I Just Can't Get Enough

Just in case you didn't feel up to making the corn chowder I just posted, here is a recipe for corn pancakes. It's a super quick and tasty recipe, and it would make a great stand-in for corn bread with some chili. Actually, if you're really hankering for cornbread, this batter can be baked in a muffin tin. The following is an adaptation of a recipe that appeared over ten years ago in Chile Pepper Magazine.

The original recipe called for masa harina, a Mexican corn flour made from corn mush treated with lye (a very alkaline solution). Although the masa harina imparts the pancakes with a deep corny flavour, it can be hard to find in some places, so I modified the recipe. However, since the original recipe does not seem to archived on the magazine's website, I have included the recipe for those who have access to masa harina. Both versions of the pancakes call for fresh pancake, but you can always substitute left-over or frozen for fresh.

Corn Pancakes

Makes a generous dozen

2/3c/120g medium ground cornmeal

2/3c/100g  all-purpose flour

2tsp/ 10g sugar

1tsp/ 5g salt

½tsp/ 3g baking powder

2c/ 490g buttermilk or 1c/270g plain yoghurt and 1c/ 245g milk

2 eggs

4Tbs/ 55g butter, melted, plus more for the pan

1 chilli pepper, fresh or dried, optional

1 cup/ 300g fresh corn kernels

1 small handfull fresh herbs, such as oregano, basil, or chives

Mix all the dry ingredients together, using a whisk to break up any lumps.

Combine all the wet ingredients, making sure the eggs are completely mixed in. Set aside.

If you are using a fresh chilli pepper, roast it to remove the peel (use a blowtorch if you do not have a gas stove); if you are using a dried chilli, soak in warm water to rehydrate it. Chop finely, and add to the liquid ingredients.

Chop herbs and add to liquids.

Pour the wet into the dry ingredients, and mix until just barely combined.

Melt a bit of butter in a hot pan. Ladle out pancake batter.

When pancake surface is almost dry and pocked with lots of little holes, flip over and cook for another minute.

Serve immediately.

Green Chile Corn Cakes

2/3c /120g cornmeal

2/3c /110g masa harina

¼c / 38g all-purpose flour

1Tbs/ 15g sugar

1tsp/ 5g salt

½tsp/ 3g baking powder

2c / 490g buttermilk (or use yoghurt and milk as above if you cannot find buttermilk)

2 eggs

2 long green chiles

1/3c / 100g fresh corn kernels

1Tbs minced, fresh oregano

4Tbs/ 55g butter, plus more for griddle

Proceed as for above recipe.

While these are definitely savoury pancakes, they are actually not bad with a drizzle of maple syrup, so it's really all up to you. However, I am very partial to serving them alongside a pot of chili, or with a beautiful salsa of homegrown tomatoes, green onions, cumin and lemon juice. If you are making cornbread, butter and flour muffin tins, and fill the moulds to ¾, bake at 375'F/ 190'C for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the muffin tins.

Bon app'!

P.S. Food bloggers around the world have united to offer recipes to help you deal with the summer's glut. It's called Summer Fest, and this week's theme was sweet corn (hence the double corn posting!) Here are some links for more corn recipes:

Tea and CookiesPinch my Salt
A Way to Garden
The FN Dish
Food2
Healthy Eats
Cooking Channel
Over a Tuscan Stove
The Gilded Fork
Chef Mark
San Diego Foodstuff
The Wright Recipes
Just a Taste
White on Rice Couple
Gluten Free Girl
Tigress in a Jam
Eating from the Ground Up
Sweetnicks