Fresh corn cobs are still available at the farmers’ and outdoor markets and after eating my fill of boiled corn on the cob, I wanted to use it in some other way. After a disappointing corn waffle at one London restaurant, I thought I’d cook my own corny brunch one past Sunday. Since I don’t have a waffle maker/grill, I thought I’d make fritters instead. These turned out to be more like pancakes as I didn’t use much oil to fry them.
The corn fritters turned out gorgeously toothsome being chock-full with all those fresh corn kernels and when paired with some streaky bacon, became even better. Taking it all to another level was the honey I drizzled over them! I think maple syrup would be lovely too, the sweetness matching perfectly with the sweet carbiness of the fritters and saltiness of the bacon.
Fresh Corn Fritters
adapted from a recipe by Bill Granger.
serves 3-4.
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp hot smoked paprika
1 tbsp sugar
2 medium eggs
1/2 cup milk
fresh corn kernels, cut from 2 cobs
oil for frying
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, paprika and sugar. Crack in the eggs and beat them into the flour. Add the milk bit by bit and stir well to combine. You should end up with a very thick pancake batter. Stir through the corn kernels.
Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil, twirling the pan to coat the surface evenly. Fry the batter as you would pancakes, using 1 tablespoonful of batter per fritter. This will take about 1-2 minutes a side, until they are golden brown.
Serve with rashers of bacon on the side and honey or maple syrup to pour over.
Chocolate and Zucchini have a post on Jo-Jo potatoes (or Deluxe potatoes at French McDonalds), those deep-fried, spiced potato wedges. I make similar potato wedges but utilising solely Spanish pimenton as a seasoning. I should get that recipe up here sometime.
On Serious Eats, the Pioneer Woman compares Scharffen Berger chocolate brownies, regular baking chocolate brownies, and brownies from a bag of mix. Which tasted best? Do we really have to ask?
There are recipes for homemade chili-garlic sauce over on Viet World Kitchen. I bring back bottles of this stuff from Vancouver but it’s nice to have a recipe just in case I run out. It adds a great pep to a lot of recipes.
Our Adventures in Japan explains how to make 0-musubi/o-nigiri. I bet they’d be great for picnics!
Corn fritters over at the Asian Grandmothers Cookbook! You know, they’re nice with a bit of Spam chopped up inside…
Alright, once again, I’m disappearing for a couple of weeks. There should be posts when I come back, posts on food from the other side of the world!
Taiwanese food! I love it and I loved what we tried at Ho-ja on Goldhawk Road in Shepherd’s Bush. I was first introduced to the restaurant by a friend who organised a karaoke night in one of their two private rooms downstairs. While the karaoke was ok (language variety good, song variety in English meh), the food was memorable. I returned last week with Blai.
The location was one I remembered as being an old-fashioned British diner in times past – I recall having Spam fritters for the first time there! The business has turned over a couple times since then and is now Ho-ja. The space is large and is peppered with wooden benches and tables – we’re shown to the end of a large communal one as the smaller tables are all taken. We have menus but one needs to order and pay at the counter and the food is brought out to you when it’s ready.
Our spread looks good, no? First up was a pork katsu bento – it’s not really in a bento box but is akin to the set meals that are typically Taiwanese. For something like £6, we got a slightly greasy fried breaded pork cutlet, some stewed cabbage, beansprouts, and rice. Portions are certainly hearty.
A side order of their chicken popcorn is surprisingly greaseless by comparison. It’s extremely addictive and it would be worth ordering this as a bento main.
The Ho-ja beef roll also comes with vegetables (steamed broccoli here) and are flaky scallion pancakes rolled around lots of salad leaves and some stewed beef. Fabulous stuff! We loved the freshness of the greens with the richer bread and beef. Just watch out for the skewers holding the rolls together… it’s easy to accidentally give yourself an unwanted piercing.
With a bubble tea and a regular jasmine tea, the bill came to about £22, a pretty good deal. It’s definitely a place to look out for if you’re in search of a bite in the area.
Ho Ja
39 Goldhawk Road
Shepherd’s Bush
London W12 8QQ
I can’t believe it’s already been 4 years since I first visited Greece. This time I was there for almost a week – Saturday night to Thursday night – and it was mainly for work. And this time, the quality of the food we had everywhere really made a big impact on me; I came back to London thoroughly missing the food and the weather.
I arrived at my hotel at about 9pm on the Saturday night and after dropping everything off in my room, headed straight out again for nourishment. Nearby to my hotel is Ravaisi, a souvlaki place with outdoor seating (packed) and a long queue for takeaway – promising signs indeed! At €2 for each sandwich, I thought things would be petite and hence ordered one pork gyros sandwich and one of chicken too. They were huge – each the size of London burritos – and, of course, I couldn’t finish them. They were excellent though!
The next day was a free day for me before work would kick in. The weather was beautiful and I spent the morning wandering around the Ancient Agora …
… and then the Roman Agora.
