Corn on the cob ... in the microwave

First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of attention that my blog has been getting lately.

We haven't been cooking all that much as for some reason or other, either both of us, or just The Boy has not been home for dinner and we've been busy over the weekends. Usually, there is at least one big cooking day, normally, a Sunday where I cook a new recipe or spend quite some time in the kitchen. This has not been happening much at all.

We're still cooking at home most nights and eating in when The Boy is not out for a work function, but the meals have been simple and more often than not, just fruit or vegetables.

I've been on a fruit and yogurt kick, so a lot of the time, I've been eating a small bowl of blueberries (they are in season right now!) with some strawberry yogurt (I've managed to find one type of yogurt that does not aggravate my lactose intolerance and I've been able to eat it with no problem).

Tonight, has not been much different. We had a big day yesterday and were out for both lunch (visiting with some friends we hadn't seen in 9 years) and dinner (visiting with some other friends we had not see in in 18 months). We were fed well, 3 courses of starter, main and dessert with both meals.

As a result, we decided on a simple dinner. We had bought some fresh corn from a farmer's stall while up in the country last weekend that needed to be eaten along with some lovely tomatoes.

Our mish-mash of dinner consisted of some corn on the cob, along with a tomato, basil and boccocini salad.

You can find my recipe for the boccocini salad here and it's very simple to make. Very refreshing and satisfying!

As for the corn on the cob, I used to cook my corn by boiling it.

The boiling method was quite simple, boil water, put in corn, continue to boil for 12 minutes, then remove corn, season and eat.

These days, I've been using the microwave. I learned this from my mother-in-law.

I put the corn in the microwave and the general rule of thumb is 4 minutes per corn cob. This has worked generally really well for me, but recently we got a new microwave and that sucker packs a punch, so now 4 corn cobs only take 8 minutes to cook. You just need to check the power levels on your microwave and adjust accordingly. If your corn kernels start to look prune-like and shriveled then you've cooked it too long.

The corn goes on a large dinner plate into the microwave. This is for 4 corn cobs - I cook it for 4 minutes on one side and then turn the corn and cook it for another 4 minutes.

Then I take the corn out, butter and salt it to taste and munch away.

Hopefully, I will get back to some more regular cooking and doing some new recipes soon so that this blog will get some much needed love again.

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd

Easy chicken and corn soup

Whenever The Boy is sick, he always wants comfort food, which tends to be warm and soupy.

Either I make him chicken congee (Chinese rice porridge) or chicken and corn soup, both favorites and very often requested in our household.

At the moment, my poor Darling Boy is down with a virus of some sort, a chest infection and a very bad cough. The coughing just seemed to take a turn for the worse this evening though the doctor did warn that he would get worse before he got better. He's very poorly right now.

Sleeping last night was very unpleasant. He fell asleep but didn't sleep easily and tossed and turned all night in bed, as well as coughing all night. I got woken up at 1am and was unable to get back to sleep at all. Very distressing for the both of us.

I had originally intended for us to just have some leftover noodles for dinner but he gave me his cute sooky face and asked for chicken and corn soup, so that was what I made for dinner. I didn't have any chicken thawed for the meal so I ended up thawing out the meat partially in the microwave, cutting it into small pieces and then cooking it in the boiling soup.

Here's my super easy chicken and corn soup RECIPE:

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces of chicken thighs cut into very small pieces (about the size of a fingernail)
• 1 can 400ml creamed corn
• 1 can 310ml corn kernels (drained)
• 3 - 4 cups of chicken stock (enough to cover the ingredients)
• 2 eggs (optional in case the soup is too watery and needs thickening)
• 2 handfuls of shallots sliced (also known as spring onions or scallions)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Put the cut up pieces of chicken, creamed corn and corn kernels into a pot.
• Cover with stock and bring to a boil.
• Simmer covered for about 10 minutes after the soup comes to a boil.
• At this point, if the soup is too watery and you want to thicken it, bring it back to a boil, crack open the two eggs into a bowl, break up the egg yolk slightly (do not beat the egg) and pour into the soup all the while stirring to swirl egg around the soup.
• Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes after that.
• When ready, ladle into bowls, salt and pepper to taste and add a small handful of the shallots into each bowl.
• Serve while hot

Note: since the shallots usually go off really quickly, what I do is buy a bunch and then cut them up into small pieces and store them in a plastic container in the freezer. This retains the flavor and it doesn't go off. The shallots last in the freezer for up to a month or two, and it's great to pull out and just use a handful or two at a time.

Since this is pretty much a recipe that I made up, there's no variation to it. This is just how I make it.

Of course, tonight, this was exactly what the doctor ordered for The Boy. Right now, it's an early night for him and he's all tucked into bed, coughing like crazy and trying to get some rest. Get well soon, my darling.

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd