Corn Cakes with Citrus Greens
/Summary: Another delicious, vegetarian recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi. This is really delicious. If you wanted to move away from this being vegetarian, adding diced, cooked bacon to the cakes would be super. Also, I bet you could use orange juice in place of the lemon for a different flavor profile.
Yield: 4 servings (about 16 cakes)
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup quick-cooking polenta, or fine-ground cornmeal
- 1¼ cups corn kernels, cut from 2 ears of corn
- 3 tablespoons finely diced shallot
- 2 tablespoons finely diced jalapeño, seeds and membrane removed
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, roughly smashed
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3/4 cup full-fat Greek yogurt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 eggs, separated
- 4 cups arugula
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 - 1 cup cilantro leaves
- 1/4 cup sour cream
Instructions:
In a large bowl, mix polenta with corn, shallots, jalapeño, cumin, salt and pepper. Add yogurt, 1.5 T olive oil and 1 egg yolk (discard the other two yolks). Mix well with fork.
In a separate bowl, beat all egg whites to soft peaks. Carefully fold whites into corn batter in two stages. Let rest 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, make dressing. Whisk 1.5 tablespoons olive oil with lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and set aside.
Set a griddle or nonstick frying pan over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Pour in 1 tsp olive oil. Once hot, spoon 2 tablespoons of batter per cake onto griddle. Repeat until griddle is full. Cook cakes 2-3 minutes, or until golden. Flip and cook another minute, or until golden. Transfer to a paper-lined tray. Makes about 16 cakes.
Toss arugula with cilantro. Add dressing and toss again. Season. Serve corncakes with some salad and sour cream alongside.
