. Bake for thirty minutes.
  6. Meanwhile, dice the tomatoes, chop the scallions and cilantro, and toss together in a bowl. Set aside.
  7. Remove the dip from the oven and let cool slightly before adding the vegetable topping. Serve with sturdy corn chips, or crudités.

 

Sandy Oliver

About Sandy Oliver

Sandy Oliver Sandy is a freelance food writer with the column Taste Buds appearing weekly since 2006 in the Bangor Daily News, and regular columns in Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors magazine and The Working Waterfront. Besides freelance food writing, she is a pioneering food historian beginning her work in 1971 at Mystic Seaport Museum, where she developed a fireplace cooking program in an 1830s house. After moving to Maine in 1988, Sandy wrote, Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Foods at Sea and Ashore in the 19th Century published in 1995. She is the author of The Food of Colonial and Federal America published in fall of 2005, and Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving History and Recipes from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie which she co-authored with Kathleen Curtin. She often speaks to historical organizations and food professional groups around the country, organizes historical dinners, and conducts classes and workshops in food history and in sustainable gardening and cooking. Sandy lives on Islesboro, an island in Penobscot where she gardens, preserves, cooks and teaches sustainable lifeways.