Three ways with corn
A Mexican tortilla, bean and corn salad; corn fritters; barbecued corn on the cob
Takes: 40 minutes
Makes: enough for 4 adults
Ingredients
for the salad
4 fresh corn on the cob (or 1 can corn kernels)
1 butternut squash
2 courgette
1 t cumin seeds
1 t coriander seeds
1 t dried chili flakes
1/2 t smoked paprika
salt and pepper
1 capsicum/ bell pepper
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1/2 small bunch coriander
1/2 small bunch parsley
3 spring onions
for tortilla chips
3 corn tortillas
oil for frying tortilla chips
for the green dressing
1/2 small bunch coriander
1/2 small bunch parsley
juice of 2-3 limes
1 t white wine vinegar
2 T plain oil of choice
salt and pepper
dried chilli flakes
1/2 t smoked paprika
pinch dried thyme or oregano
Method
Pre-heat oven grill.
Peel butternut squash with a vegetable peeler, remove seeds with a spoon and cut into small cubes. Distribute evenly on the baking tray lined with baking paper for easy clean-up. Drizzle with a little olive oil.
In a mortar and pestle, grind the spices: 1 t cumin seeds, 1 t coriander seeds, 1 t dried thyme or oregano, 1 t dried chili flakes, 1/2 t smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the butternut and distribute spices well. Place butternut under the grill for around 20 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop up the courgette into similar-sized cubes. Set aside.
Peel husks off corn, place corn cobs into a saucepan of boiling water with a pinch of salt. Cook 4-5 minutes until the kernels are bright yellow and cooked through. Remove and allow to cool.
Add the courgette to the baking tray and place under the grill for a further 3 minutes until firm but cooked. (You can also add the corn to the oven tray at this stage if you want a slightly charred look). Remove and allow to cool.
Using a sharp knife, cut the corn off the cob.
Finely chop the herbs and spring onion. For the dressing, whiz half of the coriander and parsley in a blender with the other ingredients: juice of 2-3 limes (3 if they’re not very juicy), 1 t white wine vinegar, 2 T plain oil of choice, dried chilli flakes, 1/2 t smoked paprika, pinch dried thyme or oregano, salt and pepper to taste.
Fry strips of the corn tortilla over a medium frying pan until brown on both sides. Blot on a paper towel.
Drain and rinse the canned beans in a colander.
If serving warm, toss all the salad ingredients in a large salad bowl with the dressing, topping with a few herbs. Serve the tortilla chips alongside for maximum crispiness.
If serving cool, toss the salad ingredients and place in the fridge until ready to eat. When ready to serve, mix in the dressing, top with additional herbs and serve the tortilla chips alongside.
The story behind the recipe…
The indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her wonderful book Braiding Sweetgrass, talks about the holy trinity of squash, corn and beans, which she calls the “Three Sisters”. These three vegetables were traditionally grown together - rather than the fields of corn monocropping that is now a common sight - and are a superb example of companion planting. The beans grow around the corn, which grows first and provides a natural pole up which the beans can climb. Meanwhile, the later-blooming pumpkin or squash sends out giant leaves, locking in moisture into the ground with its shade and deterring weeds. And the beans play their part by fixing nitrogen in the ground, providing the other vegetables with a natural fertilizer. Kimmerer claims that there is a higher yield if the plants are planted together than if each were planted alone in its own field.
I’ve been waiting for corn season to dream up a recipe. Now that we're finally here, I took inspiration from the idea of the Three Sisters - and Mexican cuisine - to do so. This is the perfect salad for a summer picnic or barbecue, as it keeps well in the fridge for a day or two and it is delicious cold or warm. It’s also easily transported. Just put the dressing into a jam jar. Don’t be put off by the list of ingredients. This is a very flexible and incidentally vegan recipe. You could add so many other things: cubes of avocado, tomato, cucumber, feta, toasted pumpkin seeds for crunch instead of tortilla chips. Try and keep the cubes a roughly uniform size. Or consider bulking the salad out with choooed lettuce or baby spinach, with rice or quinoa, or an extra can of beans (feel free to the beans from dried if you’re really gunning for kitchen sainthood).
Of course, the Mexican bean and corn salad above is far from the only thing you can do with corn. Growing up, my Grandmother struggled to cook for her vegetarian granddaughter. Eventually, she settled on one dish which she would make without fail every time I came for Sunday lunch or a midweek dinner: Sweetcorn Fritters that she would cook in an electric frying pan. The poor man’s version of whitebait fritters. I never complained because they were delicious. Corn fritters are very popular in New Zealand, but they haven’t really caught on in Europe. I don’t know why. You can eat them for breakfast (with maple syrup, yes!), lunch or dinner. They are like a savoury version of another New Zealand classic: pikelets. Fluffy tiny pancakes made by separating out and beating the egg whites before folding back into the batter.
The recipe for corn fritters that I always turn to comes from a typical New Zealand recipe book, called the Edmond’s Cookbook, but you can make them with fresh sweetcorn (using the method described for the salad above) or with canned. Find the recipe here. The Cookbook was first published at the turn of last century as a way for Edmond’s to promote its baking powder. I would hazard a guess that most households still have a copy tucked away on a shelf somewhere. It was the cookbook I learned to cook with, even though most of the recipes didn’t have a picture, and directions are minimalist. The pancake, banana cake and chocolate cake pages in my copy are all splattered with batter because I’ve cooked them so many times. Unfortunately, it had only a few vegetarian recipes. Trust me, however, that the corn fritters are great, especially served with a spicy plum chutney and a side green salad.
My final idea of things to do with corn is also a very Kiwi one: Barbecued Corn on the Cob. Remover the husks from the corn and place them directly onto the barbie (that’s Kiwi for barbecue) and then eat it with salt and butter or even chipotle mayonnaise. Just put mayonnaise, a dash of lime juice and 1-2 chipotle peppers into a blender and zap. Eat them while they’re hot but don’t burn your fingers.
There you are: three ideas for what to do with the surplus of sweetcorn as we approach the height of summer: a mexican bean salad, sweetcorn fritters and barbecued corn with chipotle mayonnaise. Hope you’re not wilting in the heat! And if you’re reading from the other hemisphere, the salad and fritters could also be made with a can of sweetcorn in the middle of a rainy winter, so we’ve got you covered too.
Thanks for reading, as always.
Amelia.
PS if you’re inspired to read more by Robin Wall Kimmerer, her essay on traditional gift economies and the serviceberry is also great. Read it here.