Words Ross Bowles and Tracie Zahavich, Fox and Monocle Café
Photo Janis Jean
At Fox and Monocle we look forward to corn season every year. It is a vegetable with a refreshing sweet taste, great texture and a nostalgic flavour. The versatility of this vegetable is unlike most. Its starch can be helpful in recipes like our Corn Tart, helping the custard set in a way that doesn’t work with other vegetable purees. When blended, its slight sweetness and silky texture allows you to add moisture and flavour depth to cakes and breads. The Peninsula has some incredible farms that grow corn; Silver Rill is our go-to for all of our corn needs!
Honey, Whisky, Corn Loaf (Yields two loaves at 1,000g each)
1 cup / 250g cream
2 cobs corn
9 large eggs (442g)
2 ¾ cups / 560g sugar
½ cup / 60g honey
1 tbsp vanilla
1/3 cup / 40g whisky
3 ¾ cups / 432g all purpose flour
2 tsp / 9g baking powder
¼ tsp / 2g salt
2/3 cup / 160g melted butter
Glaze
1 cup / 140g icing sugar
3tsp / 15g whisky
4tbsp / 90g honey
Cut corn off the cob. Roast corn at 325°F in a preheated oven for 15 minutes. Cover with cream and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow it to sit for 15 minutes. Blend with either a blender or hand blender until smooth’ some small chunks are ok. Set to the side.
Spray your loaf pan.
Place eggs, sugar, corn and cream mixture, honey, vanilla, and whisky into the bowl of a stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, mix on medium speed until uniform. Add flour, baking powder and salt to liquid and mix on medium speed until smooth. Add melted butter and mix until fully incorporated.
Pour batter into your prepared loaf pans. Place in a 325°F convection oven and bake for 45 minutes. If your oven is not convection, I would bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
In a bowl, mix icing sugar, honey and whisky; set to the side covered. Once loaves are fully cooled, pour glaze over loaves and enjoy.
Corn Soup (Yield – 2L)
3 cups / 460g onion, chopped
1 cup / 175g celery, chopped
3 tsp / 15g garlic, minced
600g corn (220g sautéed separately, 380g blended)
2 tbsp / 23g oil
1 tbsp / 18g salt
4 cups / 1L stock
1 2/3 cups / 400ml cream
Corn stock
3 cobs corn
1/2 tsp / 2g peppercorns
5 sprigs thyme
4 cups / 1L water
Cut corn off the cob. Roast cobs at 375°F in a preheated oven for 30 minutes. Cover with 1L water and aromatics. Boil hard for 30 minutes and strain.
Sweat onion, celery, garlic, and salt over medium flame until soft and translucent. Do not brown. Add 380g corn and sweat until corn is tender. Add stock and cream. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes. Blend soup and pass through a fine mesh strainer.
Sweat 220g corn in as little oil as possible until tender. Stir into blended soup.
Savoury Corn Custard Tart (Yields two 9” pies)
Pie Dough
2 ½ cups / 325g all purpose flour
1 tsp / 5g salt
1 cup / 230g cold diced butter
¼ cup / 60ml cold water
Corn stock
3 cobs corn
1/2 tsp / 2g peppercorns
5 sprigs thyme
4 cups / 1L water
Corn Puree
6 ¼ cups / 1000g corn kernels
4 cups / 1L corn stock
½ cup / 120g butter
Custard
2 cups / 500g milk
2 ¼ cups / 530g cream
11 large eggs (530g)
3 cups / 830g corn puree
1.5 tbsp / 24g salt
Preheat Oven to 350°F
Pie Dough
With paddle attachment, mix salt, butter and flour on medium speed. Continue to mix until a sand-like texture develops. Add your water and continue to mix until dough forms one mass and there is no dry crumble in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Remove dough from mixer and split in half. Roll dough out to be slightly larger than your pie plate. Line your pie plate or tart mold with the pie dough. Trim off any excess dough and discard. Line your pie dough with parchment paper and pour your pie weights or baking beans into the pie plate. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until par baked. Once the pie shell has been par baked, remove from the oven and remove the baking beans. Set the pie shell to the side.
Corn Stock
Cut corn off the cob. Roast cobs at 375°F in a preheated oven for 30 minutes. Cover with 1L water and aromatics. Boil hard for 30 minutes and strain.
Corn Puree
Heat a pan with a small amount of oil, add corn and sweat until corn is tender. Add stock and reduce down until stock is fully reduced. Mix in butter and blend until smooth.
Custard
Combine all ingredients with a hand blender. Pour into blind-baked tart shell. Bake at 325°F for 30-45min
