Corn fritters with tomato salsa and a TV show you can't miss

With Hannibal still more than a month away and the ages Sony has been taking to air the last two episodes of The Blacklist I started watching another TV series, a very short one – six episodes only for the first season – but immense when it comes to quality: Rectify was a fantastic surprise, and I got to it thanks to the lovely Amanda (thanks, dear).

The show is about Daniel Holden – portrayed beautifully by Aden Young –, a man who spent 19 years on death row and is released because of DNA evidence. Definitely not an easy subject and one that could easily be treated in a foolish and/or corny way, but not here; the writing is superb and so is the cast, and the great news is that there will be a second season, with four more episodes. \0/

Some more great news is that the once picky eater Mr. Scarpin continues to gladly try new dishes (thank heavens it was not something ephemeral linked to the trips to China and NY), and he loved these corn fritters, even though corn isn’t one of this favorite veggies. The idea was to serve the fritters with an avocado salsa just like the magazine suggested but the avocado I’d bought never got ripe, so a simple tomato salsa it was – and it tasted delicious.

Corn fritters with tomato salsa
slightly adapted from the always mouthwatering Delicious Australia

Salsa:
3 ripe tomatoes, seeds removed, diced
1 large onion, finely diced
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, or to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fritters:
150g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon table salt
½ cup (120ml) whole milk, room temperature
2 eggs
2 large corn cobs, kernels removed
½ small onion, finely chopped
1 red chili, deseeded if too hot, finely chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper
canola oil, for frying

Salsa: place the tomatoes and onion in a medium bowl, add the lemon juice and olive oil, season with salt and pepper and mix to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you make the fritters.

Fritters: sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and the eggs. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add the corn, onion, chili, parsley and cilantro, season with black pepper and fold to combine.
Heat a drizzle of canola oil in a nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add 2 tablespoonfuls of batter for each fritter and cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden. Flip each fritter and cook until golden on the other side and cooked through. Keep them warm while you fry the remaining batter.
Serve the fritters immediately with the salsa on the side

Serves 4

Sweet corn ice cream

Food bloggers love sharing recipes and I am no exception – I have made tons of recipes from other blogs and it’s a huge pleasure for me when people try the recipes I post here. It’s a great exchange and I feel lucky to be part of it.

What makes me even happier is being able to show my foreign readers a bit about the food we eat here in Brazil, or at least in the region I live. I once got an email from Marta - a lady from New Zealand - asking about my butternut squash compote. And a few months ago the compote was featured on Apartment Therapy – The Kitchn. Faith prepared the recipe, adding her own twist, and liked it!

I give you now a very Brazilian ice cream flavor – it’s common to use corn in sweet recipes here (remember my corn fudge?). I slightly adapted a recipe from Nestlé’s Brazilian website – a touch of cinnamon and the ice cream reminded me of curau.

Sweet corn ice cream

1 can (200g) corn kernels, drained and rinsed
1 ¼ cups (300ml) whole milk
1 can (395g) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup (240ml) heavy cream
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

Place the kernels and milk in a blender and blend until smooth. Push mixture through a sieve and put it back in the blender. Add the sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, cinnamon and salt and blend.
Pour into a metal/glass bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in the freezer until firm, at least 4 hours, before serving.

Serves 8-10

Crepes filled with corn and nutmeg

Don’t you love going through cookbooks/websites with lots of photos? Isn’t it wonderful to know what to expect – visually speaking – from a recipe?

After taking a look at this, I knew I would end up making it. I’m a big fan of crepes and they look so adorable served this way!

I thought these were good, but in my opinion they would have been better with some sort of sauce. I think the sage brown butter sauce I used for this spaghetti would have worked really, really well here.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Gay, from A Scientist in the Kitchen.

Crepes filled with corn and nutmeg

Crepes:
1 cup (240ml) milk
½ cup (120ml) water
2 eggs
1 ½ cups (210g) all purpose flour
pinch of salt
butter, oil or cooking spray, to coat the pan

Filling:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups frozen, cooked corn kernels, thawed – I used canned corn kernels, drained
¼ cup (35g) all purpose flour
2 cups (480ml) milk
salt
freshly ground fresh pepper
pinch of ground nutmeg
chives, to fasten the crepes – dip them quickly in hot water before using, so they will be more flexible

Start by making the crepes: Place the milk, water, eggs, salt and flour in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Heat a lightly oiled or greased with butter 22cm (9in) frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the pan, using ¼ cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Repeat with remaining batter. Set aside.

Now, the filling: in a large, deep frying pan, melt butter over medium-high. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until golden. Add the corn, cook for 2 minutes, then sprinkle with the flour. Cook, stirring constantly, for another minute. Add the milk and cook, still stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, mix well. Place mounds of warm filling on the center of each crepe, closing it like a bundle/package and tie it up with one chive.

Makes 12

Corn fudge

I had to make a recipe with corn to take part in one event for blogs written in Portuguese. You guys might think “Corn? So easy!” – but that’s the whole point: I wanted to make something different, unusual. Something new.

It took me forever to choose something but I finally did: this corn fudge, which I found at the Brazilian Nestlé website.

It’s similar to brigadeiro, but flavored with corn instead of chocolate. A pinch of cinnamon reminds us of curau – a sort of corn pudding I’ll be making soon to share with you here.

Different and new, indeed, and also delicious.

Corn fudge

1 can (200g) corn kernels, drained and rinsed
1 can (395g) sweetened condensed milk
1 ½ tablespoons milk – I used low fat
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
butter, for greasing
granulated sugar, to coat the fudge balls

Place the corn kernels and the milk in a blender or food processor and purée them. Push the purée through a sieve and place it in a medium saucepan. Add the condensed milk, cinnamon and butter and mix well.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the bottom of the pan starts to show – it will be thicker and bubbly (20 minutes). Remove from heat, pour in a greased plate and set aside to cool completely.
Grease your hands with a bit of butter and roll portions of fudge into balls – this will be easier if you refrigerate the fudge.
Roll them in the granulated sugar and place in small fluted paper cups.
Decorate them as you wish – I had some extra kernels so I used them (an idea I saw at the website, too) and I also used cloves.

Makes 40-45