A Tasty Treat With Every Chef You Meet: Corn Chowder, Cornbread and Mixed Berry Crisp

Getting tired of the standard snacks and nastho with your chai? Join Shabnam Jessa for a cooking class, where she will show us how to make a delicious meal: corn chowder, cornbread, and mixed berry crisp. Put on your aprons and get your mixing bowls ready!

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Shabnam Jessa is a self-taught chef, who learned to cook out of necessity. She decided to pursue baking and cake decorating, and has completed her Wilton levels 1, 2, and 3 in cake decorating. During the pandemic, Shabnam started a quarantine cooking show on social media, which led to the creation of a Facebook group that encourages individuals to share their recipes and foster a micro community. She has enlisted the help of several volunteers to assist in running the recipe group. Shabnam likes to focus on making gluten-free meals with healthy ingredients for her family.

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Corn Chowder

Ingredients :

• 3 cups frozen corn
• 1-2 tbsp oil
• 1-2 tsp butter
• 1 tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• 1 red chilli
• 1 onion - chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 4 cups chicken broth
• ½ lime - freshly squeezed
• Handful of chopped or blended cilantro

Method:

• Sauté onion in olive oil and butter until soft and just a bit browned on medium heat
• Add turmeric, cumin, salt, garlic, and red chili. (Alternative: add chili at the end if you want the chowder to be less spicy).
• Let spices incorporate with the onions for a couple of minutes. Make sure it doesn’t burn.
• Add corn and sauté for a couple of minutes.
• Add broth and bring to boil. Let simmer to 20-30 min on low.
• Add cilantro at the end and the lime juice.
• Blend soup after it has cooled down.

Cornbread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, mix one cup milk with 1tbsp white vinegar (or 1 tbsp lemon juice) and let this sit for about 15 minutes until it has thickened
• ¼ cup melted butter
• Optional - add 1 green or red chili chopped or add some pickled jalapenos to the batter

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375
• Mix all of the above together and put in a greased pan
• Bake for 25 min until the toothpick comes clean.
• Let it rest for 5 minutes and remove the bread from the pan

Mixed Berry Crisp

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of frozen fruit approx 600g bag
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 cup oats
• ⅔ cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp salt
• 7 tbsp chilled unsalted butter

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375
• Mix frozen berries with ¼ cup white sugar, ¼ cup flour and 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Stir

• Put this mixture into a pie plate
• In another bowl add ¾ cup flour, ¾ cup oats, ⅔ cup brown sugar, spices and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and stir to incorporate
• Sprinkle with mixture on top of the berries
• Bake for approximately an hour until the mixture is bubbling and is golden brown
• Let it rest for about 15 minutes
• Optional - serve with ice cream or whipped cream