The wanderer returns!

Horrah, my flatmate has returned!  I have just spent a little over a week living on my own.  Suddenly I’ve discovered (a) how little interest I have in cooking meals for one and (b) what an inordinate amount of extra time I have without a small, cheese-hating, reality TV addicted housemate on tap to entertain me.

In fact I can safely say I missed her this much...

There were chutneys, marmalades, jellies and jams coming out of my ears by the time she arrived back from her Croatian holiday. I was like a crazed preserve addict, only stopping when I ran out of jars... at which point I started making and freezing Christmas presents despite the fact that it's only just September! 

I made a rather nice apricot & vanilla jam – which left me with a supply of apricot kernels to be used for these little beauties!  So I’ve frozen the kernels and will be baking the Ricciarelli at a later date (read: when I can think of a viable excuse for consuming large quantities of soft almondy biscuits).

Anyhoo... one of the things I did to entertain myself (after my jar supply had run out) was pop home to visit my family.  Mum and Dad (as usual) loaded me down with veggies from their allotment.  I came home with armfuls of corn, four of which were baked into a roasted sweet corn and chilli cornbread... Delish! - Especially when still warm from the oven and so quick to make!  It'll be perfect comfort food teamed up with a bowl of soup on a blustery autumnal day.  The basic cornbread recipe was adapted from this book.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C.  Roast the corn cobs in their husks for 20-30 minutes until the kernels are sweet and tender. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before cutting the kernels from the cobs.

Combine the flour, polenta, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Make a well in the centre and gently pour in the eggs, buttermilk and butter.  Mix until you have a smooth batter. 

Stir in the sweet corn kernels and chilli.  Pour the batter into a greased 20cm square cake tin.  I used a bigger tin which resulted in a very sad, thin loaf - next time I'm sticking to the correct tin! 

Sprinkle the top with Malden salt.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly golden and firm.  Allow to cool slightly in the tin then turn out and cut to small squares.  Serve warm.

Basic Cornbread:

150g plain flour

150g polenta flour

4tsp baking powder

½tsp salt

50g caster sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

250ml full-fat milk

2tbsp butter, melted

large pinch of Maldon salt

Additions for Roasted Corn and Chilli Cornbread:

4 sweet corn cobs, kernels only

1tsp dried red chilli flakes