Five ways with sweetcorn
Just around the river bend from Bristol Temple Meads Station, on an industrial estate that comes alive hours before the rest of the city wakes up is Bristol Fruit Market. The market is a wholesale hub that supplies the greengrocers; cafes; restaurants; caterers, and now me with crates of fresh fresh fruit, aromatics and vegetables (even though it’s called the fruit market, the Big Money is in heaving boxes of squash and grassy large format bundles of basil).
For a recent event, I was shopping and cooking for 80 people, so I definitely knew I needed 15 Kgs of tomatoes and half a kilo of oregano; leafy lemons to zest over and perfume an ambrosial bowl of creamy oregano rice (The French Garden is the wholesaler you want to see “for the fancy stuff”); the ripest peaches; the plumpest corn. There’s a sort of illicit thrill (only me?) to shopping for work before 6 am - is it smutty to be prodding and testing greenhouse scented cherry tomatoes for ripeness? I’ve got to get my kicks in lieu of a Summer holiday this year.
For my last few food styling jobs, I’ve shopped for most of my produce at the market to make sure it looks the best it can on camera (the variety! the volume!), but also to guarantee it’s fresher than anything I could buy on the shelves of some of the fanciest greengrocers I know. It doesn’t hurt that buying wholesale means you’re spending relatively less even if you’re left with a little ~ extra ~ at the end of a shoot day. Last week that was 18 ears of corn. I love corn on the cob, slathered in butter as much as the next Anna, but I can’t get on board with eating the same thing meal after meal. In that spirit, here are 5 ideas for a glut of corn.
Keep it simple and just make your butter more exciting. I like lime zest, garlic and chilli mixed into softened butter, but you could try something sweeter like honey and orange. Just don’t forget the flaked salt.
Every year, I make fresh corn polenta by stripping the kernels from the cobs (always slice directly into a bowl to prevent the kernels shooting all over the worktop), boiling in salted water, then blitzing into a creamy, sun-sweetened puree with a tangy cheese like crumbled feta or finely grated parmesan. Mix it up by blitzing with herbs, caramelised leeks or onions and serve with wilted greens or roasted tomatoes and crunchy toasted nuts.
A recipe from one of my previous newletters that would work with corn cobs whose kernels have started to lose their yolky plumpness (use two ears of corn instead of the tinned amount in the recipe).
Pan fry the kernels that you’ve stripped from the cobs with sliced shallots, cumin and mustard seeds before finishing with a squeeze of lime juice and a fistful of coriander. Serve alongside chickpea curry or red lentil dahl. Or spoon onto bread, and grate over a handful of mature cheddar before melting under the grill.
Make fritters!
