Fresh Corn Griddle Cakes With Spicy Salsa

Fresh Corn Griddle Cakes With Spicy Salsa
Stephen Scott Gross for The New York Times
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
5(168)
Notes
Read community notes

Sweet tender corn is one of summer’s great joys, and adding fresh kernels turns these cornmeal griddlecakes into something quite special. Stirring a bit of chopped jalapeño and chives into the batter improves them all the more. A zippy salsa of chopped summer peppers and tomatoes makes a fine topping. Serve a colorful plateful of them as is, hot off the griddle, or to accompany grilled pork chops. For the best texture and rise, prep the wet and dry ingredients for the batter in advance, but wait to combine them until just before cooking.

Featured in: The Flavor of Corn, but With Sizzle

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Ingredients

Yield:About 2 dozen 3-inch griddle cakes, 6 to 8 servings

    For the Batter

    • cups cornmeal
    • ½cup all-purpose flour
    • 2teaspoons baking powder
    • 1teaspoon baking soda
    • 1teaspoon kosher salt
    • 2teaspoons sugar
    • cups buttermilk
    • 2eggs, lightly beaten
    • 6tablespoons melted butter or vegetable oil, plus more for greasing griddle
    • 3cups freshly shucked corn kernels, from about 4 ears
    • 1small jalapeño chile, finely chopped, or to taste
    • 3tablespoons finely sliced chives or scallions

    For the Salsa

    • cups red onion, finely diced
    • cups bell peppers, finely diced, preferably a mix of colors
    • cups firm-ripe tomatoes, finely diced, preferably a mix of colors
    • 1teaspoon kosher salt
    • 1small jalapeño chile, finely chopped, or to taste
    • Juice of 2 limes, more to taste
    • 1cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, for garnish
    • 1cup crumbled queso fresco, for garnish (may substitute mild feta)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

416 calories; 17 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 9 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 55 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 12 grams protein; 660 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. For the Batter

    1. Step 1

      Stir together cornmeal, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs and 6 tablespoons melted butter. Set both bowls aside until ready to cook griddle cakes.

    2. Step 3

      Finish the batter: Add buttermilk mixture to cornmeal mixture and mix briefly with wooden spoon or whisk to obtain a thick batter. Add corn kernels, jalapeño and chives and stir to combine.

  2. For the Salsa

    1. Step 2

      In a serving bowl, toss onions, peppers, tomatoes, salt and jalapeño. Add lime juice and toss again. (May prepare 1 to 2 hours ahead.)

    2. Step 4

      Set griddle or large cast-iron pan over medium heat. When griddle is hot, grease lightly with a dab of butter, using a folded paper towel or pastry brush. Spoon slightly less than ¼ cup batter onto griddle. Adjust heat as necessary to keep griddle cakes from browning too quickly. Cook for about 1½ minutes, then carefully flip with spatula and cook for another 1½ minutes.

    3. Step 5

      Serve immediately as soon as griddle cakes are ready or keep hot in a low oven until all batter is used. To serve, put 3 griddle cakes on a plate. Top with a generous spoonful of salsa. Garnish with a few cilantro leaves and a sprinkling of queso fresco.

Ratings

5 out of 5
168 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

I have a hard time with this as a sweet "pancake". I like it as a savory corn fritter: omit the sugar, and add a cup or more of finely diced onion, red & yellow pepper and parsley along with the corn. Salsa is good, but you could also serve it with a scoop of aioli. I used it as a side for braised chicken thighs, but it would go well with lots of saucy dishes. And a nice southern rhone.

Like most recipes, do a dry run. I found that the cakes took longer to cook in a cast iron skillet than I expected. The salsa complemented the cakes very well. I also made Cyndy Pawlson's tomatillo-avocado salsa as an alternative. But on the whole a good recipe that needs tweaking according to your stove, pan, and the amount of corn you put in it.

This was great. Added some chopped avocados on top and a lime crema and it was a perfect, light August meal.

For the salsa, I used heirloom tomatoes and would probably use a serrano pepper next time in it as it wasn't very "spicy."

I served it with Shiner Bock Prickly Pear, which worked well.

OK, I really didn't want to spend two hours making these. So how to reduce the time spent? OK, I could have just used jarred salsa but a family member was kind of under the weather and nixed the idea of salsa. So I ditched the chilli and the green onions in the batter and just treated these as ordinary pancakes with butter and syrup and they were fine. Found the final batter too thick so just added a tad more buttermilk. Increased cooking time to remove all rawness.

We had quite a bit of extra batter (about 8 cakes worth) so we popped it in a mini muffin tin. 18-20 minutes at 350 produced some tasty little muffins which are quite good with pepper jelly.

Made the corn cakes as written but served with leftover ratatouille and some tsatziki. First batch of cakes adhered like glue to our lightly oiled griddle. We'll probably have to throw out the griddle. The rest we cooked in plenty of oil in a truly nonstick sautee pan and they were great, really nice texture and flavour - so, still 5 stars. A great way to use up some slightly aged corn on the cob and turn it into something wonderful. You could riff on it by adding some smoked fish, or cheese.

Per Barefoot Contessa: use clarified butter to fry. Skit all the salsa stuff

Also great served with black-eyed peas and kale or other greens cooked with garlic and pepper flakes (on this site)

Yummy. Did two jalapeños and red onion. Added a little chili-lime Could add chipotle next time

This was good. I cut the sugar as the kernels were super sweet. Needs some oomph this. Extra onion, peppers or cheese added would be good

Omit sugar. Add avocados to toppings.

I'm glad I read these notes- I too had a hard time with the batter sticking. The cakes took at least twice as long to cook as the recipe advises, but in the end they were delicious and the salsa is great. I added chopped radishes to the salsa as well.

Add 1/2 C of gluten free artisan flour

Terrific, restaurant-quality dish. Easy to make with lots of possible variations, like the addition of avocado to the salsa.

Like most recipes, do a dry run. I found that the cakes took longer to cook in a cast iron skillet than I expected. The salsa complemented the cakes very well. I also made Cyndy Pawlson's tomatillo-avocado salsa as an alternative. But on the whole a good recipe that needs tweaking according to your stove, pan, and the amount of corn you put in it.

Tasty and fun variation for a side dish with grilled pork. A little bit dry, but otherwise good.

This was great. Added some chopped avocados on top and a lime crema and it was a perfect, light August meal.

For the salsa, I used heirloom tomatoes and would probably use a serrano pepper next time in it as it wasn't very "spicy."

I served it with Shiner Bock Prickly Pear, which worked well.

Just cooked this again and I should have added more jalapeno's to the griddle cakes. Now we live in Texas, so we appreciate a little more spice, but two jalapeno's would have been much better.
The other issue is that I should have broken up the cut up corn chunks more than I did. The larger chunks caused the cakes to cook unevenly. Still tasty though.

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