WHAT THE GIRLS ATE ON TUESDAY....


The recipe in this post is unashamedly and unapologetically lifted from the Waitrose website. I am including it because it is totally delicious, not least because I ate it for a lunch with Best Girlfriends, sitting outside in the warm May sunshine, on Northcote Road in Clapham, deep in the throbbing heart of Nappy Valley. While waiting for Lucy to complete our trio of lunching ladies, Sarah and I, up from the leafy 'burbs, did some girls' twitching: that is, looking at the other women cruising along the street to see what they were wearing. Comments ranged from "OMG look how many pregnant women there are round here!" (we were in Nappy Valley, after all!) or "There's a lot of blonde women!" or "Nice shoes!". One thing we were all agreed on: there were an awful lot of trendy baby buggies.....

We had lunch at Brew, a rather chic little cafe on Northcote Road. Its extensive menu includes scrummy things like portobello mushrooms in balsamic vinegar on sourdough toast with fresh pesto or asparagus and roasted vegetables tart, eggs benedict and avocado with lemon. Each time I eat at Brew, I go home with a new light lunch recipe in my head. The sweetcorn fritters with apple chutney, guacamole, lime aioli and maple crisp bacon was another excellent choice. We ate it with Diet Coke, served in those lovely retro bottles, with straws. It was sunny, summery food, pleasantly filling, but not the sort of meal that sits in the bottom of your stomach for the rest of the day.

100g Self-raising Flour
150ml semi-skimmed milk
2 eggs, separated
Pinch Organic Chilli Flakes (optional)
½ x 20g pack fresh curly parsley, finely chopped
½ x 500g bag frozen Sweetcorn, thawed
4 rashers Free Range Smoked Dry Cure Back Bacon
4 tsp organic sunflower oil, for frying
Tub of good-quality commercial guacamole
Optional extra: good-quality bought mayonnaise

  1. Sift the flour with a pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl. Pour the milk into a jug then add the egg yolks, chilli flakes if using, and parsley. Mix well. Gradually add the egg mixture to the flour, whisking until smooth. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then fold into the batter along with the sweetcorn. Leave the batter to stand while you make the guacamole.
  2. Meanwhile, heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a frying pan. Ladle spoonfuls of the batter into the pan to make individual fritters about 10cm in diameter. Cook in batches of 3.
  3. Fry the fritters for 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden brown, then keep warm while you cook the remaining batches. Cut the bacon rashers in half and sandwich between 3 fritters, to make a stack, then repeat. Serve topped with a generous dollop of guacamole. If you can find a good apple or fruit chutney, add a spoonful of that, plus aioli....
  4. Any leftover fritters can be frozen.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

OTTOLENGHI'S YOGHURT SAUCE

MONDAY SUPPER: NORTH AFRICAN LAMB WITH CHILLI, GINGER & CHICKPEAS

BENEDICT BARS