AirFryday: Ooh-mami mielies in your air fryer

I made these as a side dish for a chicken braai. Then I realised there was some marinade left over, so I basted the chicken portions with it too. It’s madly easy and madly moreish to eat. 

Most of the ingredients in the dressing are part of various Asian cuisines, but not all. The exception is a balsamic vinegar glaze. I needed something sweet, was out of sweet soy sauce/kecap manis, which I often use in such preparations, and then I spotted the Willowcreek balsamic glaze.

And we can mix things up a little in the kitchen. I have used a very South African product, pomegranate syrup, in this kind of mixture before, and it does the required job of adding that bit of sweetness and depth.

When soy sauce is in the mix, something sweet is often needed to balance it out. That, along with pepperiness, for my palate at least, helps create an intriguing mix that we could fairly reasonably regard as fitting into the category of umami, that combination of the usual senses plus a mysterious something extra. And mystery is always good in cooking, as long as it’s good mystery, and not a tongue-curling “Urgh, what’s that!?”

I used tamari soy sauce, which is less salty and a little bit thicker than most soy sauce products. Also into the mix went some sesame oil, and a very generous squeeze of La Italia ginger and garlic paste. This was among my birthday presents in April and I will in future be adding it to my shopping lists. It’s decidedly a cut above other such pastes I have used.

I didn’t use any chilli (I considered adding chilli oil), but you can include some for even more of an umami hit.

Then, a generous hand with the black pepper mill, and it was ready for coating the cobs. Once they were cooked, I rolled the mielies in finely chopped fresh coriander/cilantro. What a treat.

Tony’s Asian-inspired air fryer mielies

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

4 mielies (corn on the cob)

4 Tbsp Tamari soy sauce

3 Tbsp Willowcreek balsamic glaze 

3 Tbsp garlic and ginger paste (be brave)

1 Tbsp pure sesame oil

Black pepper to taste

Cooking oil spray

1 cup fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

Method

Choose a container/bakkie long enough to hold mielies. Mix the ingredients together except for the coriander, and coat the mielies on all sides. Roll them around in it again, to take up as much of the dressing as possible.

Preheat the air fryer at 200°C, spray the base and the mielies with cooking oil spray, and cook the mielies for 10 minutes. Open the drawer and turn them halfway through.

After the first 10 minutes of cooking, brush more baste over them and return them to the machine for another 5 minutes.

Finely chop the coriander leaves (not the stems), roll the mielies around in them until all parts are coated, and serve. That’s oooh-mami. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023.

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