19 July 2012



It's reveal day for the Improv Challenge.  The premise of this challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.


This month's assigned ingredients were corn and butter.  Yummy!  Anything with those two ingredients has to be good.  I had made some corn cakes a couple of months ago, but hadn't posted them yet because I felt they needed tweaking.  This challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to do so!  I added cheddar cheese to them and topped the warm cakes with butter, which immediately melted and made the best topping.  Here's the recipe.

Golden Cheddar Corn Cakes

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears), or 1 can of canned corn
½ cup green onions, sliced
¼ cup + 1 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
4 eggs, separated
½ cup flour
½ cup yellow cornmeal
1 tsp salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Butter

Directions:
In a blender or food processor, pulse corn until chopped but not smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in green onions, ¼ cup oil, and the egg yolks.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, salt, and cheese. Add to corn mixture and mix thoroughly but gently.

In a clean bowl, whisk or beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into corn mixture.

In a large frying pan, heat 1 tbsp oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches of 4, drop large spoonfuls of the corn mixture into pan. Cook until edges begin to set and undersides are browned, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook until cakes are browned and cooked through. Remove from pan and immediately top with butter.  Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings, 4 (2”) cakes each.

You may think it's kind of a cop-out to just put butter on top, but let me tell you, that is the best part!  The first time we had these corn cakes, we didn't top them with anything and ate them dry.  They were bland and just kind of "blah".  The addition of the cheddar cheese certainly helped a lot, but putting melty butter on them put them over the top.  We use real butter sparingly because it's so unhealthy, but this is one instance where a splurge is warranted.

I actually split this recipe and make two different batches.  I make half of it as written above, and I make the other half without cheese or butter for my kids, since my little one is allergic to dairy.  It really isn't that much extra work to split it in half like that.

These make a great side dish for summer grilling, and if you make them tiny, would make a great party appetizer with some kind of yummy topping.  They are really quite versatile.

Stephanie from Sustainable Cooking for One chose to make this recipe when she was assigned my blog for the Secret Recipe Club in February 2013.  Click on the button below to check out her post!

Secret Recipe Club

Check out all of the other great corn and butter recipes below, and come back next month to see what I create with tomatoes and peppers!


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11 comments:

  1. mmmmmmm -- I bet those corn cakes taste just as yummy as they look!

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  2. My Girls will love these! Great entry in the challenge!

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  3. I haven't had corn cakes in so long - your recipe has inspired me. And I totally agree- the only way to eat them is with melted butter on top!

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  4. Lovely corn cakes Lesa! They look absolutely delicious! 

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  5. Your corn cakes are so golden brown and delicious looking! I'm convinced that the butter makes a difference! Especially knowing how good corn on the cob is when buttered.

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  6. Wow Lesa...these look pretty amazing!  A perfect summer side or even great on top of a salad!  

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  7. Cheddar corn cakes!! Yummy! I love the sound of these. Wonderful job for this month's challenge :)

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  8. Your corn cakes look and sound wonderful and I love the cheddar flavor with the corn...YUM!

    If you haven't already, I'd love for you to check out my Improv Cooking Challenge entry:   Fritos Crusted Pollock.Lisa~~Cook Lisa Cook  

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  9. I love your blog!!!  You have great recipe's.   If you don't mind, I'm going to add you to my blogs that I follow list..  Have to share all these great meals with my friends!!!  

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  10. They look SO delicious - I would just love to tuck into a plate of those!
    Mary x

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