You can roast it at home over a low fire and munch it slowly over your favourite TV show. Or use it as the main ingredient in recipes of Chinese, Thai, Indian and Balti foods. Corn also lends itself to soups, yes, sweet corn chicken and all that. And breads and other tidbits. It's tasty. It's nutritious. It's inexpensive. It's in season. Yum!

Ingredients:
3 tbsps oil
125gm chicken, skinned & cut into bite-sized pieces
1/4 onion, sliced
50 gm baby corn, obliquely sliced
50 gm cashew nuts
125 ml light soy sauce
4 tbsps chicken stock
4 tbsps sugar
15 gm spring onion, obliquely sliced
Ground black pepper
1 large red chilli, obliquely sliced, to garnish

Procedure:
Heat the oil in a wok, add the chicken, onion, baby corn and cashew nuts. Stir-fry over a high heat for 3 minutes. Reduce the heat and stir in the soy sauce. Then add the stock, sugar, spring onion and season with black pepper. Raise the heat and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Turn on to a serving dish, sprinkle with sliced chilli and serve.

Ingredients:
3 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
310 gm canned corn kernels, drained
2/3 cup grated cheese
1 small red capsicum, finely chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup thickened cream
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Dash tabasco sauce

Procedure:
Preheat the oven to moderately hot degree 200C (degree 400F/Gas 6). Lightly grease three 12-hole shallow tartlet pans. Using a 6 cm round pastry cutter, cut circles from the pastry sheets. Press the circles into the prepared pans and prick the bases all over with a fork.

Combine the corn, cheese and capsicum in a bowl and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Whisk the eggs, buttermilk, cream, mustard and tabasco sauce in a jug. Spoon some of the vegetable mixture into the pastry cases, then pour the egg mixture over the top until the cases are almost full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until well risen and set. The tarts can be served hot or cold. Garnish with herbs of your choice if you wish.

Ingredients:
310 gm canned corned kernels, drained
4 medium-sized potatoes, cooked and dry mashed
1 red capsicum (pepper), seeded and finely diced
4 spring onions, finely diced
2 tbsps plain flour
2 tbsps fruit chutney
2 tbsps natural yoghurt
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Oil for deep-frying

Procedure:
In a bowl, combine drained corn with potato, capsicum, spring onions, flour, chutney, yoghurt, egg and garlic. Heat oil in a pan. Fry spoonfuls of the mixture until golden. Drain on crumpled kitchen paper towels. Serve as a snack or a meal accompaniment.

Ingredients:
3 whole corn cobs,
sliced in small rounds
40 gm butter, melted
2 tbsps fresh coriander, chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 tbsp chilli powder
Sour cream, to serve

Procedure:
Half fill a large pan with water. Bring to the boil and add corn. Reduce heat, simmer until corn is soft. Drain. Combine butter, coriander, tomato paste and chilli in a large bowl. Add hot corn. Mix well. Serve immediately with a dollop of sour cream.

Note: If fresh corn is unavailable, use frozen corn cobs. The combination of corn, coriander and chilli is a startling taste for those of us whose only experience of corn on the cob is with butter and pepper.

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