When I was little once
a year the whole neighbourhood came together for a large jointly barbecue. For
me it felt like a big annual dinner party! I remember one neighbour being
responsible for the fire, another for hiring the barbecues and yet another for buying
the meat. The women made sensational salads, the baker baked twenty additional
French breads that day and the children were rejoicing the expected dessert:
bananas with dark chocolate, carefully wrapped in tinfoil which you could
unpack on your plate and eat with a little bit of ice cream. I preferred to
hang about the barbecues. At eye level red meat transformed in brown with black
grill streaks. I loved to be a part of the grown up talks. My mother always
made her famous Belgian endive/chicory salad and my brother and sisters and I
helped wrapping the bananas. The only one never looking forward to the annual
party was my dad. He didn’t like the waiting and the long dining at all. I can
remember a few elder girls had grilled corncobs one time. I remember them
sitting on the side of the sandpit, picking and enjoying the golden grains. I
was completely jealous of course but I didn’t let it show. And because I didn’t
want to let my mother down I bravely scooped up another spoon of Belgian endive
salad. I presume I asked my mother for corncobs after that but I can’t remember
ever eating them. Last weekend I had two corncobs on my kitchen counter for the
first time and suddenly I was standing by that sandpit again. I couldn’t help
smiling and I thought: these ones are just for me!
Corn or maize is a type
of grass. 9000 years ago it was cultivated by the Olmecs and Mayas in Central
America for the first time. From the plains of the Tehuacan valley the
cultivation of corn spread throughout the Americas. After Columbus discovered
the New World corn became well known in the Old World through the Columbian
Exchange. Not because of its appetizing yellow grains but mainly because of its
easy adjustment to all sorts of climates – in contrast to the buckwheat seeds
from my last post. Nowadays we not only eat corn, we also use it for biofuel,
and we feed it to livestock. It’s actually kind of strange how much farmland we
use to grow corn to feed livestock instead of using the farmland to feed
ourselves directly. If you want to know more you can watch the BBC2 Horizon
documentary Should I Eat Meat. When we do use corn in our kitchens instead of
our stables we use it for wraps, tacos, and tortillas as well as for American
Bourbon whiskey. Corn starch helps to set sauces and corn oil you could compare
with oils like rapeseed oil and sunflower oil. But I’m afraid popcorn and
cornflakes are the most famous corn products…
I often hear vegans and
vegetarians complain about the barbecue season: too much meat and too little
other dishes and veggies. Seriously, these are first world problems and they go
beyond me! The beauty of being asked to join some lovely people around their
fire and to join their meal is very precious to me. And really, the only thing
you have to do is bring some of your own food, food you like to eat and is
suitable for a barbecue. Well, that isn’t too hard to ask when you have some
corncobs at hand! Or large mushrooms which you can fill with other veggies and
cheese, potatoes which you can pop on the fire with some fresh herbs and
butter, fresh fish, mangos, peaches, pineapples: rock yourself out! The stewed
tomatoes, parsley pesto and corn bread in this blogpost you can all make a night
before. The stewed tomatoes are a nice side dish, the parsley pesto you can put
on literally anything and the cornbread you can grill on the barbecue and eat
with your salad or fish. So, if you’re being invited to a nice barbecue in the
foreseeable future, say yes! Or knock yourself out and have a barbecue party
yourself! But beware: you’ll be the one in charge of the fire…
Recipe Stewed Tomatoes
Ingredients
3 red onions, finely
chopped
2 cloves of garlic,
minced
2 tsp cumin powder
grains of two corncobs
1 kilo tomatoes
400 ml coconut milk
salt and pepper to
taste
a few sprigs of
coriander or some finely chopped spring onion
1. Fry onions and
garlic with salt, pepper and cumin in a large stockpot on medium fire for about
10 minutes.
2. Cut tomatoes and add
to the stockpot. Fry for about 10 minutes. Add coconut milk and corn grains.
Cook for 10 minutes (or until the corn grains are done). Serve with coriander
or spring onion.
Serve these Stewed
Tomatoes with cornbread, potatoes or rice.
Recipe Corn Bread
This bread gets old
very quickly so bake it, let it cool down, cut it in slices and freeze it. You
can put the frozen slices on the barbecue and eat them with Parsley Pesto,
honey, or salted butter.
Ingredients
250 gr corn flour
300 gr wheat flour
pinch of salt
300 ml warm water
7 gr dried yiest
150 ml warm water
1 tsp sugar
1. In a small bowl mix
yiest with sugar and 150 ml warm water. Set aside for 10 min. The mixture
should be doubled in size and should be covered in foam otherwise your yiest is
dead and you should start again.
2. In a large bowl mix
corn flour, salt, and wheat flour. Make a well in the middle of the bowl and
pour the yiest mixture into it. Knead until the dough comes together and isn’t
sticky anymore (if this isn’t the case after 15 min. add a bit of wheat flour
to the dough).
3. Leave the dough to
rise for 60 min in a clean large oiled bowl or stockpot on a warm spot inside your house. Cover with a tablecloth. Search your house for the best spot,
maybe it’s on top of your boiler, maybe it’s inside a drawer near the oven,
maybe its somewhere else. This will help your dough rising and will improve the
quality of the bread.
4. Knead the dough
again for about 10 minutes. Place in a greased bread or cake baking mold and
leave the dough to rise for 30 min this time, again on the best place you can
find.
5. Preheat your oven on
200 degree Celsius and bake until your bread’s done, that should be about 40
min but you should check around 35 and then around 45 again because every oven
does things differently.
Recipe Parsley Pesto
I made this pesto with
parsley because I needed space in my kitchen garden for my little winter
endive, kale, carrot, and beetroot plants but you can choose any fresh herb you
want: basil, coriander, mint, or beetroot leaf, it all will do! And use a lot,
like ‘a lot’ a lot. You can add a teaspoon dried rosemary or oregano to taste.
The amount of olive oil you use depends on how solid or liquid you like your
pesto.
Ingredients
a very large bunch of
parsley (see picture)
1 or 2 cloves of
garlic, minced
salt and pepper to
taste
100 gr roasted pine
nuts
2 tbsp lemon juice
eyeball the amount of olive
oil
1. Plunge the parsley a couple of times in water to remove sand. Chop the parsley. Roast the pine nuts in a hot skillet without oil or butter until golden.
2. Process pine nuts in your food processor. Then add all other ingredients except for the olive oil and process until smooth. Taste. Add salt and pepper and optional dried herbs to taste. Add the olive oil little by little until the pesto has the consisency you're looking for.
Serve this pesto with corn bread, French bread, baked potatoes, or use it as a dip for homemade fries.
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