Corn Crema with Chili Butter
Canned corn cooked down with cream cheese and a spice butter poured over the top. A side dish for the second night out.
- calories
- 230
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 38
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Chili powder | 2 tbsp | |
|---|---|---|
| Smoked paprika | 2 tbsp | |
| Onion | 1, finely chopped | chop at home, bag it |
| Garlic | 2 cloves, minced | |
| Neutral oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Canned corn | 300 g | drained; frozen works if the cooler is cold |
| Plain cream cheese | 125 g | a foil-wrapped block keeps better than a tub |
| Sour cream | 1/2 cup | |
| Lime | half, juiced | |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Stir the chili powder and smoked paprika together in a cup. That is the whole spice mix.
- Heat the oil in a pot and cook the onion and garlic until soft and translucent, about four minutes.
- Add the drained corn and a quarter of the spice mix. Cook two more minutes.
- Drop the heat as low as it goes. Add the cream cheese and sour cream and stir until the cheese melts and the whole thing is smooth. Loosen it with a splash more sour cream if it stiffens up.
- Season with the lime juice, salt, and pepper. Move it off the heat.
- Melt the butter in a mug or small pan, stir in the rest of the spice mix, and let it sizzle a few seconds. Pour it over the corn and serve.
This one stays in the cooler category, and it should. Cream cheese and sour cream are the whole texture, and there is no shelf-stable version that holds up. Cook it the first or second night while the ice is still solid.
The spice mix gets split for a reason. A quarter of it goes in with the corn so the heat cooks into the base; the rest goes into hot butter at the end, which pulls the color and the smoke out of the paprika and floats it on top. Dumping all of it in at once gives you a flat, muddy pot. Low heat when the cheese goes in matters too — a hard boil breaks it.
Packing
Premix the two spices at home in a film canister. Onion and garlic get chopped and bagged before you leave. Cream cheese, sour cream, butter, and lime ride in the cooler.
Variations
- Skip the sour cream and use a second block of cream cheese thinned with a little water.
- Chopped cilantro and a handful of reserved corn on top if you have them.
https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/kos/maiskrem-med-chilismor