Sweetcorn

It feels like autumn is on its way, the leaves are still green but don’t let it fool you; the nights are getting colder and I got up for work in the dark today for the first time in months but on the bright side squashes, plums, new season apples and corn are appearing at the market.

When I was at primary school we had a harvest festival celebration every year, we would all bring in tins of food to donate to the homeless shelter and we would sing hymns and songs (Cauliflowers fluffy and cabbages green… ) There would always be displays of vegetables with ears of corn in pride of place crowning the other vegetables.

In our house my vegi-phobic brother counted corn on the cob (along with raw carrots) as the only vegetables acceptable on his plate and my mum would serve it as a starter to our tea with lots of butter and those little fork/handle things – still one of my favourite ways to eat it.

Sweet corn can be pretty, well sweet and it tends to go down really well with children but chilli really takes the edge off to transform it into something more savoury and interesting.

Chilli Corn Bread

An adaptation of a Jamie Oliver recipe

• 2 ears of corn
• 1tbsp coconut oil
• 1 large red onion – diced
• 2-3 green chillies depending on heat and preference – finely diced
• 300g of polenta
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 6tbsp buckwheat flour
• 2tbsp nutritional yeast
• 4 eggs
• 250ml of almond milk
• 1 large bunch of coriander – about 1 cup once chopped.

If you don’t have any nutritional yeast you could replace with 1 tbsp of grated Parmesan.

Line a 20cm tin with non-stick baking paper. Preheat oven to 200 degrees

Peel the ears of corn and using a large knife cut down the length of the cob to release the kernels.

Heat the coconut oil in a large frying pan, add the diced onion and fry for around 10 minutes until soft and slightly golden, add the chilli and corn kernels, cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool.

Combine the dry ingredients along with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and milk together.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and add the cooled vegetables along with the coriander. Pour mixture into the lined tin, if you want to make your bread pretty, decorate with slices of red onion and chilli at this point.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until firm and golden on top.

We ate ours along with bowls of slow cooked brisket chilli – yes I fed Joel actual meat! It is also delicious with a few slices of strong cheddar and chutney.

Other Suggestions for Sweetcorn

• Grilled over charcoal with chilli butter!
• Sweetcorn chowder.
• Sweetcorn relish.
• Pop kernels into a coleslaw instead of raisins for sweetness (Joel hates raisins in slaw).
• Make a kind of salsa with kernels, chopped pepper, chillies and cubes avocado with a squeeze of lime juice.