Parmesan Polenta Corn Fritters

Parmesan Polenta Corn Fritters with accompanying salad of: avocado, cucumber, yellow pepper, tomato, carrot, spring onion, celery, mixed salad greens, and mint (with additional sliced avocado).

Fried haloumi cheese is a nice addition to the meal (we added this to our meal, but this is not in the photo).

This is seriously the best corn fritter recipe and is the one we will be using from now on. Before finding this recipe, Mum had two standard recipes for corn fritters: the up-market French Cordon Bleu recipe, which requires beating egg yolks, then beating egg whites, and adding fresh breadcrumbs; the second recipe Mum has for corn fritters is less fussy, and is a standard recipe, using flour, egg, and corn. Both recipes were fine, but lacked something.

Then, we came across this recipe – Parmesan Polenta Corn Fritters. What makes this recipe so brilliant is not only do the fritters cook well, and have a lovely flavour, but they also have a springy consistency without being rubbery, and are densely packed with ingredients, without being heavy.

The fritters include two types of corn: corn kernels, and polenta (cornmeal). I think what makes this recipe so great is the polenta, as it adds another flavour of corn to complement the corn kernels, and it holds these fritters together to create a nice consistent quality. The parmesan cheese adds another layer of flavour.

The original recipe is from the book The Chelsea Cafe, by Jo Seagar, published in 2005. I had this book with me on a visit to Mum, who flicked through the pages and spotted this corn fritter recipe, and was eager to try it. When I returned home, I took the book with me. Soon after I arrived home, my phone beeped with a text message from Mum, in which she asked me if I could get a photocopy of the corn fritter recipe? I replied saying I was prepared already and had the page marked ready to copy. “You’re amaizing!”, replied Mum. I laughed out loud when I read this, as Mum’s corn reference was very witty and I told her so. “It’s a bit corny, really”, came Mum’s text reply. Well done Mum, A+ for wit.

PARMESAN POLENTA CORN FRITTERS

Makes 12 fritters

Fritters can be made ahead of time and frozen for up to three months, ready for use for quick, pre-prepared meals.

2 eggs

1 cup self-raising flour (or for 1 cup of plain flour and add a slightly rounded tspn of baking powder)

½ cup instant polenta

½ cup milk

¼ cup (or slightly more) grated parmesan cheese

2 spring onions, finely chopped

2 tblspns chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley

1 can cream style corn (or 2 cups of frozen or fresh corn)

Salt and pepper

oil for frying

Add the eggs to a large bowl, and whisk them slightly. Add all ingredients (except oil) to the bowl, and mix to a smooth batter. Extra milk may be required, but the mixture shouldn’t be too runny.

Heat oil in a fry-pan and add heaped tablespoons of batter to the hot pan. Fry the fritters until they are golden brown on both sides and set in the middle.

COOK’S NOTES:

Mum and I made a few changes to the original recipe:

• We didn’t have self-raising flour, so added a slightly heaped teaspoon of baking powder to 1 cup of plain flour.
• We used Italian flat-leaf parsley instead of curly leaf parsley. Mum cut the flat-leaf parsley into strips and I think it mixed in and looked better than curly parsley.

• We used just under half a cup of grated parmesan (rather than ¼ cup), mainly because someone (possibly me), read the recipe wrong, but it worked out for the best anyway!
• Rather than 2 cups of corn kernels, we used a whole can of cream style corn, (and the cream style blended in nicely)
• We used canned cream-style corn (Watties brand, of course, because this is Hawke’s Bay corn), but if fresh corn was in season, we would cook this, shave it off the cob and make use of a fresh summer season corn cob.