Black Corn Salad

What is Black Corn?

Black corn is native to Peru, it is often known as Aztec Corn or Mexican corn. Black Aztec is an heirloom corn variety, it has a deep purplish/black kernels.

Black corn contains a plant pigment called anthocyanins. It has anti inflammatory and antioxidant benefits and contains many essential nutrients such as iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, magnesium, folate, phosphorus, and vitamin A.

Black corn stains very easily, it has a chewy starchy texture. It can be cooked in many ways such as boiling, grilling, steaming or roasting. It’s slightly tougher and less sweet than yellow corn and it can be used in many recipes such as salsa, salads, tortilla and cornmeal. It is not readily available in the UK but can be found in many specialist greengrocers. 

Black corn is very popular in Mexican cuisine which is really colourful and rich in flavours. Why not check out this Mexican Food Guide for some inspiring dishes to try.

Yield: Serves 2

Author: Nayna Kanabar

Black Corn Salad

Crunchy black corn salad with a spicy Indo Chinese dressing.

prep time: 15 Mcook time: 55 Mtotal time: 70 M

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Juice of 1 lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger paste
• For Salad
• 1 Black corn on the cob
• 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
• 1 carrot peeled and grated
• 1/2 red capsicum finely diced
• 1/2 yellow capsicum finely diced
• 1/2 green capsicum finely diced
• 8 mini silver pickled onions cut into quarters
• 1 tablespoon red pickled jalapenos finely diced
• 8 baby tomatoes cut into quarters
• 2 sprigs coriander finely chopped

Instructions:

1. In a large saucepan add the sweet corn cover with water and boil until tender. This took almost 45 minutes as black corn is very tough.
2. Once the corn is cooked cool it and then remove the kernels.
3. In a large bowl add the sweetcorn kernels, carrot, capsicums, pickled onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos and coriander. 
4. In a jar with a lid  add the vinegar, olive oil, soya sauce, lime juice,salt, pepper, chilli flakes,and ginger. Put the lid on and shake it all together.
5. Pour the dressing  onto the vegetable mixture and toss together.
6. Serve immediately.

NOTES:

You can use yellow corn if black corn not available.

Created using The Recipes Generator

Dining experience at Copper Leaf, Hampton Wick

A short distance from Kingston-upon-Thames in Hampton Wick, Copper Leaf is a gin bar and restaurant with an extensive list of over 60 gins. It serves modern European cuisine with a fusion of many flavours.

The restaurant is tastefully decorated and offers an ala carte menu as well as a tapas menu. For the gin lovers the restaurant also offers a six-course gin pairing menu. 

Gin is the USP of the restaurant and it is the perfect place to enjoy food with a choice of 60 different gins from their bar.

I visited copper leaf with two friends, Manjiri from travelsfortaste and Heidi from kitchentalkandtravels I am a teetotaller and also a vegetarian but to my amazement I had the most wonderful dining experience at Copper Leaf.

 My friends enjoyed the Gin of the week cocktail, which was Gabriel Boudier Saffron Gin, served with Fever-Tree Light Tonic, orange zest, chocolate bitters and hand carved ice made by mixologist Hannah.

Since I don't drink Hannah made me their their signature mocktails, the Lychee Rose and the Tropical Crush.

Both were beautifully presented and tasted amazing although, I really enjoyed the Lychee Rose which was very unique in flavour.

For dinner we chose to sample the Tapas menu rather than the a la carte menu, this was a good decision as it really was exquisite. Each dish was lovingly prepared and beautifully presented. My friends tucked into various meat dishes, and were totally wowed by them.

Being a vegetarian I chose the vegetarian options:

The Tempura Asparagus served with lime Aioli  and poached egg was really crispy and delicious. I chose not to have the poached egg with it.

The Manchego cheese croquettes, were crispy filled balls of oozing cheese served with caramelised onions and pickled walnuts. What a tantalising match of flavours this was.

