Amy From New Jersey - These Corn Fritters Are For You.

A few days ago, I received an email from Amy of New Jersey, requesting a recipe from Just Ask Rosie for corn fritters. Amy, this is my first attempt at corn fritters, but it won't be my last. I have a few more recipes rattling around in my brain that I want to try out, but I did want to get something out in a timely fashion for you. Now, I'm a fan of Southwestern flavors which I guess refers to corn and black beans and chilies and cilantro. And those are the flavors I incorporated into my first foray into fritters. I have other ideas too. I'd like to do something with a sweet fritter. And I also want to try some creamed corn fritters. I assure you, more fritter recipes will be forthcoming.

Here's the money shot, corn fritters with my salsa and seasoned creme fraiche.

Now click on this to enlarge it and you have a glimpse into Rosie's brain as she whups up a corn fritter recipe. Scary place, ain't it. First, Rosie is going to make a sauce for her fritters, which are still up in her scrambled brain.

My ingredients: creme fraiche lime chives scallion cilantro

I grated lime zest into my creme fraiche.

Then I snipped the chives into the creme.

Added the sliced scallions.

And dropped the cilantro in. My dipping sauce is done and it's quite good. You could use this for chips or tacos or burritos.

Now, on to the fritters:

First, I cooked some black beans. You could use canned, but I prefer real cooked beans. They taste better to me. Also, if you use canned, be sure you rinse them thoroughly.

My mise en place for my corn fritters: 1 1/2 cups fresh corn (5 ears) 1/2 cup black beans 1 cup flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp cumin 1 jalapeno 2 scallions 1/2 cup buttermilk 2 eggs my leftover roasted red pepper and next to the red pepper at bottom right - fresh green coriander seeds

First, I mixed the dry ingredients together - the flour, baking powder, salt, and cumin.

In another bowl, I added the black beans and fresh corn ...

... along with the minced jalapeno, the sliced scallions, the chopped roasted red pepper, and the green coriander seeds. Now, as to the availability of some of these ingredients, notably the green coriander seeds: I've never seen these in any market anywhere. But I live on the Outer Limits. Perhaps at ethnic markets in very large cities, you might find them. But then I've never seen a recipe calling for fresh, green coriander seeds. You can always find coriander seeds in the spice section of your market. But if you tried to bite one of them, you might chip a tooth. They have kind of the same flavor as the raw seed, but when you bite into a raw coriander seed, there's just an exciting burst of fresh citrusy and green flavor. Bottom line: if you don't have your own cilantro plants blooming and setting seeds, then just add in some fresh cilantro. You can always find that. But then, if you're one of those Cilantro Haters, just use fresh Italian flat leaf parsley. By the way, if you don't know what coriander is, it's the seed of the cilantro plant. I grow cilantro year round and it's just now blooming and forming seeds. One day, I just popped one of the green seeds into my mouth and loved it and started incorporating them into my cooking. The green seeds eventually turn brown and hard and then are ready for planting. I planted a handful of cilantro seeds today among the cucumber, squash, and zucchini I planted the other day.

In a third bowl, I mixed the buttermilk and eggs.

At top left, the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cumin); in the middle, the good stuff; at top right, the wet ingredients (buttermilk and eggs).

Mix together the eggs and buttermilk and the bean/corn/roasted pepper/scallion/jalapeno/coriander.

I added the wet ingredients to the dry.

And got a nice, thick, clingy batter ...

... to which I folded in the veggies.

Isn't this pretty?

Incorporate well.

I dropped the fritters by tablespoons into my hot oil. (375 degrees, but I never check it with a thermometer. I can look at it and tell it's ready. The top of the oil swirls around.)

Do not crowd the pan. Cook for maybe 2 minutes, until a nice crispy brown.

Drain on paper towels.

I served the corn fritters with slices of avocado with lime juice drizzled over top.

Ooh, Oooh, OOoooh! Dip it in the creme fraiche.

What can I say? I could taste the corn. I could taste the black beans. The jalapenos. The smoked red pepper. The fresh coriander. So many flavors. Mr. Hawthorne said this: "I wouldn't order this again. Had you done it more like a hush puppy with all the goodies inside, and crunchy outside, it would be great." What a curmudgeon. He's so damn critical of everything I cook. I liked it and so did my children.

Amy, this was my first stab at this. I will tweak it and hope it meets Mr. Hawthorne's lofty standards. I thought it was very good.

I didn't use up all the batter last night. This morning I made more corn fritters for breakfast. I dropped the tablespoons of batter into corn meal. Then fried them. Mr. Hawthorne like these much better. If I would change anything about the original recipe, I would change the 1 cup of flour to 3/4 cup cornmeal and 1/4 cup flour. I think. I'll have to try it and see.

As it was, it was damn good. And there are none left. That's my test for goodness. No leftovers.