Delicious homemade food always starts with quality ingredients. One is assured that as long as the sum of the parts make sense, it will not only be edible, but also incredible. The farmers market is a great place to source ingredients for the week ahead. One can easily create homemade weekly dinners with their farmers market haul by mixing and matching a variety of produce, and saving any leftovers to brown bag for work the next day. I find that it makes my daily meals more interesting. For this week, corn is stretched to create a variety of meals. When you’ve had enough of enjoying corn on the cob straight off the grill with a little butter and salt, try something different. Like corn fritters.
I love to save the cobs in a freezer-safe zip top bag so that I can use it in the wintertime to fortify soups with some earthy corn flavor. Simply drop corn cobs into a hot pot of soup as it’s cooking, then remove and discard the cobs just before serving. Parmesan rinds work quite well in this same manner, too. As a matter of fact, I like to keep any ends and pieces of my produce so that I can create a delicious stock for soups or stews for the coming months. Even in the summer, I am thinking ahead to fall and winter. If I am chopping an onion, I will keep the moist ends while tossing any papery bits in the trash. If I am chopping a carrot or celery, usually those ends will be saved as well. These little odd ends add up when stored in a zip-top bag in your freezer, generating a great mirepoix for future wintry stocks and broths.
Reining it back to the present, this corn fritter is an excellent snack to eat on its own with a lemony basil yogurt. Anaheim pepper, red bell pepper, and red onion are diced small, then tossed into a bowl with kernels of corn freshly cut off the cob. Summer squash gets grated and fresh dill gets roughly chopped, then added into the bowl with gluten free flour and an egg to help bind the fritter. This mixture is then scooped out, one quarter of a cup at a time, and dropped into a few tablespoons of hot oil and delicately fried until golden brown on both sides. Dollops of lemony basil yogurt are draped across the corn fritters and, just like that, a farmer’s market summer is served onto a plate.
Corn Fritters Recipe
Yields 4
Ingredients for the corn fritters:
4-6 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
4 ears of corn, husks and silks removed
½ Anaheim pepper, small dice
½ red bell pepper, small dice
¼ red onion, small dice
1 yellow summer squash, grated
1 tbsp fresh dill, rough chop
½ cup gluten free flour
1 egg
Salt & pepper, to taste
Ingredients for the lemony basil yogurt:
1 cup greek yogurt
Zest of 1 lemon
1-2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp fresh basil, chiffonade
Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions for corn fritters:
In a large bowl, combine the vegetable ingredients for the corn fritters. Add the gluten free flour and the egg and thoroughly mix. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat the extra virgin olive oil. Scoop out ¼ cup of the corn fritter mix and drop into the hot oil, lightly pressing it flat. Repeat with the remainder of the mix, making sure the fritters are spread apart in the skillet.
Delicately fry the corn fritters for 4 – 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Transfer the golden corn fritters onto a paper towel-lined plate. Season with salt to taste.
Instructions for lemony basil yogurt:
Combine all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Stir vigorously.
Assembly:
Onto a serving plate, stack and fan the warm corn fritters diagonally. Top the fritters with generous dollops of the lemony basil yogurt. Garnish with micro-greens (optional). Enjoy!