My palate was craving Indian flavours and I was pleasantly surprised with the little bowl of rice with spiced chickpeas with pomegranate, potato, tamarind and chilli sauce arrived. The flavours and textures were well balanced.

Lastly I tried the pan fried green beans, sundried tomato, roasted garlic and pine nuts. The beans were al dente and perfectly cooked. 

Accompanying this I also had the Batata Bravas, in comparison to the other dishes these were not as exciting in presentation but still were very tasty.

The chef also offered us the paella option, but we declined it as at this stage we were really full and would have not done justice to it wholeheartedly.

Finally when my palate was dancing with a flavour explosion and stomach was screaming no more, I was enticed with the dessert menu. Now a girl can never say no to dessert!!

We had Grilled pineapple, rum infused cherries, fresh mint and coconut sorbet featured above.
My friends Heidi had the Peanut butter cheesecake, candied peanuts, miso caramel served with ice cream.

 The final  most watering dessert was lavender and white chocolate panna cotta, macerated strawberries and ginger crumble. It was so pretty like art on a plate.

The evening was wonderful, we had lovely food and the ambience was great too. We finally finished the meal with Negroni with tea cocktail.

I was a guest at Copper Leaf, all opinions shared are of my own experience. I will certainly be visiting Copper Leaf again with my family.

I enjoy eating out and always try to find restaurants that offer good vegetarian choice. You may like to read about my visit to Chakra and Ritorno for inspiration As both restaurants offer a varied vegetarian menu.

Eggless Cashew and Pistachio Cookies.

It's great fun being part of the Recipe swap group in facebook where like minded food bloggers join forces and create a recipe from their allocated partners blog. It's a great way to make new friends and discover new  recipes from around the world. For the July challenge recipe swap,  I was allocated  Pavani's  blog  -Pavanis Kitchen . Looking through the blog I found many lovely recipes. I finally settled for Eggless Cashew and Pistachio cookies as I was having friends for tea and wanted to  serve home baked cookies. 

 The  only changes I made was that I added 1/2 teaspoon of rose essence to the dough, recipe turned out absolutely delicious. Since I used whole wheat flour, the cookies had a slight texture in them, which I liked but you can make the cookies using plain flour too. You can also make cookies with oats, I love these Vegan Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

The cookies went really well with  Jasmine tea and the flavours complimented each other beautifully. I also made chocolate chip cookies and Spiral cookies to serve at the tea party.

Yield: 30 bitesize

Author: Nayna Kanabar

Eggless Pistachio and Cashew cookies

Delicious nutty cookies that melt in the mouth with middle eastern flavours of cashew, pistachio and rose.

prep time: 10 Mcook time: 12 Mtotal time: 22 M

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup salted butter
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 2 tablespoons custard powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon rose essence
• 3 tablespoons chopped pistachios
• 3 tablespoons chopped cashews
• 4 tablespoons Milk  or as required.

Instructions:

 

1. In a large bowl add the butter and sugar and cream together.
2. In the same bowl sift the flour, custard powder, baking powder and cardamom powder.
3. Gently bring all the ingredients with a sausage shape and wrap it up in cling film.
4. Place the dough in the fridge for two hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
6. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
7. Remove dough from the fridge and using a sharp knife cut it into 5 mm  discs.
8. Place them onto a baking tray and bake in the pre heated oven for 10-12 minutes.
9. The cookies should be golden in colour.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

NOTES:

NB- Allow 2 hours chilling time.

Created using The Recipes Generator

Don't forget to check out the other recipes from this month's Food Blogger Recipe Swap!

• Potatoes Pies with Mango Chutney
• Cold Brew Coffee
• Eggless Cashew & Pistacchio Cookies
• Apple Pomegranate & Pear Salad
• Coriander Thokku
• Classic Lemon Curd
• Indo-Chinese Carrot Soup
• Chocolate Tea
• Fruit Custard