March 2011
I’m sitting here on the verandah looking at the fine harvest of corn my husband has just picked from the garden.
I love corn and find it most appetizing steamed straight from the pot then lathered with butter, sprinkled with sea salt and cracked black pepper and then a tinkle of dried chilli flake.
Quite similar to what you may find being hocked from a pedal driven cart on the roadside in Thailand.
Corn has been around for thousands of years as a food and also as an ingredient to many things you may never have thought about.
You will find corn in things like aluminium, whiskey, paint, nappies and pharmaceuticals.
You name it it’s more than likely to have some part of the corn in it.
You may also find corn in a variety of colours including purple, red, brown and white.
Easy to grow and extremely delicious it’s no wonder corn on the table so often.
This month’s recipe is for Polenta, Cheese and Red Pepper Muffins which can be enjoyed with a couple of slices of bacon on the side.
By the way… Polenta is ground cornmeal! Enjoy!
120g yellow polenta
½ cup plain flour
2 tsp salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup red capsicum finely diced
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
¼ cup diced chives
2 eggs
225ml sour cream
140g unsalted butter melted and cooled
1/3 cup corn kernels
¼ cup fresh herbs of your choice finely chopped
1. preheat your oven to 200’> lightly butter a 12 hole muffin tin and put aside.
2. Put the polenta, flour, salt, baking powder into a bowl and mix well.
Tip this into a larger bowl and add the cheese. Mix well.
3. mix the eggs, sour cream and melted butter. Stir in the chopped herbs, capsicum, corn and chives.
Pour the egg mixture and gently stir them together until just combined.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin holes. Put tin in oven. Pour a little water into a small oven proof dish to go in the oven at the same time as the muffins.
This will help keep them moist.
5. Bake for about twenty minutes or until you can smell the muffins amzing arouma wafting through the house.
Cool the muffins then turn onto a rack.
You may need to loosen the edges to get them loose.
Top with a sprinkle of herbs then serve at room temperature or warm.