Quaint Corn (And Chicken) Square

Just as we cherish Margaret Fulton in Australia,  and the Brits cherish Mary Berry, New Zealand has their own culinary icon in Alison Holst.  I bought a couple of her books years ago, and it was only when we travelled to NZ that I realised she was bigger than Ben-Hur!  Sadly, she is now struggling with dementia, and cooks no more, but her son Simon carries on the tradition.  (Rather like Margaret Fulton's daughter and granddaughters do).  

Mr P. and I were vegetarians for many years and her book Meals Without Meat was a winner.  Even when we started to eat meat again, her Meals Without Red Meat was tops too:=)  Just simple, homey meals for the family, but also some interesting tid-bits like home-made ginger beer, and yoghurt, and soy milk.  I must give that a go one day soon.  

I have often made 'busy person's pie' from an old recipe book that was compiled by colleagues at work.  This recipe is somewhat similar, in that you throw together all the ingredients and bake in the oven.  Alison suggests throwing in a tin of tomatoes, but not being a huge tomato fan, I decided to add some roast chicken, semi-dried tomatoes, and a heap of parsley.  Serve it with salad. You can feed 4-6 people with this.

ingredients:

4 large eggs
410g. can creamed corn
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups tasty cheese, grated
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2-1 tsp salt  (I like salt!)
2 spring onions, finely chopped
40g. semi-dried tomatoes, chopped
150g. baked or poached chicken, chopped
2-3 tbs parsley, finely chopped
black pepper (I used about 10 grinds)

Method:

Eggs, corn and sour cream go into a large mixing bowl
Give it a stir with a fork till well combined, but don't go crazy
Sprinkle over the cheese, the flour and the salt 
Now chuck in the spring onions, the tomatoes, the chicken, the parsley and the pepper
Stir gently till just mixed
Pour into a lightly greased baking dish about 20cm x 20cm
Bake at 180C for about half an hour till golden and just a teeny tiny bit wobbly in the middle


Tips:

Use other proteins if you wish - fish or ham or just have it as a vego dish
Don't overbake it as it will keep cooking as it cools
Use whatever herbs you like
I used a mix of salts as I have many different kinds; here I used chilli salt and olive salt
It may take longer than 1/2 an hour to bake; my oven is slow so it took nearly 40 minutes

(An interesting aside - Alison has a can of corn being 440g.; I knew tins these days were shrinking!)

ingredients  

forking that eggy, corny, creamy mixture 

sprinkling over the cheese and flour  

give it all a good stir 

pouring the mix into the square pan (excuse the photo - I nearly dropped the bowl!) 

ready for the oven at 180C for 1/2 an hour   

and eat!

truly he's a chicken, not a duck:=) 

feeling a bit corny