Mama’s Corncakes
My mama is a cooking fool. She puts me to shame. She can come up with the most amazing meal out of the bare minimum of ingredients. I wish she'd go on that Chopped show...I think she could kill it. Being in the kitchen with her is one of my favorite things about going home. When people ask me when my love of cooking began, I tell them its when I was 16 years old and Mama went back to work after my baby sister was born. It wasn't that she was schooling me in the kitchen and teaching me all she knew.... no no no, in fact, she left me alone in the kitchen to try and come up with something to cook the family for dinner each night (she was a restaurant manager at the time and worked nights). So my job for that summer was to cook dinner for the family while she was working. Every once in a while she would call and give me a recipe out of her head over the phone, but for the most part I was stuck searching out her cookbooks for something that sounded good. THAT'S when I fell in love with cooking and creating delicious meals in the kitchen! Mama isn't a fussy cook, nothing fancy...just good down-home delicious eats. It is my privilege to share her fabulous corncake recipe with y'all!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 ears of corn, cut fresh off the cob
1 jalepeno, seeded and diced (if you have an aversion to spicy foods, use half of a bell pepper instead)
2 green onions, sliced thin (white and green parts)
1 egg
1/2 cup half-n-half
canola oil
Directions:
In a medium size bowl, stir together corn meal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. With a fork, stir in egg and half and half. Add corn, green onions and jalepenos and mix until well incorporated. In a large skillet over medium heat, drizzle canola (or olive) oil over the bottom of the pan--just enough to lightly coat. Spoon (or pour) out corn mixture into little dollar size pancakes. Allow corncakes to cook on medium heat for about 5-6 minutes until bottom is golden brown, then flip corncakes. Allow to cook another 5 minutes. Drain on a paper-towel lined plate to rid of any excess oil. We threw together a little dipping sauce with 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons sour cream, zest and juice of 1 lime and another tablespoon of chopped green onions and grilled some pork chops with a little bit of salt, pepper and garlic powder and served it with a little side salad....it was so good....I can't wait to go home again. All flavor...zero fuss. I love you Mama. Thanks for leaving me alone in the kitchen all those years ago.