Corn fritters made with cornmeal are a traditional Native American dish. These fritters, however, make use of what you have grown on the homestead – succulent freshly picked sweetcorn, red peppers, cilantro, and lemon.
Add the cucumber from your kitchen garden for garnish and you’ll have most of the fresh and organic ingredients to make these wholesome and oh-so-tasty fritters.
Frying them in butter just adds to the flavor, and with the addition of lemon zest it lifts the fresh taste of these fritters to new heights. Don’t try and substitute canned sweetcorn – it just won’t taste the same!
These are great served alone or with the additional of either shaved ham, smoked salmon or small homemade beef patties for a hearty meal
If you make smaller fritters and serve with smoked salmon they make for a great addition to a cocktail platter, especially if you garnish with a blob of crème fraiche and a tiny piece of dill.
Sweetcorn Fritters Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 teaspoons butter for frying
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ a teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 4 cups fresh sweetcorn cut from the cob
- ½ cup spring onions sliced
- ½ cup red pepper chopped fine
- ½ cup cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and make a well in the center.
- In a separate jug whisk together the eggs and milk.
- Add the egg mix to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine until the batter has no lumps.
- Combine sweetcorn, spring onion, pepper, and cilantro in a separate bowl.
- Add fresh ingredients to the batter, mixing to combine.
- Heat butter in a well seasoned cast iron skillet or a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.
- Drop in a tablespoon full of batter if you are making smaller fritters for a snack platter, or increase to two full tablespoons of batter for larger family size fritters for a meal.
- Fry until golden – it should take around 2 minutes per side – they are ready to turn when you see small bubbles forming on the upper side.
- To serve place fritters on a plate and place a blob of crème fraiche on each, then arrange a folded triangle of shaved ham, smoked salmon or a homemade beef patty on top, top with a twist of black pepper and decorate with some shaved cucumber.
Notes
- ½ cup crème fraiche
- 12 slices shaved ham, smoked salmon, or 8 small 1½ ounce homemade beef patties (2 per person)
You can buy creme fraiche ready to use, or make your own by placing one tablespoon of buttermilk in a cup of double cream and leaving to stand for 12 hours at room temperature.
Refrigerate after 12 hours to prevent the bacteria in the buttermilk developing further with the cream; the mix will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.
If you don’t have buttermilk or cream you can make your own creamy yogurt dressing instead with 1/3 cup of Greek double cream yogurt to which you add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and one crushed garlic clove to make up just over half a cup of dressing.
As a child I wanted to grow up and marry a farmer… simply because it was so different from my life right on the shores of the ocean. Well, I didn’t marry a farmer but a surfer instead. The urge, however, to grow stuff and make great food for a big family never left. We are on acreage with a sea view and easy access to fresh caught crayfish and other seafood – the best of both worlds. As an artist and writer I enjoy creating new recipes, tweaking traditional ones, and sharing the results not only with family and friends, but online. Mee the rest of the team at this page.