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Corn cakes with beetroot and apple salad
Serves 6 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 80g unsalted butter, melted, plus 20g for greasing
- 5 medium corn cobs, husks removed, or 500g frozen
- corn kernels, defrosted
- 3 small banana shallots, finely diced (about 100g)
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1tsp fennel seeds, lightly toasted and coarsely crushed
- 1tsp ground cumin, lightly toasted
- 1tsp celery seeds
- 15g tarragon leaves, roughly chopped
- 1tsp baking powder
- 2 large eggs, separated
- 11⁄2tsp coarse sea salt
- 2tbsp plain flour
- 60g feta, broken into 6 or 12 chunks (depending on the size of your muffin tray)
For the beetroot and apple salad
- 120g Greek yoghurt
- 2tsp Valdespino sherry vinegar (or another good-quality sherry vinegar)
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 2tbsp lemon juice
- 1⁄2tsp fennel seeds, roasted and coarsely crushed, plus 1⁄2tsp extra, to garnish
- 1⁄2tsp celery seeds
- 15g parsley, roughly chopped
- 2 medium raw beetroot, peeled and julienned (200g)
- 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and julienned (140g), (cover with water with lemon juice added, to prevent discoloration, if prepared ahead)
To serve
- 5g baby basil or small regular basil leaves
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F fan/Gas 6. Grease the six or 12 holes in the muffin tin (see introduction) very well with butter and line with squares of baking paper, cut large enough so that the sides rise a couple of centimetres above the muffin tray. Place all the ingredients for the salad, apart from the beetroot and apple, in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside until ready to serve. Place each corn cob upright on your chopping board andmuse a large sharp knife to shave off the kernels: you should have about 500g. Discard the cob and transfer the kernels to a food processor, along with the shallots and garlic. Pulse for 3-4 seconds, or until the mixture is roughly processed but has not turned to a wet purée.
Add the fennel seeds, cumin, celery seeds, tarragon, baking powder, butter and egg yolks, along with the salt and a very good grind of black pepper. Blitz a few more times, to combine – some of the corn kernels will still be whole – then transfer to a medium bowl.
Fold the flour in by hand and set aside. Place the egg whites in a separate medium bowl and whisk to form firm peaks. Fold a third of the whites gently into the corn mixture – you don’t want to overwork it – and then, once it has incorporated, continue with the next third and then the next.
Once fully incorporated, divide the mixture among the holes in the muffin tin and then insert a chunk of feta into each. Push it halfway into the corn mixture: the cakes will puff up around the cheese when they cook.
Bake for 25-40 minutes, depending on the size of your muffin holes, until the cakes have risen and are golden and fluffy: the mixture will still be a bit wet at this point. Remove from the oven and set aside for 10 minutes before lifting them out of the tray. Add the beetroot and apple to the salad dressing just before serving and mix together gently.
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