the goose loves corn fritters

 In our farm share, we got several ears of fresh corn. And what goes best with corn besides grease? :) Not usually, but once I saw the corn in our bin, I knew I wanted to make corn fritters. So I turn to the trusty world-wide-web and I discover Golden Corn Cakes. These classy corn fritters, designed by fancy chef Yotam Ottolenghi (yeah, never heard of him either), looked delicious AND doable. Here's the recipe:

Corn Cakes with Citrus Greens

TOTAL TIME: 30 minutes
SERVES: 4

½ cup quick-cooking polenta, or fine-ground cornmeal
1¼ cups corn kernels, cut from 1-2 ears of corn
1 small shallot, diced fine (about 3 tablespoons)
½ jalapeño, seeds and membrane removed, diced fine (about 2 tablespoons)
½ teaspoon cumin seeds, roughly smashed
¾ teaspoon salt, plus extra for seasoning
¼ teaspoon black pepper, plus extra for  seasoning
¾ cup full-fat Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for frying
3 eggs, separated
4 cups arugula
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½-1 cup cilantro leaves
¼ cup sour cream

 Naturally, I didn't have all the exact ingredients, so I improvised. Instead of a jalapeno, I used mild green chiles (they come in a can). Instead of a shallot, I used an onion. Instead of cumin seeds, I used regular old cumin. Instead of greek yogurt (which I did have, but I felt that strawberry-flavored yogurt wasn't the right complement ot this dish), I used sour cream.

1. In a large bowl mix polenta with corn, shallots, jalapeño, cumin, salt and pepper. Add yogurt, 1½ tablespoons olive oil and 1 egg yolk (discard the other two yolks). Mix well with fork.

2. In a separate bowl, beat all egg whites to soft peaks. Carefully fold whites into corn batter in two stages. Let rest 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, make dressing. Whisk 1½ tablespoons olive oil with lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Set large nonstick frying pan over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Pour in 1 teaspoon olive oil. Once hot, spoon 2 tablespoons of batter per cake into pan. Repeat until pan is full. Cook cakes 2-3 minutes, or until golden. Flip and cook 1 minute, or until golden. Transfer to paper-lined tray. Yield: about 16 cakes.

 So after compiling my ingredients, I whisked the eggs. Actually my trusty helper Kitchenaid whisked the eggs for me. She is WAY faster and stronger than me.

 Folding the clouds of puffy egg whites into my cornmeal batter.

 Here's the lemon dressing - I didn't make the citrus greens, but I made the dressing to go along with the fritters.

 I used our small (8-inch?) All-Clad non-stick pan, and to prevent me from cooking all night, I made bigger cakes than he suggested - probably about 1/4 cup of batter instead of just 2 tbps.

 Ahh, golden goodness. The recipe says 16 cakes (2 tbsp size), but I got 4 cakes, about 4" in diameter. Perfect for two people, double for four.

 Meanwhile, Billy made some awesome eggplant and sundried tomato tapenade, which we put on toast. It was deeee-lish.

 Our end product - fluffy corn fritters with lemon dressing and sour cream. My apologies for the poor white balance.

 And below, with the tapenade-topped-toasts.

It was a decent amount of work, but totally worth it. Especially when we use our fresh farmshare veggies!