In the summer months nothing beats a warm corn on the cob that’s been barbequed and then smothered in butter.
In the winter months there is a change in shopping habits and sweetcorn turns into one of those ingredients that’s stuffed in the back of a kitchen cupboard and sprinkled on top of a pizza every now and then.
Now don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly encourage the use of fresh sweetcorn when it’s in season. However, it’s important not to overlook other varieties of sweetcorn when fresh isn’t in season.
We have frozen, tinned and vacuum packed sweetcorn available all year round and we need to make better use of it.
Each variety offers different qualities, for example, frozen sweetcorn is great to use if you’re making a puree or soup and tinned sweetcorn is the perfect accompaniment to carbohydrate fuelled dishes. It also complements sweet puddings and treats really well.
Sweetcorn is great to use if you want to perk up a dish. Its bright colour, sweet and juicy flavour and crunchy texture are just a few reasons why sweetcorn can enhance the base qualities of a dish. Sweetcorn camouflages itself incredibly well, making it a very versatile ingredient.
At 21212 we use sweetcorn every day. Not plated up as the star ingredient but we incorporate it into many dishes like our signature lemon tart or our steak and barley pudding.
Sweetcorn is great to use in both sweet and savoury dishes. My favourite savoury sweetcorn dish would have to be sweetcorn soup.
To make the soup you need to boil frozen sweetcorn for ten minutes, remove from the water and blitz until smooth. Gradually pour the water back into the pureed sweetcorn until the desired thickness is achieved. Add a dash of salt and pepper and you’ve got sweetcorn soup, it’s that simple. Then I like to top it with some chopped bacon and onion that’s been fried off and finish with a poached egg and a sprinkle of chives. The contrast between the vibrant yellow soup and the crisp white poached egg and the saltiness of the bacon is like a match made in heaven.
Now if you’re like me and you can’t resist a sweet treat then try my sweetcorn twist on the traditional rocky road.
Take a handful of freeze-dried sweetcorn and blitz it in a food processor until you’ve got a sweetcorn powder. Add a handful of chopped dates, almonds and desiccated coconut. Pour melted dark chocolate into the mix and combine until everything is covered in chocolate. Spread the mixture onto a cling-filmed tray and level it out with a palette knife. Place it in the fridge for 10 minutes and you’re ready! It tastes absolutely delicious.
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