'Corn'y Tex-Mex Pancakes

So guess what can be eaten grilled, boiled, in the form of  fritters or croquettes?! 

Come on, be a sport! 

Take a guess! 

Jeez! Alright, I'll kill the suspense....

Its *dadadadum drum roll*

Corn!! 

I know! Potatoes could have been the right answer as well. If you said potatoes, you win, but work with me here for the sake of this post. Lets just say you answered with Corn. 

So I freeze fresh corn kernels when they are in the season so I can use them any time of the year I want to. And although we do get canned corn, but I prefer avoiding taking my food out of tins n cans as much as possible. 

Anyway, so I was craving something healthy to snack on. And it was raining outside. There's something about the rains that makes you want to have  something warm, crispy and savoury. 

So I ended up making these Tex-Mex Corn Pancakes. Not trying to market these but OH MY LORD!! They tasted amazing! The combination of flavours worked soooooooo good and I think they are here to stay in my kitchen for a long long looong time. 

These were accompanied by Fresh home made Salsa and a fat free yogurt dip. 




Serves: 6

Complexity: ***

Time taken: 15-20 mins

You'll need

2/3rd cup all purpose flour
1 onion, sliced into half moons
2 cups Boiled corn kernels
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 tbsp smoked paprika (add more if you like)
1 tbsp cajun spice mix
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
zest of one lime
1 cup milk
1 tbsp baking powder
some coriander leaves
Butter/ olive oil for cooking
Pinch of love

For the Salsa

2-3 tomatoes, quartered (mine were too small so I ended up using 4)
1 green bell pepper
1 red onion, roughly cubed
small bunch of coriander leaves 
Juice and Zest of one lemon
salt & pepper to taste
3 garlic cloves (mine were teeny tiny so I used a little more)


Method

For the corn pancakes, take your corn kernels in a large bowl. It will make mixing everything easier. 





Add the garlic powder to it





The smoked paprika





The Cajun spice mix.... the depth of flavour and a hint of sweetness in both these spice mixes makes these pancakes to die for! This is what gives a southern twist to the Mexican pancakes. 





In goes the salt





The red chili flakes





Throw in the chopped red bell pepper. Look at those gorgeous colours! 





And there they go hiding under the blanket of all purpose flour. 





Pour in the cup of milk. You might need a little extra, but I ended up adding couple tbsps of water instead. The batter needs to be thick and not at all runny. 





Give it all a good mix. Add the coriander leaves





Spoon on the baking powder and a pinch of your love 





Give it a mix again. Those colours man!! How pretty does that look! We're making it more colourful. Add in the zest of the lime. 





Give it a mix again and throw in the sliced onions that you'd almost forgotten about. Those onions, those onions....yes! those onions!! They get all caramelized and add the the slight sweetness and all the flavours of the smoked paprika and the cajun spices come together. 





Have a griddle or a flat bottomed skillet on medium-low heat. Melt some butter along with a few drops of oil so the butter doesn't burn. 





Spoon 2 tbsps of corn batter and flatten them a little bit. Cook them for 3-4 minutes on each side till the turn crispy and golden brown







Flip and cook again for 3-4 minutes. Turn the heat to low, so the pancakes cook through and yet remain crisp and don't burn. 





Stack them up like so. Top it up with the Curd Dip (use sour cream/ cream cheese if you want to) and with some salsa. Grate some cheese over it.





Isn't this a beauty! Colourful, oh-so-pretty and the flavours!! The corn kernels peeking through, ready to burst in your mouth. The Corn pancakes are ready for you! Indulge! 





For the Salsa, in a food processor add all the ingredients together along with the lemon juice. 





Blitz for a minute till they are almost all blended like so. Check for seasoning.




Your salsa is ready to serve! 





For the Hung Curd Dip (please excuse me for no stand alone pictures, the air head in me took over)

2 cups hung curd (hang yogurt in muslin cloth n strain excess liquid for couple of hours till curd becomes rich n cream like) 
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
coriander leaves, finely chopped
Salt to taste 
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder 

Mix all these and store in fridge till serving time









Comments

  1. Do we need baking powder in this recipe ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we do, because the baking powder adds a lightness to the pancakes instead of making them dense. Also helps the cooking process be faster and more even... :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts