Spicy Corn Fritters

I kept telling Paola that they were leaving the corn on the plants too long, and sure enough, Sunday when I took two ears it was getting wooden and tasteless. So she wants a recipe in which overmature corn can be used without wasting time and ingredients.

The fritters on a salad plate — they are not big.

Now this can be made using nice, sweet immature corn, and I wish I could find some! But it can be made from what there is on this farm or from a can of niblets, too.

The first thing is getting the corn off the cobs if you are working from scratch. I’d love to be able to post photos of that, but until Bear learns to use the digital camera, we’re out of luck on that. Start with a sharp, big knife. Stand the ear of corn on it’s end and cut away corn halfway to the cob. Then using the same knife, scrape the rest of the kernels off the cob. This way the corn juices become part of the recipe, too. If using a can of niblets, remove half the kernels leaving all the juice behind. With a stick blender whiz the remaining half of kernels until well broken up.

Spicy Corn Fitters

1 cup or 130 g flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Indian spice mix (yes, left from the zucchini bahjis)
1 egg
2 ears of corn as above or 1 385g can of niblets as above
enough milk to make a firm batter

oil for frying

Mix the dry ingredients and then whisk in the wet ones. Stir in the corn. Add enough milk so that you have a batter rather than a dough– not sloppy, but spoonable. This amount of milk will change according to how much liquid there is in the corn.

Heat about 1/3″ to 1/2″ (1 cm or more) of oil in a wide frying pan. Put soupspoon sized bits of batter into the hot oil, scraping off with a silicon spatula. Don’t crowd the pan. As the fritters brown, turn them and brown the second side. Test the first one that comes out to be sure the center is cooked. If it is not, then slightly reduce the heat under the pan so that browning and cooking both happen in the same time. Remove to paper towels to drain.

This makes an interesting vegetable with a summer meal and could also be an antipasto course. I would serve it with either a cocktail sauce of the red variety or offer a sprinkle of vinaigrette. When I was testing these they seemed like cocktail foods for a party. Paola is at work this morning, so I won’t know what she made of them until later.
This isn’t something I would make or eat everyday, but it’s the kind of thing I’d be happy I had in my recipe collection when unexpected guests needed to wait for a delayed meal. Stretching things can take a while, or thawing things, too. It’s also a way to avoid wasting corn that should have been picked a week ago or was picked a week ago and has been living in the fridge all that time.

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