Corn Fritters

It's May Week here in Cambridge and for a whole week the town gets stuck in some sort of high society time warp. The entire student population pretty much stays in black tie attire for the week as they ball hop with the only exception to this rule being when they don their blazers and hat and gloves for the garden parties. It's an experience so out of touch with the rest of the world it's almost embarrassing. It's also a lot of fun.

May Week begins with Suicide Sunday. It's the Sunday after exams have finished for everyone and, apparently more importantly, the Sunday after Bumps have concluded (Bumps is a rowing thing that I'm not entirely sure I understand). There are many garden parties on from about 9am to 10pm and lots of people end up drinking all day and feeling very sorry for themselves the day after.

We decided to start our Suicide Sunday with a vegan champagne brunch at our house and I made lots of yummy vegan goodies. One of the biggest successes was some very easy to make corn fritters.

Corn Fritters

1 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp frozen corn/sweetcorn

4 tbsp self-raising flour (wholemeal, if you have it)

2 tsp dried vegan veggie stock or bouillon powder

4 tbsp soya milk

2 tsp cider vinegar

3 tbsp chopped chives (about half a bunch)

pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan and fry corn for a few minutes until it is hot.

Combine flour, bouillon powder, milk, vinegar, chives and pepper in a bowl. Add sweetcorn and stir thoroughly.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan again and add tablespoons of the mixture to the pan. Fry on the first side for 30 seconds (do not flatten yet) then flip. Then with the back of the spatula press the fritter down until it is under 1cm thick. Cook on the second side until golden brown. Flip again and cook on the first side until also golden brown.

Transfer the fritters to a lined baking tin and bake for 5-10 minutes until they rise a little.

Garlic Bread

You will have to forgive my lack of posting recently. I've had exams. And if any of you are ever wondering if you should do Part III maths exams at Cambridge the answer is: no. No, don't do it. It's horrid.

While I was studying Geoff was kind enough to go away so that I could have the house to myself. However, this did mean that I had no one to cook me dinner at my command so I had to come up with a few quick, easy and tasty meals.

Pasta, of course, is very easy to make especially if you cheated and bought some vegan pesto from your local vegetarian store (which Cambridge has). Sometimes, however, you feel like you need something else to make your meal a little more interesting. And this is how I discovered how to make a very easy garlic bread.

Garlic Bread

2-4 slices of bread

2 tbsp of vegan butter

1 clove of garlic, crushed and chopped very finely

1 tsp Italian herbs* (dried is fine)

 Put the grill on.

Put the bread slices in the toaster on the lowest setting. This is to ensure that when you put the butter on the toast and put it under the grill it is firm enough to not go soggy but not toasted enough to burn.

While the toast is toasting mix the butter, garlic and herbs in a small bowl. Once the toast is up let it cool for about a minute and then spread the garlic butter over the slices. 

Put the slices under the grill, butter side up, until the edges and garlic start to go golden brown.

This recipe could also easily be adapted to go on a warm baguette (put in the oven for 10 minutes or so) or some other, more traditional breads.

* Supermarkets do tend to carry a "Italian herbs" bottle of spices that we buy. If you aren't a fan of this, or you can't get any, you basically just need basil, parsely and small amount of oregano and thyme.