If you read my review on Where the Crawdads Sing, you know I enjoyed the descriptions of food. Especially the corn fritters. After the second time they were mentioned, I did a quick search and found Delia Owens actually included a recipe for them in her Book Club Kit! You can find the entire kit on her page here (recipes are on the last page).
The batter should be very runny. To get it to the appropriate consistency, I ended up adding a lot more water than the directions called for to get the crispy, lacy edges. Aside from that these were super easy to make and sooo tasty!!
Step 1: Ingredients
2 cups corn kernels
1 cup corn meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
¾ cups water*
*You will probably need to add more water, this was not enough for me. I ended up using almost double what the recipe called for.
Step 2: Mix
Mix the ingredients together. The batter should be very runny and should not resemble pancake or waffle batter.
Step 3: Cook!
Fill a semi-deep skillet with ¼ inch oil and put on medium-high. The oil must be hot, otherwise the batter will stick to the bottom.
Using a large spoon (I used a serving spoon) gently add a scoop of batter to the hot oil. Be careful, the oil may sputter!
Do a test trial first to see if its runny enough. The fritter should be really flat, with the kernels in the middle and the batter fanning out. If the batter is too thick they won’t get the lacy edges but they’ll still taste delicious!
If the batter is too thick, slowly add more water, and do 1-2 more test fritters. Once you have the consistency right, cook the rest.
Step 4: Enjoy!
Enjoy them while they’re hot! In the book, Ma served them with cane syrup with scrambled eggs and sliced tomatoes on the side, so that’s what I did!
