recipe: jalapeño sweetcorn fritters
using fresh corn (if it's summertime where you are) or tinned (if it's not)
What I’m reading: How to be a Better Cook - part of a new series with Sohla El-Waylly for the New York Times
What I’m listening to: Florence Pugh on Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster
What I’m eating: lots of different flavours of real fruit ice-cream, a NZ favourite - they put fresh or frozen fruit into a soft-serve machine with ice-cream and it’s pretty wonderful (below)
Ever since my time at Ballymaloe Cookery School, I’ve been a big fan of seasonal eating. Fresh fruit and vegetables are a fun way to mark the turning of the seasons: berries in summertime, rhubarb in spring, apples in autumn, citrus fruit in the depths of winter (from sunnier climates). Don’t get me started on stone fruit season, A.K.A. the best time of the year, which we even benefit from in Ireland with plums and damsons galore.
If you’re used to observing the seasons in this way, it’s quite disconcerting to find yourself in the southern hemisphere, where these patterns are quite literally flipped on their head. It’s January now, which is close to peak summertime in New Zealand, so instead of eagerly awaiting the first shipment of Seville oranges, we are enjoying an abundance of berries, stone fruit and tomatoes.
New Zealand (like Ireland) is a strong agricultural exporter, however, unlike Ireland, the diverse climate allows for the cultivation of a much greater range of produce. The climate ranges from warm subtropical in the far north to cool temperate in the far south, and while the north island is primarily volcanic, the south island is glacial. This means that we get a lot of different types of produce - which is lucky, because in case you didn’t realise, NZ is really, really far away from everywhere else in the world.
Sweetcorn requires a lot of sun, and as a result, we don’t grow much of it in Ireland. It’s better suited to hotter climates (like Mexico and much of Central America), which luckily for me, a big fan of corn, includes New Zealand. At the moment the supermarkets are resplendent with sweetcorn: it’s piled high in crates, and there’s usually an empty trolley parked close by, so you can remove the husk before you bring it home. It’s kind of lovely watching huddles of people shucking to their hearts’ content, and obviously I wanted to be involved - hence these fritters.
These fritters are very easy to make, and are a variation on a breakfast theme I make quite often: some sort of fried vegetable (see these potato rosti from a few weeks ago), little salad-y situation, perhaps an egg, or in this case, whipped ricotta. I used a 1/3 cup measure for these, but you could definitely go smaller, and I would actually recommend it, for optimal crispiness. If you want these to completely top the crispiness charts (?), I would recommend deep-frying - I just couldn’t justify it for a solo lunch. Next time, maybe.
recipe: jalapeño sweetcorn fritters with whipped lemon ricotta
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