197/365: National Corn Fritters Day

I’d better cob-ble together some facts in order to educate you on today’s food holiday. July 16 is National Corn Fritters Day!

Corn fritters originated in the Deep South, and are related to hush puppies. No surprise there; isn’t everybody related to everybody else down South? (This is the part where I could insert a gratuitous joke about cousins getting hitched and follow that up with a real belly-slapper over inbreeding, but I’ll take the high road instead. Wouldn’t want to offend any Southerners, after all). Corn fritters are closely associated with cowboy cuisine, but in fact, might have originated with the Native American culture. All we know for sure is, they are made with corn kernels, egg, flour, milk, and butter, and may be either fried or baked. They are similar in appearance to Johnnycakes, a flatbread made of cornmeal.

Seeing as how we live about as far from the South as you can possibly get while still calling the United States home, corn fritters aren’t exactly commonplace up here. Meaning, we had to make our own. No big deal, though – they’re very easy. We used the following recipe from Bisquick, with a slight modification (the addition of green chilies):

1 egg
1/4 c. milk
1 c. Bisquick
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 4 oz. can diced green chilies
Black pepper

Blend together egg, milk, and Bisquick. Stir in corn. Add pepper to taste. In a wok or frying pan, heat 2 inches vegetable oil. Using 2 teaspoons, gently drop a rounded teaspoon of fritter batter into hot oil. Fry 6-8 fritters at a time, turning until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

They were simple to make, and delicious! We weren’t sure what type of dipping sauce to use, so we opted for ranch. I think a spicy chipotle mayo would have been even better.

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• Spicy Corn Fritters (paninigirl.wordpress.com)
• Corn Fritters (thegoodnewsauthors.wordpress.com)