The sweetness of the corn and zucchini is complemented by salty, savoury pancetta resulting in simply delicious waffles. But why stop there. The roasted red pepper dressing ups the delectable rating many more notches.
The zucchini and corn provide a fresh sweet foundation for these waffles. The savoury and salty pancetta just enhances those delicious flavours. These are great waffles and stand alone. Make lots extra and freeze them. Defrost and pop them in the toaster for a quick delicious snack.
Corn seems so at home in waffles. Try these corn and green onion waffles, or these corn and red pepper waffles. All delicious. However, be sure to use fresh sweet corn cobs if you can get them. Frozen corn kernels tend to lack flavour.
But as good as these zucchini corn waffles are, they will be even better with a great sauce. Something to help highlight their flavour and the crispy texture. The slow-roasted garlic and red pepper dressing, together with a mixed green salad, provide a perfect compliment for these waffles.
This dressing works in lots of situations. With the sweetness of roasted garlic, the crisp acidity of the lemon juice and Balsamic vinegar, and the fresh red peppers, this roast garlic and red pepper dressing deliver a flavour enhancing combination that works perfectly with these waffles.
Great with a beer. In the background of the photo is one of my local favorites – Saigon Special.
Zucchini corn waffles. Roasted red pepper dressing
Ingredients
Waffles:
- 2 cobs of sweet corn
- 2 medium to large zucchinis
- 50 g pancetta (or prosciutto or even bacon will work)
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- salt and pepper
Dressing:
- 2 red peppers
- 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
- 1 head of garlic
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil or an extra Tbsp olive oil
- Grated rind of a lemon
- juice of a lemon
- 2 tsp Balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper
- Mixed lettuce salad
Instructions
Waffles:
- Boil the corn cobs for 8 minutes and allow to cool
- Grate the zucchinis, put in a colander and sprinkle with salt (to draw out the water). Allow to stand for 20 minutes.
- Rinse the grated zucchini and squeeze the water out.
- Dice the pancetta into 5x5mm pieces. Fry until starting to get crispy.
- Whisk the eggs together
- Whisk together the flour, eggs, baking powder, milk, salt and pepper, Should be the consistency of wet concrete. Add a little milk, or flour, to achieve the consistency.
- Let the waffle batter rest for 20 minutes.
- Cut the corn from the cobs.
- Combine the corn, grated zucchini, prosciutto, parmesan, and parsley. Add the waffle batter until a suitable content to batter ratio is reached. That is experience as much as personal preference. Suffice to say, you may not need to use all the batter.
- Cook the waffles in a waffle maker.
Dressing:
- Halve and de-core the red peppers. Smear with olive oil.
- Cut the top off a head of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, season, and wrap in foil. Full instructions here.
- Bake the red peppers and garlic for 45 minutes at 180 degC
- Remove peppers and garlic from the oven and allow to cool
- Dice the red peppers into 5x5mm pieces
- Squeeze the garlic from the garlic head and mash
- Combine all Dressing ingredients in a sufficiently large sealable container, shake vigorously, and refrigerate until ready to serve.