One Mo' Thing...

I was out at a charity event for work today, and I happened to talk to a friend, Laura Creekmore, whose company does business with my trade association. She is based in Nashville, and when I shared that I had a blog, she let me know that she, too is blogging. She's a foodie, too, and so her blog is about cooking: http://fixinsupper.blogspot.com/ (I'm going to put a link over on the side, too).

Now, last week I promised a bit about a corn fritter recipe that I tried here at home. It was awesome. If you're like me, you live for summer, and can't wait until the freshest vegetables hit the farmstands and the farmers' markets. I'm growing heirloom tomatoes again this summer, for instance (Mr. Stripeys, brandywines, and green zebras. I'm also growing two non-heirloom varieties - patios, because they are early "fruiters", and taxis, because they didn't need staking and were also early "fruiters").

But one of the problems is getting too redundant in what you make. There's only so many caprese salads, for instance, so many chicken cobb salads. And so many times that you can make boiled or steamed corn on the cob.

So Cooks Country, the new magazine from the editors of Cooks Illustrated (which is an essential magazine if you're a foodie - along with the Penzey's catalog), recognized this, and offered another recipe which utilizes fresh summer corn. These awesome corn fritters. The recipe is similar in many respects to the Cooks Illustrated recipe for potato pancakes in that it makes use of different cuts of corn to create competing textures within the individual fritters (some cut, some grated, some creamy corn pulp). Here it is:

Farmstand Corn Fritters
makes 12 fritters

1 1/2 pounds fresh corn (2 large or 3-4 medium ears), husks and silk removed
1 large egg, beaten lightly
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 shallot, minced
1/2 tablespoon salt
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 cup corn or vegetable oil for frying (or more as needed)

1) Using chef's knife, cut kernels from 1 or 2 ears of corn and place in bowl (you should have one whole cup of kernels). Grate kernels from remaining ears (hopefully, you'll have a 1/2 cup of grated kernels). Scrape remaining pulp from corn cobs into bowl (the back of a knife works well for this).

2) Stir in egg, flour, cornmeal, cream, shallot, salt and cayenne pepper.

3) Heat oil in heavy skillet over medium-high heat until oil shimmers. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of batter into pan - press flat with back of spoon. Do not overcrowd your pan. Fry until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Transfer finished fritters to paper towel-lined plate, adding oil to pan as necessary.

Serve immediately.

They are excellent - this is definitely a keeper recipe and super simple.

Enjoy!