For this week's
Family Favourites on
Kitchen Exploits, let me welcome a talented and beautiful woman, Rachel, also known as
The Pleasure Monger. Rachel is a mother of a lively, chatty daughter who turned one recently.
If you haven't seen the stuff Rachel bakes, or the food she has styled and photographed, I highly recommend that you have a look at her website for some serious drool! Welcome, Rachel! :)
:: My husband, M and I love to cook and if we had a choice, we would spend all day tinkering with recipes in the kitchen. We used to do that when we were living in London, you know..when we had our own kitchen and easy access to good and affordable produce in the ubiquitous farmer's markets, and when we were just, well, us.
Moving back to Singapore brought a few changes to our lifestyle. We no longer have our own kitchen as we live with my in-laws, and cooking in someone else's kitchen is always slightly awkward because the existing workflow just doesn't work for us. Quality produce isn't hard to come by in Singapore these days but they do come with a hefty price tag; having been spoilt rotten with the large, cheap-ish selection in London, M and I are now reluctant to shell out more than what we used to pay for good ingredients. Also, we somehow birthed a baby girl shortly after the big move across the globe, which essentially means that we are exhausted and time-strapped, with nary an ounce of energy left to experiment in the kitchen. Now that our daughter has turned one, things are surely getting more manageable on the parenting front. We find ourselves thinking more and more about exciting dishes that we could try making at home and are dying to cook up a storm again, but we are still largely keeping to recipes that are affordable, quick and easy to execute. Basically, anything that makes sense for our health, pockets and schedules while keeping us 'belly' happy on the palates, is good to go these days.
We also try to cook dishes that are suitable for our daughter, as this helps us enjoy food as a family (and shaves time off meal preps). She basically has anything that we have, that doesn't have salt and added sugar, and usual offenders that don't sit well with most babies such as chillies. We are pretty fortunate in that she doesn't suffer from any food allergies (thus far), so cooking for her has been relatively fuss-free.
This recipe is inspired by our daughter's love for avocados. She practically inhales them and avocados are now a staple in her diet. We often keep a huge stash of that buttery goodness, and at times, end up with too many ripe ones at home. What we like to do is to chuck them into a spicy guacamole, and serve them with anything we can think of - crackers, nachos, chicken, salads. Our current favourite pairing is with corn fritters, which are perfect for kids too, except that we were feeling indulgent; we threw some bacon into the mix, and added sausages for a bulkier meal. This made for a very satisfying and flavoursome lunch, even though it is (too) easy to prepare! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.
Corn and Bacon Fritters with Guacamole
(A) Corn and Bacon Fritters
250g tinned corn kernels*
170g streaky bacon, diced
2 tablespoons finely chopped onions
100g self-raising flour
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1 tablespoon fresh milk
Ground black pepper to taste
Olive oil, for pan-frying
*These are already cooked, and soaked in water. Don't get the ones soaked in brine.
1. Sautéed onions and bacon until bacon bits are crispy.
2. Drain corn kernels and discard any liquid. Set aside.
3. Add bacon bits and finely chopped onion to corn kernels. Then, add flour, eggs and milk to the corn mixture, and season with black pepper (to taste). Mix thoroughly and form patties that are about 3 inches in diameter and 0.5-1cm thick. The recipe should be enough for 8-10 pieces.
4. Generously grease a non-stick frying pan with some olive oil, and pan-fry the patties on medium heat, until both sides are golden brown and slightly crispy to touch. This should take a few minutes.
(B) Guacamole
4 ripe avocados
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 large tomato, diced, plus extra for garnishing
2 heaped tablespoons chopped coriander, plus extra for garnishing
20 generous dashes of Tabasco sauce #
Juice of half a lemon
Sea salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
Sour cream (optional)
# May omit this if you can't take the heat, and substitute with more lemon juice and black pepper for flavour.
1. Mash everything together with a fork. I like to leave it slightly chunky instead of making a smooth paste.
2. Top with sour cream if desired, and garnish with extra tomatoes and coriander.
3. Serve with corn and bacon fritters, or nachos for that Mexican hit! ::
