Okay, now that I think about it, a lot of my recipes for Thanksgiving are not at all traditional and I am coloring outside the lines. I have partly adopted and totally adapted the recipes and dishes to suit my own tastes and what I feel like cooking. My family has always made a corn and oyster casserole that I find one-hundred-percent disgusting. Oysters! Bleh. I do see corn pudding as having a role in Thanksgiving, and I like things like crab much more than oyster. I think perhaps next year I will try lobster, which I prefer to crab. This dish is one of those that I stubbornly insist on making – but that most people don’t really eat once it is done. Yet I carry on…

Corn and crab pudding
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup shallots, minced
¼ cup fresh poblano chile pepper, seeded and chopped (I used far less than this)
12 ounces corn kernels
1 ¾ cup half and half (I used cream)
6 eggs
3 tablespoon flour
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon white pepper
1 ½ cup cooked crab
4 tablespoons parmesan

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Lightly butter 8 ramekins. In heavy skillet on medium melt butter. Add shallots and chiles. Sauté til pepper is tender (3 mins). In blender, puree corn, add half and half, eggs, flour, salt, sugar, nutmeg, and white pepper. Pulse til smooth. Transfer to large bowl. Stir in crab and poblano mix. Divide among ramekins, sprinkle ½ teaspoon cheese on each. Place cups in large roasting pan, pour hot water into pan. Bake 50 minutes until set.