Secrets of a corn star
February 22, 2010
Every time I opened the fridge door on Saturday I was accused by three shrinkwrapped corn cobs bought two weeks ago. Food waster! Abandoner! they cried, in their tiny little corny voices.
They were a teeny bit worse for wear, and it was lunchtime, and I was home alone. The thought of eating three corn cobs there and then didn’t appeal. But corn fritters did. I checked a recipe and then made my own version according to what I had in the house – using yoghurt instead of ricotta cheese and rice flour instead of ordinary flour. And they were pretty darn good! I ate several and froze the rest.
Then Sunday morning, when Senor was hankering for something luxurious, I whipped up the most fab breakfast in minutes (I was sooo Bill Granger – shame about the non-matching teeth): into the pan went the corn fritters, a few shreds of proscuitto; half a chorizo sausage, thinly sliced; leftover roasted tomatoes. I think it may have been the best breakfast I have ever made.
Corn fritters
- 3 cobs corn kernels
- 4-5 tablespoons rice flour
- 1 tablespoon yoghurt
- 1 handful each finely chopped basil, parsley, chives
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
- salt & pepper
1. Shuck the corn (don’t you love that word?) by standing the cob on its end and running a knife sharply down the side.
2. Mix everything in a bowl, adjusting the flour if it gets too watery (it does look unnervingly runny, but that doesn’t really matter in the end).
3. I threw two-thirds of the mix in the food processor and pulsed just a couple of times to get a rough blend, then returned to the bowl.
4. Heat some oil in a non-stick pan over med-high heat and cook the fritters in batches. Depending on the amount of oil you use and the runniness of your mix, the texture tends more to the pikelet than fritter, but either is delicious.
5. Drain on kitchen paper before serving.
How to shuck an oyster 
Yum! These sound fab. Another variation is to use besan flour (any excuse to introduce chick peas into the conversation) which, if you chuck a few Indian spices in, makes them into pakoras. And rather than including yoghurt in the batter, serve that on the side as raita.
I love pakoras.
Sounds good, Charlotte. And I like the sound of that breakfast, too. I love those improvised meals that you might never be able to replicate exactly again. A little mouthful in time.
Charlotte, ‘non-matching teeth’ made me burst out laughing – that’s tops! And get your own tired ingredients, lady – here I was feeling sooo virtuous after *finally* cooking up my farmers’ market corn cobs last night, only to find I have been well and truly trumped. I threw yellow discs into a beef stirfry – good, but your breakfast sounds sooo much better.
That’s one hilarious blog-post title!
Charlotte, I have to say these are delicious. I didn’t have enough parsley so added coriander, v nice. So light, yet strangely filling. Teamed them with with lentil tabouli yours) and homemade hummus, yoghurt and wholemeal wraps, and – er- Campari and soda.
Mine are green because they have processed green onions in them, and the 6yo STILL eats them. There is some kind of magic in corn fritters.
Brilliant – going to keep this in mind for future fussy chillun …