Every year at Thanksgiving and at Christmas my grandmother would make corn pudding. I’ve made this in Paris and in Switzerland, where getting the ingredients was quite the challenge, but then again, so was getting the turkey or any bird that fit in a tiny European oven! While my grandmother started the tradition of making this dish – I started the tradition of making it first thing in the morning and then bundling the covered dish in a beach towel and duvet to keep it warm for hours. Every year now we have this odd bundle on a bed somewhere, ready to be devoured hours later.

My grandmother told me that she used to make a different version, one more typical to New England. But once she moved to Miami in the 70s she was served this South American version and has been making it ever since.

This part of our holiday meal is my absolute favourite and everyone loves it. Will you try it?

Corn Pudding

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 3/4 cup of chopped green peppers
• 1/3 cup of chopped onion
• 1 can of cream style corn*
• 1 can of whole kernel corn
• 3 eggs, well beaten
• 8.5 oz pkg of corn muffin mix**
• 1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

• Heat oven to 350 F. Grease casserole dish. In small skillet, melt buter. Add green pepper and onion and sauté until tender.
• In a large bowl, combine creamed corn, corn, eggs and corn muffin mix, blend well. Add onion mixture, mix well. Pour into casserole, sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350F for 60 minutes*** or until firm and set. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
• Makes 12 (1/2 cup) servings.

* If you can’t get creamed corn, use the same amount of canned or frozen corn and give it a quick whizz in the blender with a splash of cream. You want it lumpy.
** In the US you can get boxed corn muffin mix in that size, here in Canada I can only get bigger sized ones, so I either use 1/2 the box or just use this recipe (only the dry ingredients).
*** If making individual servings bake for 25 minutes or until firm.