Well, Raine, thanks so much for this. I pulled it out of the oven 25 min ago and have eaten a quarter of it already. I'm cooking dinner for some people outside of Atlanta this evening. I thought I'd give this a try while no one is home. Now I just need to get it out of the casserole and trim it up to make it look good, like I haven't spent the last 15 min eating it.
I found just-picked Silver Queen this morning while shopping for this diiner. I bought 4 ears, shucked and silked them, and cut the kernels off. This came to a hair over 2 cups. To intensify the corn flavor and add to its natural sweetness I decided to saute it first.
I took one of the tablespoons of butter and melted it over medium heat. I sauteed the corn till it was getting brown in spots, then added a small shallot I'd minced (about 2 Tbls), 1/2 tsp of dried thyme, a couple pinches of salt, and a good pinch of ground white pepper ( a favorite with corn). When the corn was lightly browned all over and there was nice caramelization on the bottom of the pan I deglazed with 1 Tbls cheap white wine scraping the pan bottom to dissolve all the brown bits. I let the wine evaporate entirely, added more salt to make it a bit on the salty side (figuring that the salt would diminish when it was added to the eggs and milk) and set the pan aside to cool.
I had only extra large eggs available so I used those, beating 2 lightly with a whisk then adding 2 Tbls of sugar and whisking very well. I whisked in the flour first to make sure it was well incorporated without lumps, then added the corn mix, the milk, and a very little grating of fresh nutmeg. I used an 8-inch rounded-corner square casserole with a foil cover.
I'll be making this again.