Corn and chickpea flour fritters

Like a lot of people who enjoy cooking, I own a few cookbooks. Over Christmas and my birthday, I got given several to add to my collection.... plus I did buy a few myself!

I tell myself that I don't need to feel guilty about my cookbook collection since I do read each one I own. I'm sure I'm not the only one who takes cookbooks to read in bed!

The other weekend it was just Alastair and I at home for brunch. I had seen a recipe for pancakes or fritters using chickpea flour, but couldn't remember where I had read it. I tried flicking through a few of my newest cookbooks and online through my usual recipe websites but with no success. Gaaah! Don't you hate it when that happens? In the end I couldn't track down the recipe and had to wing it. That's the problem with reading so many books and food magazines - you get ideas and inspiration but then you can't remember where those ideas came from!

I ended up with corn and chickpea flour fritters. I bought the chickpea flour from an Asian grocery store to make onion bhaji and have used it a few times since. Plain flour would work as a substitute, but the chickpea flour gives a unique nutty depth of flavour.

On a side note, I have discovered that indian style chickpea flour is made from chana dal, which is a cousin of the chickpea, not an actual chickpea. There's lots of alternative names for this flour: chana dal flour, gram flour, dal flour, or besan flour to name a few. Actual chickpea flour (ie made from actual chickpeas) is popular in Italian cuisine and is called farina di ceci.



Corn and chickpea flour fritters

Makes about 6 medium fritters

1 cup frozen corn kernels
2 cups chickpea/besan flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons chopped chives
2 eggs
1 cup of milk (add a tad more if you think it's too thick)
Pepper
Oil spray
Cream cheese
6-8 cherry tomatoes, quartered and tossed with a dash of olive oil
Extra chives to garnish

Put all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Mix together the eggs, milk, onion, and chives, season with pepper, then stir in the dry ingredients and mix lightly until combined.
Allow to stand for 10 minutes.
Heat a nonstick frying pan on medium heat, and lightly spray with oil.
Drop 1/4 cup measures of mixture on to the frying pan, allowing room for spreading, and cook over medium heat. Turn when bubbles come to surface, and cook another minute.
Put a dollop of cream cheese and some cherry tomatoes on top of the fritters, and garnish with some extra snipped chives.

Corn fritters with avocado salsa

This was dinner on a night when I had to use an avocado before it softened into mush. At the market vegie stall at the market, they tend to sell 3 avocados for $x, and so I always buy 3 avocados at a time. Even when it only saves me 40 cents or other teensy amount, I cannot resist a bulk deal. Must be my asian genes. ;)

My Bro and I have debated whether the avocado "salsa" is actually a salsa. Technically it's not a sauce, so probably not... I call it that anyway.

With the corn fritters, I have a couple of recipes sitting in my email (whenever I find a recipe I like the look of, I email it to myself). This has been adapted from one of those recipes, and I think the original came from one of the companies who produce canned corn.

Corn Fritters
Serves 4

440g can corn kernels
2 cups self raising flour
1 finely diced onion
2 eggs
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 rashers of bacon
1 ¾ cups milk
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Avocado salsa
1 ripe avocado
½ red onion
½ Lebanese cucumber
Juice of ½ a lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

To make the salsa:

Chop the avocado flesh into small chunks.
Toss with the lemon juice.
Finely dice the red onion and chop the cucumber into small chunks.
Gently mix the avocado, onion and cucumber together, toss with a dash of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. (You may be able to see in the photo that I also diced up some red radish and threw it in there. It was good for a bit of crunch.)
Set aside until the corn fritters are ready.

To make the fritters:

Heat a frying pan and cook bacon until done to your liking.
Roughly chop into pieces. (If you don't like strong tasting onion and garlic, cook them before mixing into the batter below. I never bother.)
Sift all dry ingredients together.
Mix together the eggs, milk, onion, bacon and garlic, then stir in the dry ingredients and mix lightly until combined.
Allow to stand for 10 minutes.
Heat a non-stick frying pan on medium, spray with oil.
Drop tablespoons of mixture on to the pan, allowing room for spreading.
Cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, turning when bubbles come to the surface.
Cook for another 2 minutes or until cooked.
Keep fritters warm then assemble with the salsa on top.

I like to have corn fritters with a bit of chilli jam (the orange stuff in the photo) but then I am a chilli fiend!