Recipe Recap: Corn Griddle Cakes

With fresh corn so much in abundance right now, I am sure I am not the only one wondering what to do with those small amounts that get left over from all the succotash, salads and sautes.

I'm also not the only one to notice how much work it is to cook with all of these fresh summer vegetables. Beans, corn, and tomatoes are all wonderful, but they have to be used right away and involve a lot of shucking, shelling and peeling. Not to mention blanching! I was commiserating with a co-worker yesterday about how busy my weekends have seemed, while I don't have much to show for my efforts. That is when it occurred to me that the reason I have been feeling that way is because I have pretty much been cooking non-stop from Friday nights through Sunday evenings. It's not that I am cooking more dishes, or eating more than usual. I believe I am actually cooking less dishes. It is because every thing I am making requires quite a bit of prep work, and that is why I feel like I am spending so much time in the kitchen. I am spending so much time in the kitchen.

I am not really complaining; I love all of this fresh bounty, and come February I will be sorely missing it. But during the week I have little energy to cook and am finding myself a little stretched to come up with ideas for dinner.

Tuesday night was a perfect case in point. I knew that all I had in the refrigerator (other than what was earmarked for workday lunches) was a small container of leftover corn from the last batch of succotash I made, so on the bus ride home I started thinking about my options. I did not want to have to stop at the store but I knew I didn't have much at home. I was hungry enough to consider just eating the corn cold from the container, but I knew that it would not satisfy on so many levels.

Then I remembered a recipe I had discovered for Corn Griddle Cakes, about which I posted back in April of 2008. They had tasted quite good, yet I had never again made them. It seemed a simple enough meal, and one that should not take too long to prepare. I ran over a mental list in my mind and was sure that I already had all of the ingredients.

I pulled out the recipe when I got home and collected the ingredients. The first thing I did was to set my cast iron skillet over a medium-low flame so it would be ready when the batter was finished. It took about ten minutes to mix up the batter, and maybe twenty minutes to cook the griddle cakes.

Within half an hour, I was eating dinner. The cakes were soft, fluffy, and delicious. The fresh corn elevated them from pancake status to something more substantial. I used just a little maple syrup with them, but I'm thinking they would be good with something a bit more savory.

This recipe is worth re-posting because these corn griddle cakes make an excellent meal when you need something fast and easy.

Home Cookin Chapter: Breads and Muffins

CORN GRIDDLE CAKESServings: 4

1 cup all-purpose or white whole wheat flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
about 3/4 cup fresh sweet corn kernels, cut from the cob
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp oil

Place all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and sift them together. Combine the corn, egg and milk in a small bowl and whisk together. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the oil and stir it into the mixture.

Spoon the batter onto a hot griddle, using 2 to 3 tablespoons for each cake. Cook the batter until bubbles show on the surface, about 2 to 3 minutes, then flip them over and cook the other side until golden brown, about 2 more minutes.

from a recipe I found unattributed on a recipe collection site and subsequently discovered with further research came from the Two Fat Ladies (Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright)

Exported from Home Cookin 5.5 (www.mountain-software.com)