Just good old corn cakes

Annalena is feeling a bit under the weather, ragazzi, so she apologizes for not giving you a witty or interesting or frustrating title this time around.  (Remember those categories on "10,000 Pyramid?  They'd be things  like  "It's the normal thing to do," and then you'd find that it's something like  "things that end in 'mal."  Annalena sort of does that with the titles, doesn't she?).

Notwithstanding her lack of physical stamina today, Annalena does want to give you another recipe that is perfect for this time of year.  She saw it in the Times, and immediately saw ways to simplify it for her own uses, and also, for yours. And it allowed her to work with two things that are not her strong point:  corn, and pancakes.

Annalena has gone on, several times, about how she doesn't have the same affection for corn that the Guyman does, or  that America as a whole does.  Well, this year, perhaps a sign of our getting older, or becoming more alike, the Guyman's lust for corn seems to have shrunk, and Annalena has begun to like it more.  The result of this, is that there were two ears of cooked corn in the fridge. Annalena was NOT going to throw them out.  Yet, she wasn't sure what to do.

Then, David Tanis' column appeared, with a series of recipes to do  now that high summer is upon us.

And indeed it is ragazzi.  In fact, high summer will continue through the middle of the autumn, whether there is global warming or not.  You know that:  you can get corn, peaches, tomatoes, etc, all the way through October.  But many of these "summer" things peak now.  So use them.

Chef Tanis had a recipe for corn  blini.  It inspired Annalena.  BUT... blini are pancakes.  And what you don't know, is that pancakes are NOT Annalena's strong suit.  She finds them frustrating to make, usually burns them, and ultimately, winds up singing the Peggy Lee song  "Is that All there Is?" on the occasions when she does make them.    But, she decided to try a few things with the recipe, and ... IT WORKED!!!    She will explain how she simplified things, and made them a little less rich than the original called for.

Also, the recipe said that it would make 30 blini.  Indeed, if you make these blini sized, which is about the size of a silver dollar, you will get 30.   Annalena was looking for something to serve alongside of her curried scallops (anyone want that recipe?),  so she made them larger.  She got about 18 in total.  And that was more than enough for two people. We had about half left over.  So figure that if you're making these as a side dish, you will have enough for four.  But we won't have enough, unless we start cooking.  So, here we go.

You need about 2 cups of corn kernels.  Annalena's corn was cooked, but if you have the fresh, raw stuff, use it.  Get it off the cob, and make sure you scrape the kernel less cobs with the back of your knife, to get some of the sweet corn milk out of them.  Put them aside, while you mix up two, separate things.

First, the dry stuff:  easy.  Half cup each of flour and corn meal, a teaspoon of baking powder, and half that of salt.  The original recipe called for a tablespoon of sugar as well.  Annalena left it out.  Corn is sweet enough, in her opinion.

Now, the liquid ingredients.  Melt half a stick of unsalted butter.  Mix it together with a large egg, and a cup of yogurt.  Now, on the yogurt, ragazzi, Annalena used non fat Greek yogurt, and her recipe worked really well. Also, you probably know (if not, you should), that a "cup" of yogurt these days, is six ounces.  As with coffee, and cereal, etc, corporate America has downsized the portion.  The "cup" Annalena used worked well.  You might also want some milk handy, because this will help your batter.

What you do now, is take what corn you have , and in a food processor,  grind up half of it.    In a big bowl, put the dry ingredients in first, and then add the liquid ingredients, and the ground corn, plus the remaining whole corn.  Stir it all up together, and let it sit for a few minutes.  You are looking for something that is about the texture of thick sour cream.  If you feel things are a bit too thick, add milk, by the tablespoon, until you have something the consistency you like.  You don't want things running all over the place.  It should still be firm.

Ok, now Annalena wants you to melt another two tablespoons of butter, and get out a non stick frying pan.  She used a medium sized one, which allowed her to cook four of these at a time.  The number you can do at one time, will be a function of how big your pan is .  That may sound self evident to some of you.  Not to others.

Use a paintbrush, or a paper towel, and dip it into the melted butter.  Use it to grease the pan, and heat it, at medium high heat.    Add dollops of your batter, about a tablespoon and a half (you can measure to see what this looks like), and put them down on the hot pan.  Have a flipper of some kind ready (Annalena used an icing knife), and cook the guys for a minute on one side. You may get bubbles, you may not.  This is where  Annalena always had the problems.  She waited for the bubbles, and burned the things.  So, set a timer for a minute.  Then, flip, and cook for another thirty seconds.    If you did what you were told, and used a non-stick pan, the things will slip right out onto a waiting baking sheet.  Off the heat, re-grease your pan, the same way, and keep on keepin on, until you've used up all your batter.

You can make these ahead of time, and reheat them, or you can make them, and pop them in a very low oven (200 or so), until you're done.

They need some dressing up.  Chef Tanis suggested thinned creme fraiche, which sounded fine to Annalena; however, she is inundated with yogurt right now, and made a quick sauce of a container (the same size), of yogurt, some tomato chutney, and a few tablespoons of mayonnaise.  Sure was good.

They went just fine with some shishito peppers, and the curried scallops.

So, while the corn is still as high as an elephant's eye, if you have leftovers, or just want something different, get out your skilled, mix some stuff together, and fry dem cakes, kid.  You'll be happy with them.  Annalena guarantees it.