Corn Fritters

Corn fritters were the specialty of my maternal grandfather. My grandmother would spread the word that my grandfather would be making corn fritters, because he made just this side of a ton of them, and he would make sure that we got some, along with my aunt and her husband, my aunt's daughter and her husband, and a cousin, who lived upstairs of my grandparents. My grandfather's corn fritters are one of the great memories I have from my childhood.

Ingredients:

2 cups corn, freshly cut from the cob (that's "about" 3 ears of corn), or frozen (thawed and dried) or canned (rinsed and dried)
2 chopped green onions/scallions, with much of the green
1 to 2 tablespoons finely chopped chili pepper (jalapeño or your favorite), or 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup cornmeal 
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, beaten
oil for frying

Over medium heat, heat enough oil to coat the bottom of a skillet (cast iron is good for this, but certainly not required). Mix all ingredients together. The mixture should be pretty thick, but if you feel the batter is too thick, just add some more milk, but add it a little at a time, then mix to see how much it thins the batter before adding more milk (you don't want it runny). Put some batter into the hot skillet, and press down on the batter to flatten out the fritters. I used enough batter to make the fritters about three inches across, at their widest point (I made them sort of oblong), and about 1/2 inch in thickness after I pressed down on them. I got 10 fritters of that size out of this amount of batter. Fry the fritters until nice and brown on both sides, taking care that they don't burn. You should carefully wipe the skillet after each batch, and add fresh oil. You can always adjust the heat and don't be afraid to turn the fritters more than once. 

I had my corn fritters with creme fraiche and some chopped chives. Sour cream would also work well (reduced fat type is fine), but if you'd like creme fraiche, you can easily make your own. Here's the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/07/make-your-own-creme-fraiche.html

WORD HISTORY:
Banquet-This word, related to "bank" (various meanings, including, financial institution and edge of a river or stream) goes back to Old Germanic "bankiz," which meant "bench," but the underlying meaning of which may have been "a geographical slope that forms a shelf;" thus, "a bench," which is a kind of shelf on which to sit. This was borrowed by Latin dialects in northern Italy from Lombardic, a Germanic language, and continued into Italian, which was developing from various Latin dialects. Italian had "banca/banco," which meant "bench." The diminutive form in Italian was "banchetto," literally, "small bench," but it also came to be used for a light lunch that was eaten while sitting on a "small bench." This was then borrowed by French as "banquet," also meaning "small bench," but also, "a feast, a multi-course dinner." English borrowed the word from French in the second half of the 1400s. German also borrowed the word about the same time, as "Bankett," but German got it directly from Italian.