Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Everyone loves a boiled corn cob smothered in butter, share your favourite corn recipes with us

Everyone loves a boiled corn cob smothered in butter, but grating the kernels produces some surprisingly 'sweet' savoury dishes too. Share your favourite corn recipes with us

Everyone loves a boiled corn cob smothered in butter, but grating the kernels produces some surprisingly 'sweet' savoury dishes too.

I emphasis in The Cook's Companion the need to rush sweetcorn from the garden to the pot so it stays sweet. This is certainly true if you are growing a non-hybrid variety such as golden bantam (an heirloom variety available from Diggers Seeds). However, most of the sweetcorn grown commercially and available for home gardeners is a hybrid, bred to have higher sugar levels and to delay the conversion of sugar to starch for days so the need for speed is not as urgent.

These sugar-enhanced or super-sweet hybrids have names such as "breakthrough", and "honey and cream breakthrough". I have never seen corn sold by name, so this information is useful only if you are a home gardener deciding what to grow.

Nonetheless, freshness is always preferable. Buy sweetcorn at a farmers' market or somewhere where it is sold with the silk and husk intact so you can check that the husk feels soft rather than tough. The wisps of silk should feel a little damp and the stem should look fresh and pale green, with no suspicion of brown. If you must store the cobs, wrap them in a slightly damp tea towel and keep in the crisper for two days maximum.

Boiled sweetcorn rolled in butter is delicious. For an offbeat variation, try sprinkling it with a mix of sea salt and cayenne pepper, and squeeze over a lime wedge. At Asian markets you will see stalls where the pomelos and peaches are displayed alongside a saucer of mixed salt and cayenne, and there is always a lime nearby. The same combination of lime and cayenne would add a little zing to a plate of warm sweetcorn fritters topped with fresh crab, or try working lime juice and cayenne into butter and adding a slice of this to a sweetcorn soup.

Share your favourite corn recipes with us.

Posted by Monika Jansch at 11:13 AM | Comments 0

These are the salad days, share your favourite Summer salad recipes.

Share your favourite Summer salad recipes

During summer I would happily eat salad all day. For breakfast it's a tropical or stone-fruit salad with muesli. Avocado, rocket and ripe red tomato make a wonderful salad for lunch and one of the salads featured today is perfect for dinner with some barbecued meat or fish. We are blessed to have excellent produce and the long evenings to enjoy them over dinner. I like to use herbs as often as possible and in abundance as they bring our taste buds to life. The addition of fruit in salads is refreshing, especially after a hot day at the beach.

Posted by Monika Jansch at 10:43 AM | Comments 0