Monday 25 January 2010

Corn Fritters with Tomato Salsa

To make this light and fluffy I whisked the egg whites until stiff and folded it into the mixture. I did this by hand (c'mon it was only two egg whites) till I got all vein-ey and my arm nearly fell off. I would recommend using fresh corn off the cob but a large corn of corn will suffice. Remember to keep the cob and use it for stock or something else later, you don't want to waste it.



Ingredients
2 large ears of corn or 4 small ones
1/2 red onion, finely diced (reserve a tsp for the salsa)
2 eggs, separated
1-2 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp paprika
oil for shallow frying
salt and pepper

Method
1. Cut the kernels off the cob. Put into a bowl, add the egg yolks, onion, 1 tbsp flour, baking powder, paprika and season.

2. Whisk egg whites until stiff peak. Gently fold in corn mixture. If the mixture is too runny add second tsp of flour.

3. Heat oil and using a tablespoon, dropped the batter into the oil. Fry until golden and drain on some paper towels.

4. Serve with the tomato salsa.

Tomato Salsa
Cherry tomatoes
1 tsp finely diced red onion
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp verjuice or white wine vinegar

1. Quarter some cherry tomatoes, put into a bowl and sprinkle with some salt. Refrigerate while you make the corn fritters.
2. When ready to serve, mix in the rest of the ingredients and spoon over fritters.

I added salt to the tomatoes then refrigerated them in order to get the juices out. I wanted to serve the fritters with a bit of a 'sauce'.

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Pan fried Kingfish and Israeli Couscous with Celery & Spinach



This is very quick and easy to cook. The total cooking time is approx. 15mins.

Put some plain flour on a plate and season. Put the skin side of the Kingfish (you can use any fish) into the flour until the skin is covered in flour. Pat off any excess flour. Heat oil in a pan, when the oil is very hot carefully put the fish on the pan skin side down (careful as it might spit). Season the other side of the fish and fry until the skin is crispy. Then turn over to fry the other side until cooked, more oil or some butter might be needed. Rest the fish.

Meanwhile make the couscous. For the couscous, you will need: Israeli couscous, 1 clove of garlic - finely chopped, 1/4 of an onion - finely diced, several stalks of celery - finely diced, baby spinach and chicken/fish stock. In a saucepan, add a knob of butter. Once melted, add in garlic and onions. Cook until transparent. Then add celery and cook for 3mins. Add the couscous and season, stir to distribute all the ingredients. Add in chicken stock until it has covered the couscous. Cook until tender - approx. 10mins. When cooked, stir in spinach and season again if necessary.

Monday 4 January 2010

Chocolate & Cranberry Cake



Ingredients
100g Butter
100g Dark Cooking Chocolate
3 Eggs, light beaten
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1 cup Self-raising Flour
1 tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 cup Almond Meal
3/4 cup Caster Sugar
1/2 cup Dried Cranberries

Method
1.
Preheat oven to 180c or 160c fan. Line and grease a cake tin.

2. Melt butter and chocolate in a small saucepan on low. Stir until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

3. Mix the eggs and sour cream until combined. Then pour into the butter and chocolate mixture. Mix well.

4. Put flour, cocoa, baking powder, almond meal, sugar and cranberries into a large mixing bowl. Mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Pour in chocolate mixture and mix until combined.

5. Bake for approx. 30-45mins.