Grill/Barbecue

Rustic Grilled Corn Fry Bread

by:
August 13, 2010
4
3 Ratings
Rustic Grilled Corn Fry Bread
  • Serves 9-10 small pancakes
Author Notes

What a happy coincidence! Using up some leftovers in the fridge, what I just made for lunch qualifies for the corn theme just announced for this week! From testing Sunset Salsa last week I learned quite a bit about grilling corn, mainly how not to burn a cob to a black, charred crisp, beyond recognition. Fortunately, a friend helped me out of that crisis. I grilled a few more cobs this week with a newfound success style, which I will share below. I had just a little leftover corn to use up today. Smooshed garbanzo beans and ricotta with egg, both leftover from meatball recipes this week,also found their way into lunch. Having recently taken a canning class with Savorykitchen, I made a new blueberry ginger preserve which I was anxious to sample with this. Other serving suggestions include hot pepper jelly, cranberry pepper jelly or pumpkin butter alongside sour cream, creme fraiche or fage. This recipe recalls Iroquois "fry bread." With corn and beans it includes two of the three sisters. A variation on this: add 2 tbl. of cooked pumpkin and you would then have the third sister. For a bit more on the three sisters, see my corn cakes recipe. —Sagegreen

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1/2-3/4 cups corn cut from grilled cobs of silver queen corn, or other small kernel variety
  • 1 egg, beaten with a fork
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese
  • 1 cup gluten-free flour baking mix (like Arrowhead Mills)
  • 2 tablespoons white corn meal
  • pinch of kosher salt
  • pinch of fresh milled black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 cup coarsely processed garbanzo beans
  • 2 tablespoons grated ginger, reserve half for garnish
  • grapeseed or canola oil for cooking
  • dollops of ricotta, sour cream or fage for garnish
  • Sprig of cilantro, basil or mint for garnish
  • spoonful of blueberry-ginger jam. hot pepper jelly or preserve of your choice on the side
  • 2 tablespoons cooked pumpkin, optional variation
  • dollup of sour cream, ricotta, creme fraiche or fage, optional
Directions
  1. To grill corn, first soak the cobs, husks on (but pulled down), in water for @ 30 minutes. Then trim both ends. Grill the corn (husks on and pulled back up) until tender (15-30 minutes or so depending upon size and heat). Probably you will want to grill several ears of corn to enjoy on the cob with a meal. But reserve 1 or 2 ears. Let cool and cut off the kernels for this recipe later. You only need 1/2 cup or so. In fact I only used 1/4 cup in this recipe, because that is what was left over, and was craving more.
  2. Mix the beaten egg with ricotta. Add pumpkin if you are using this. Then add the flour, corn meal, salt, pepper, cilantro, cinnamon, cumin, olive oil, half the ginger, and the garbanzo beans. The mixture should be stiff enough for a wooden spoon to stand straight, but pliable for the spoon to move freely when stirring.
  3. Lastly, stir in the corn kernels.
  4. In a very hot pan use just enough grapeseed or canola oil to coat the bottom of the pan generously. Turn the heat to medium high.
  5. Ladle the batter to form tiny 2" pancakes in the pan. When the bottom of each pancake has turned golden brown, turn over. Cook until both sides are golden brown and the middle is also solid. If you have been conservative with your oil use in the pan, you will not need to drain these on paper towels.
  6. Serve with dollops of sour cream, ricotta, or Greek yogurt and maple syrup, a blueberry ginger preserve, pumpkin butter, or cranberry/hot pepper jam. Garnish with cilantro, mint, or basil and fresh grated ginger. You may be able to tell from the photos that I love fresh ginger: Feel free to cut back if you do not!
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7 Reviews

lapadia
lapadia August 17, 2010
I have never made fry bread before, will have to do that soon...btw, love your wording "smooshed"!
 
Sagegreen
Sagegreen August 17, 2010
Thanks. It was a toss up between smooshed and crunched.These are really rustic pancakes which native Americans also made.
 
marynn
marynn August 14, 2010
A bumper crop of blueberries and several lemons later, I can enthusiastically vouch for Madame Ferber's confiture. As a try-before-buy kind of girl, I found this on the net:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/recipes/every-summer-i-jam-on.html

and have fallen for Christine Ferber. I will be buying her book. A caution--the author, Joe Yonan, reduces the sugar to fruit ratio, which is fine for a refrigerator jam, but not preserves. French law defines the amount of sugar to fruit ratio (of course) for preservation, thus the higher amount. So play around, but don't plan on this as a canning recipe. It won't last that long anyway.
 
Sagegreen
Sagegreen August 17, 2010
Thanks. You are so right: no need to can! I do like the reduced sugar.
 
Lizthechef
Lizthechef August 13, 2010
Looks good - would love to see your blueberry ginger preserve sometime. I'm a ginger fan myself.
 
Sagegreen
Sagegreen August 13, 2010
Thanks. That recipe is based loosely on Christine Ferber's "Mes Confitures." We should have a ginger or blueberry week!
 
Lizthechef
Lizthechef August 14, 2010
Thanks - I have that book too! Will check it out. Making simple blueberry jam this afternoon.