It's hard to believe it has taken so long for this Cajun classic to arrive in the Desperation Dinners test kitchen because one of our favorite challenges is to take traditional recipes and ``desperize'' them for busy cooks. But since this savory vegetable stew, called maque choux, stretches five minutes longer than our usual 20-minute limit, we kept putting it off.

Finally, we came to our senses and realized that maque choux (pronounced ``mock shoe'') is so delicious and complex that we shouldn't get hung up over five minutes. The origins of maque choux trace back to the Acadian French and Native American roots of southern Louisiana. And like a lot of country cooking, maque choux combines the best flavors of several culinary traditions.

Maque choux is usually made with fresh corn and tomatoes, flavored with tasso or bacon, but you can enjoy it any time of the year by faking the fresh corn milk obtained from scraping the fresh cobs with a combination of broth and pureed frozen white corn kernels. Thus our ``desperized'' secret for maque choux!

Most of the time required is for chopping vegetables, but you can chop and refrigerate them up to 48 hours ahead.

One final note: Don't be intimidated by making the roux. This is a stew, after all, and so by definition, it's flexible. It's delicious with all of the traditional flavor even if your roux isn't precise.

Maque choux is filling enough for a main dish, but it is traditionally served as side and makes a beautiful accompaniment to roasted chicken, pork or fish. For another easy Cajun recipe with corn, check our website, www.kitchenscoop.com for a Cajun Corn Chowder.

Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross' latest book is Cheap. Fast. Good! Their website is www.kitchenscoop.com.

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