Ohhh Sooo Corny~~

First of all, welcome everybody to my very first post on my food blog! I've been a foodie for 2 years now and I have created this blog to share my love of food with you guys and I hope you would enjoy this blogspace as much as I will :)

The first dish that I have decided to make was a dish that was made on Masterchef by George Calombaris and its called 4 textures of corn. Its basically a dish using only one core ingredient and to show the versatility of what we can make with that one core ingredient. This dish consists of a corn puree, a corn custard, a corn salad and popcorn!

My interest in making this dish comes from my inability to decide whether this is a sweet or savoury dish. The dish was a success and after tasting it, I would think that it would lean more towards being a dessert, and it would be one of the most healthiest dessert ever cause there was no sugar involved whatsoever in the dish, due to the powering sweetness of the sweetcorn itself. Even while preparing I could just smell the sweetness of the corn, and yes its literally 'smell the sweetness', you could seriously just eat the corn raw!




The completed dish!

                                                                

The following ingredients has been taken from the Masterchef website but I've tweaked a few of it just to make life a whole lot easier xD

Ingredients

Roasted sweet corn and smoked almond salad

1 corn cob, husk left on

1/4 cup whole smoked almonds, roughly chopped

1 eschalot, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, to drizzle

Salt and pepper, to taste

Note : I changed the almonds to walnut cause I think the shape of the walnut gives the dish a nicer image and texture. eschalot may be hard to find hence I substitute it with shallots which give the dish a huge punch of flavour. Onions could be used as a substitute as well. If you don't have white wine vinegar, it would be fine to add 1 tbs of white vinegar and 1tbs of white wine. It works fine.

Corn puree

45g butter

6 corn cobs, grated on microplane

200ml milk

Corn custard

1 grated corn cob, cob only

250ml milk

200g corn puree

4 sheets gelatine, gold leaf strength, softened

Note : you could substitute the gelatine sheets with gelatine powder, the ratio of one sheet is to 1 tsp of gelatine powder

Popcorn

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

100g raw popcorn kernels

Saffron butter

pinch saffron

20ml boiling water

50g butter, softened

Note : you could substitute it with imitation saffron powder. saffron is EXpensive ><

Method

Roasted sweet corn and smoked almond salad

1. Cook corn cob over a BBQ or grill plate until charred. Remove husks and discard. Cut kernels from cob and place in a bowl.

2. Add nuts and sliced shallots and drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine and spoon into a serving dish.

Corn puree

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan, add grated corn and cook, stirring for 3-5 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and 200ml milk. Bring to the boil and simmer gently, stirring often for about 12 minutes until mixture thickens. Blend in a bar blender until smooth, return to pan.

Corn custard

1. For corn infused milk, chop reserved corn bob into 5-6 pieces and place in a small saucepan with milk and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, then leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Strain and reserve.

2. Add softened gelatine leaves to warm milk and stir until melted. Add 200g corn puree to a large bowl and stir in gelatine milk mixture, stir well to combine. Sieve into a jug and set aside.

3. Pour corn mixture into any mold to your liking and refrigerate until set.

Popcorn

1. Soak saffron in water until colour starts to bleed. Blend with butter, set aside. (or you could use imitation saffron to give its orange/red colour)

2. Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat, add popcorn, cover with a lid and wait for kernels to pop and open. Shake the pan often. Once nearly all popped, add saffron butter and stir to coat. Return lid for 1 minute, then drain popcorn in a colander to remove excess butter.





Corn Custard and Popcorn!

Corn Salad and Corn Puree ~ 





***Credits to Nicole for the AWESOME photography and Ethel for popping the popcorn!