Sweet Corn & Pesto Nuggets
Ingredients
- 1 large corn cob or 1/2 cup frozen corn
- 1 tsp basil or parsley pesto
- 3 Tbsp cottage/ ricotta cheese I used homemade goat chervre
- 2 free range eggs
- 3 tbsp flour GF: use 2 Tbsp rice flour + 1 Tbsp tapioca flour
- salt & cracked pepper
- Ghee for cooking
Instructions
- If using fresh corn, remove the husk from the corn and use the large holes of a grater to remove the kernels. The corn will be super juicy and squirt juice everywhere but the idea is to end up with a rough purée rather than whole corn kernels. If using frozen corn blitz in a food processor until a rough purée. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl stirring to just combine. Check the consistency, the batter should be quite thick so it will hold its shape while cooking. Add extra flour if needed.
- Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a moderate heat, add a small knob of ghee and drop oblong shaped nuggets into the pan by rolling the batter off the side of a tablespoon. Cook until golden around the edges then flip and cook until golden on both sides.
- Serve the corn nugget with Zesty Yogurt Sauce.
Notes
GROWING SWEET CORN
We love fresh corn and as we have a relatively large garden area I planted out most of a garden bed in corn this season. From about 15 corn plants we ended up with maybe 20 corn cobs ! – they were super sweet and juicy ones mind you. Considering our family of 4 can easily eat 3-4 corn cobs for dinner, 20 cobs doesn’t go far. Ah well, luckily we have some awesome local growers who can plant rows and rows of corn to satisfy our sweet corn cravings. Tip: For sweet juicy corn at the table it is important to eat corn within 48 hours of harvest – any longer and the sugars start to turn to starch resulting in a drier texture. If you don’t grow your own then ideally buy from a farmers market where you can ask the grower when the corn was harvested.
A few notes about growing corn for next season: Corn seeds are best direct sown (if possible) into a prepared garden bed. If you have to sow them in containers due to space then use cardboard toilet rolls to sow the seeds into. Once the seedlings are 5cm high plant them, toilet roll and all, into the garden bed with a 25cm spacing between plants. The toilet roll will soften and breakdown into the soil as the plant grows without disturbing the root system while transplanting. Corn is ready to pick once the fine hair sticking out of the top of the cobs starts to dry and turn brown.
Read more about Direct Sowing seeds HERE *And if you have any corn growing tips [or can tell me how to get more than a few cobs per plant] please share them below.
Sweet corn is my kids’ absolute favorite – they wanted me to plant nothing but corn on our allotment! It indeed gives a rather small harvest for the space it occupies in the garden. I almost always preseed corn in small containers because our season is relatively short.
I like that your make the batter with ricotta, I will give your recipe a go when our corn is ready – which unfortunatelly will take another 4 or 5 months…
Hi Vera, the batter is lovely as it isn’t overly floury like some fritter batters can be. Happy Gardening 😉
Hi Nicola. I just found this recipe – sounds yummy. Must give it a go. I have heaps of corn in the freezer so will cut off and puree it. Growing corn – I am sure it needs to be planted in blocks not in rows. Deep/square blocks is important for germination I understand rather than long rows. Hope this helps this years crop.
I should have said pollination not germination!
Corn is monoecious (mon-ee-shuss) which means that there are both male and female flowers on each corn plant. In some monoecious plants, male and female parts are in the same flower. In corn, male and female flowers are in different locations – the male flowers form a tassel which is at the top of the plant. The female flower is located at the junction of leaves and stem. It consists of a collection of hairs (silks) enclosed in the husks of what will become the ears. These silks are pollen-receiving tubes. Wind-blown pollen from the male flowers (tassel) falls on the silks below. Each silk leads to a kernel, and pollen must land on all silks for the ear to fill out completely with kernels. Kernel “skips” (ears only partly filled out with kernels) often are the result of poor pollination. Better grown in blocks not rows to encourage better pollination as corn is wind pollinated.
Hi Margaret, thanks for sharing. That makes sense. I do plant them in blocks but probably not enough plants in a block. Again I need more garden space 🙂