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Sarah's Fresh Corn Pancakes with Salsa Cruda and Yogurt
Quick Weeknight Meals Recipe Contest 2009

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Recipe: Fresh Corn Pancakes with Salsa Cruda and Greek Yogurt
How long does it take? 30 minutes
Category: Vegetarian
Name: Sarah
Why is it a favorite meal? My husband, 18-month-old and I can all eat this together post-work without too much effort and before our little one has to go to bed.

 
 

Fresh Corn Pancakes with Salsa Cruda and Greek Yogurt
Makes roughly 12 pancakes; serves 4

This meal captures the essence of summer: fresh sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes and fresh herbs. The pancakes are light and crispy with pops of corn in every bite. I was originally inspired by Gourmet’s recipe, but I made it more healthful by swapping all-purpose flour with whole wheat, trimming the sugar, halving the butter amount and completely eliminating the oil from the batter.

Ingredients:
1 cup whole-wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
4 ears corn, about 2 cups
3/4 cup whole milk
2 extra-large eggs
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Grapeseed or canola oil for the pan
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Accompaniments:
Salsa Cruda (recipe below)
Greek yogurt

Directions:
Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl.

In a bowl or large measuring cup, whisk eggs and cooled butter; set aside.

Place another medium bowl in a clean sink and cut kernels from cobs — this will help contain flying kernels to the sink and not the floor. Using back of a knife, scrape pulp from the cobs.

Transfer the milk and 1/2 cup corn to the blender. Purée until smooth, then strain through a sieve into the egg/butter mixture, pressing to extract all the liquid; discard the solids. Whisk to combine.

Add liquids to flour mixture with remaining 1 1/2 cups corn and fold with a rubber spatula until just combined.

Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat until hot, then lightly brush with oil. Using a 1/3-cup ice cream scoop, portion 3-4 pancakes onto the pan and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are crisp and brown, about 3 minutes. Flip with a spatula and cook until golden-brown, about 2 more minutes. Adjust heat if pancakes are browning too quickly. Cook two to three more batches, lightly oiling the pan between batches if necessary.

Salsa Cruda
This sauce is only as good as its ingredients, so use the freshest, ripest and most flavorful products available. Fresh thyme, basil or mint are a wonderful in this, so use whatever you have on hand. Note: the longer this sits the more liquid the tomatoes will release, so don’t make this too far in advance.

Ingredients:
1 large heirloom tomato, diced
1 small clove of garlic, finely minced or grated on a microplane
1 sprig of thyme minced, or a chiffonade of 10-12 leaves of basil or mint
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
A generous pinch of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
In a small bowl combined all ingredients and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Thanks Sarah, and good luck! Readers, give Sarah a thumbs up if you like this recipe!

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Comments (12)

healthy, simple, pretty and comfort-food--love it

posted by avianmission on September 28th 2009 at 11:51am
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Yum! These look awesome. I think I may have to try these tonight!

posted by packmvp04 on September 28th 2009 at 11:52am
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you could also use roma tomatoes for the salsa and squeeze out the seeds and juice before dicing. this always helps the liquidity of a salsa. not to mention, the longer the salsa sits, the more flavorful. this will allow you let it sit longer.

posted by akops41 on September 28th 2009 at 12:20pm
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Awesome, creative use of wonderful summer ingredients.
Karen

posted by ksalp on September 28th 2009 at 12:36pm
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great combination of flavors

posted by oneilmp6 on September 28th 2009 at 1:24pm
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Looks delish, and a good use of all those ripe tomatoes!!

posted by Art-Wall-Katie on September 28th 2009 at 2:01pm
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Delicious quick dish for fall using seasonal ingredients!

posted by lkbillings on September 28th 2009 at 4:29pm
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seriously, I can NOT wait to make this. Thursday night dinner can't come soon enough.

posted by FromTheFuture on September 28th 2009 at 5:00pm
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I ADORE corn cakes, and these look quite good. Thank you so much for posting this.

posted by bocadelperro on September 28th 2009 at 10:12pm
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can you make this with canned or frozen corn?

posted by tbattenger on September 30th 2009 at 4:39pm
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So I made these this weekend! Tasty as I anticipated! Though mine puffed up a LOT and did have a little baking powder aftertaste. I might mess with food science a little in the future and reduce the powder a bit. Also, threw the leftover batter into the fridge and had corn pancakes and eggs (with leftover guacamole from takeout mexican the night before!) this weekend! YUM!!!

posted by FromTheFuture on October 6th 2009 at 12:26pm
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Yum; my mouth is watering...what a fabulous recipe...Thank you for the great idea..I love making veggie cakes and I have posted a few on my website, The Healthy Apple at www.thehealthyapple.com

Thanks again!

posted by Thehealthyapple on November 22nd 2009 at 1:31pm
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