Secret ingredient from summer corn lifts Cajun maque choux

THE star of maque choux, one of the classic dishes of Louisiana’s Cajun country, is fresh summer corn. Naturally sweet kernels are in delicious balance with a savory mix of vegetables and crawfish. But it can veer to the heavy side, thanks largely to the addition of cream.

To lighten the recipe for our book “Milk Street Tuesday Nights,” which limits recipes to 45 minutes or less, we utilize an element that most cooks throw out — the corn cobs. Instead of weighing down the dish with dairy, which tends to dull other flavors, we extract the “milk” of the corn. After cutting the kernels off, we use the back of the knife to scrape the cobs, releasing their starchy liquid to add rich, creamy body that doesn’t overwhelm other ingredients.

Pronounced “mock shoe,” which is said to be a French inflection of a Native American word, this Creole classic