Cornmeal
Cornmeal cakes with vegetable bits
- Makes 10 two- to three-inch corn cakes.
Author Notes
Love cornmeal, but got tired of cornbread. Tried this by "eyeballing" ingredients instead of precisely measuring, and it always works. Important to taste batter for salt before cooking. We love these as a vegetable side or as a "bread" accompaniment with chili and soups. —cmpollard
What You'll Need
Ingredients
-
1
large egg, beaten
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+/- 1/3 cups
plain yogurt, Greek or regular
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+/- 1/3 cups
cornmeal
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+/- 1/4 cups
frozen corn kernels (fresh if you insist)
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+/- 1/4 cups
chopped, frozen pepper strips, mixed colors or not
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+/- 1/4 cups
finely chopped onion or shallot
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2 tablespoons
canola and/or olive oil for cooking
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2 pinches
kosher salt
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1 splash
Sriracha (I would prefer "squirt" to "splash."
Directions
- Assemble the assorted vegetable bits, and let them thaw slightly if they are straight from the freezer. Any or all of my suggestions are good, or you can improvise.
- Mix the egg, yogurt, cornmeal and baking powder in a bowl. Add 2 pinches of salt and a squirt of Sriracha. (I don't bother to actually measure the yogurt and cornmeal, but imagine that the amount I am using is between ? and ½ cup.
- Stir the vegetable bits into the batter. If you have used Greek yogurt you may want to loosen the batter a tiny bit with about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of water.
- Taste a tiny bit of the batter to judge the salt level, and add more if need be.
- Heat a 10 inch skillet to medium on a burner. Add about a tablespoon of your oil of choice. Using a 2 Tablespoon coffee measure, pour four or five rounds of batter into the hot, thin layer of oil. These are pancakes, so look for the bubbles, and flip the cakes when you see them.
- When the first batch is finished, place the corncakes on a plate with a paper towel under them. Add a little more oil to the skillet if necessary, and measure out four or five more 2 tablespoon rounds. Repeat the cooking. Keep the first batch warm in a low oven while the second batch cook. We eat these as finger food, and they are somewhere between bread and vegetable side, slightly custardy because of the egg and yogurt. The only measuring cup I use when making these is the 2 Tablespoon coffee measure. Everything else is eyeballed, with the size of an egg or ? and ½ cup in my mind's eye. They always work, and I have included other things such as chopped artichoke hearts and cooked black beans.
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