Lunch was at a suitably Greek time of 3pm and I headed over to Oineas, which seemed to have good reviews on Google. I wasn’t disappointed.
The restaurant had a good selection of meze and main courses and solo diners can still have a selection of meze by just choosing those that are offered by the piece. The cuisine is Greek but with a modern twist. Highlights for me were the incredible cheese pie made with kadaifi pastry and then sat in a pool of melted cheese …
… and this homemade little burger patty with a delicious spicy sauce.
My main course was a tender grilled calamari and homemade fries and its size did defeat me after all that initial cheese and meat.
I thought I couldn’t fit in another bite but when a little slice of syrup soaked walnut cake was deposited on my table along with the bill, I tucked into that too!
That afternoon was spent at the National Archaelogical Museum, which is truly worth a visit if you have the time. The treasures within are indeed jaw-dropping.
Dinner that evening was with an old friend I was meeting again after many years and he took me to spiti, an Italian restaurant in the outskirts of the city. Now here was where the locals eat! We split a couple of excellent salads. Here’s a tomato and caper leaf salad with a local cheese …
… and a refreshing salmon and avocado salad.
My main course was a grilled croaker served with a little mound of Swiss chard and tomatoes and an excellent lemon sauce.
We couldn’t fit any more after this, which was a shame as the food really was very good. I loved seeing another side of Athens.
On my first night after work, a colleague brought us to Efxaris, around the corner from Monastiraki station. Despite its super touristy location, our colleague had been brought there in the past by an Athenian and the restaurant was indeed filled with locals. Between 6 of us, we split a fine moussaka, …
… a ridiculous meat platter (grilled meat, more grilled meat, grilled chicken, grilled kebabs, gyros, etc), …
… an equally ridiculous seafood platter (fried and grilled and boiled things galore), …
… a Greek salad (not pictured), and finally a couple mountains of Greek yogurt with honey. Prices were extremely reasonable and I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a place in the heart of the city.
Sometime the next day, I discovered Greek spoon sweets, the jammy candied fruits traditionally served with a spoon to guests as a sweet welcome. These little figs were insanely delicious and I after this introduction, I bought a couple of jars of spoon sweets to take home and we’re enjoying them with Greek yoghurt at home.
The second evening, another Athens resident referred us to Scholarchio, a highlight of my trip. Yes, it’s quite touristy but you do find locals there too and after our meal, my Greek friend did deem the food very good and the flavours correct. And best of all is the price – for groups, it’s €15 a head for a set number of dishes to share, mineral water, another drink (ouzo, beer, wine or soft drink), bread and dessert. To aid with selection of dishes (we got to choose 17 between 7 of us), the waiter brings a massive plate of the available prepared dishes …
… and also recites what can be ordered freshly made from the kitchen. You make your selection, start with what’s already ready to go, and wait for the rest of the dishes to be prepared. Let’s see, clockwise from the right in the photo below, we have giant beans, stewed pork in wine, dolmades in lemon sauce, and tyrokauteri (a fantastic spicy cheese).
Let’s see, left to right below, we have fava (one of my favourite dips, Greek yellow split pea puree), tzatziki, taramasalata, and spicy pork sausages.
More! Clockwise from the bottom: a new favourite – horta (boiled wild greens), another meat dish (beef?), meatballs in tomato sauce.
It didn’t end there! The freshly fried stuff coming out of their kitchen was all excellent. Fried whitebait was crisp and non-greasy.
Saganaki (fried cheese) was very popular at our table …
… as were fried aubergines.
One of our other meat dishes was a tigania chicken, a sauteed chicken dish made with lemon and mustard. There was also a tigania pork with balsamic vinegar and honey.
Courgette and feta fritters were also delicious if a bit salty; nothing a lot of tzatziki couldn’t solve though!
There were other dishes too – too many to keep track of! I recall a Greek salad and fried courgettes and fried potatoes. And maybe another meat dish. How many is that already? Dessert was another slice of the typical syrup-soaked cakes I’d been seeing – this time orange.
It’s a fun place to eat and to eat well too. I enjoyed working my way through an excellent spread!
On my last day, a quick trip to the supermarket about a 2 minute walk from my hotel ensured that my dried oregano supplies are now at their freshest. I also loved seeing the impressive range of feta and Greek yoghurt available!
Before heading to the airport to catch my flight home, I also couldn’t help popping back into Ravaisi to get one last stick of pork souvlaki (they call each souvlaki stick kalamaki) – this was a perfect snack!
Ah, I really do miss Athens and all the amazing food I had there! One thing I did notice was how fabulous all the tomatoes were at all restaurants, even at the cheapest places. Actually, all the ingredients were top notch everywhere…this is some excellent Mediterranean cuisine! As usual, all my photos can be found in this Flickr album.
Tamarind and Thyme 