Chicken, Corn & Pomegranate Salad

 
 

 

This colourful but simple Chicken, Corn & Pomegranate salad was a success.  Not many ingredients but nice contrasts of textures.

 

Ingredients:

 

Chicken thighs (no skin or bones)

Pomegranate seeds

Corn cob

Basil (fresh)

Coconut milk

Chicken stock cube

Bay Leaf

Salt & pepper

Red wine vinegar

 

Method:

 

Poach the chicken in a mixture of coconut milk and chicken stock (the cube plus water).  Season with salt and pepper and chuck in a bay leaf.

 

Let it cool after it is tender and cut the chicken up into salad sized chunks.

 

Steam your corn cob – I have a microwave steamer that works well.  Boiling for 15 minutes would be fine too – no salt though.

 

Cut the kernels off the cob.  Combine with the poached chicken, basil and pomegranate seeds.  Season with a little salt and pepper.  When the salad is pretty cool, drizzle a little red wine vinegar over it.

 

The whole thing took about 20 minutes – most of that time being the time to poach the chicken.  If you had leftover chicken this salad would be even quicker.

Curry Easy Corn

This side dish, which I have called Curry Easy Corn, was  from Madhur Jaffrey's book Curry Easy. 

I followed her directions pretty closely (for a change) and was pleased with the result.  The corn was not too creamy and had subtle spicy flavours that melded together well and had a pleasant afterburn in your mouth that built up gradually.

I used 3 sweetcorns on the cob, but you could use canned kernels or frozen ones (Jaffrey says that if you use frozen you need to let them thaw and then drain before cooking).

I suggest you prepare all the spices/flavourings first because when it comes time to cook it all happens very quickly.  From beginning to cook to the completed dish takes no more than 5 minutes – super.

So in one little bowl put:

1 tsp mustard seeds (I used yellow ones)

4 cardamom pods (whole)

4 cloves

1 in stick of cinnamon

2 bay leaves.

And in another little bowl put a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger and 1 or 2 teaspoons of finely chopped green chili (seeds left in).

You heat up some oil in a frying pan (I used leftover duck fat but pretty much any oil will work).

When the oil is hot throw in the first bowl with the mustard seeds etc (when I say throw in the bowl I meant throw the contents of the bowl in!).  The mustard seeds will start popping almost straight away.  Just give it one stir and then add the chilli and ginger.  One more stir and put your corn in.

I pre-cooked the corn and then took it off the cob before hand.

A quick stir for a minute and then add the naughtyish ingredient 150ml (5 fl oz) of cream and 1 teaspoon of salt.

Lower the heat and stir away until almost all the cream has been absorbed.  This won't take long.  Do keep stirring at this stage – you don't want the cream to catch on the bottom.

Now you are done – just fish out the cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves before serving.

Kumara potato & corn salad

I changed up a potato salad a bit.  I used a combination of kumara potato and sweetcorn.  I cooked the potato and kumara in the same pot (with the kumara cut into larger pieces than the potato to even out the cooking time).  I also threw 3 garlic cloves (peeled) into the water.

I also cooked a ½ corn cob for 15 minutes in boiling water and then refreshed it in cold water and cut the kernels off the cob when it was cool enough to handle.

Dress the salad while the potato etc is still warm.  I used salt, pepper, Dijon mustard, and some Paul Newman's Classic Caesar dressing.  I also included a little finely chopped red onion and the cooked garlic just smushed with a knife.

A little parsley for garnish and it was done.

Savoury Pancakes – Just as Good as the Sweet??

I put the kernels off a leftover cooked corn on the cob into a bowl.  Then some chopped red onion, a little chopped tomato and ½ a green chilli (finely diced).

For spices I put in a little chilli powder, grated ginger, salt and cumin seeds.

Then I added 1 cup of plain flour plus a teensy bit of baking soda (say 1/8^th of a teaspoon).

I mixed this all up and then gradually added 1 cup of ice cold water – don't add it all at once and stop when the mixture is milkshake consistency and there are no lumps.

Rest the pancake mixture in the fridge for 10 minutes or so.

Heat some oil until hot, then spoon in the mixture in batches – the first 2 lots I did were too large and as a result I couldn't turn them over without breaking them.  I did get one ok – and that is the one in the pic, of course!

They were tasty – spicy without being overwhelmingly so – particularly the crispy edges.

Need Some Inspiration? Try Corn!

Here are some great corn dishes from Food on Friday: September  that I have selected for your inspiration. 

The dish at the top of this post is from The Midnight Baker – Judith's delightful decadent looking Mexican Street Corn

Sweet Corn and Roasted Tomato Gnocchi by Nicole of Culinary Cool – beautiful food styling too!

Zucchini and Corn Fritters by Phong Hong Bakes & Cooks

Corn Salsa by Jessica of Sweet Love & Ginger