When Ellie got married last year, she gladly took one of the three buckets holding 45 pounds of cornmeal as part of her food storage. I’ve been very slowly working our way through the other two. Very slowly.
I’m always on the lookout for ways to use cornmeal besides making cornbread. I think this has been one of the more difficult ingredients to find good recipes for. Well, I guess I should say, recipes that satisfy Aaron. I was hoping he’d be happy with Tamale Pancakes. Sadly, such was not to be the case. That might also be because he’s got some sores on his tongue right now. Eating hasn’t made him happy lately.
Tamale Pancakes
2 cups boiling water
1 cup yellow cornmeal
¼ cup powdered milk
½ cup oil
1 egg, beaten
1 cup flour
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup corn (canned, frozen, or freeze-dried and reconstituted)
1 can (2.25 oz) sliced black olives
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (optional)
1 tomatoes, chopped (optional)
Green onion, chopped (optional)
Salsa (optional)
Sour cream (optional)
Preheat a griddle.
In a medium bowl, combine the cornmeal and powdered milk. Add the boiling water, stir well, and let cool. Stir in the egg and oil.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, chili powder, cumin, and salt. Stir this into the cornmeal mix. Stir in the corn and olives.
Use about ¼ cup of batter to make each pancake. Cook until golden brown on both sides, flipping once. Top with cheese, tomatoes, onions, salsa, and/or sour cream. We also had refried beans, and I think all of us added the beans, salsa, sour cream, and cheese, stacking it like a tostada.
Family reviews: I really liked it. Aaron didn’t. It wasn’t Becky’s favorite, either. Both said they’d rather have corn tortillas. I tried explaining to them that cornmeal isn’t used to make corn tortillas, and the process for transforming dent corn into masa and then making the corn tortillas is a bit involved. As in, I probably won’t be doing that in a collapse.
Have you ever heard of scrapple? It originates from Pennsylvania dutch country, and surrounding regions enjoy it, too. Or used to, since it is hard to find there. It has nothing to do with cornmeal, except that living in California, it is unheard of, and so unobtainable. Essentially, it is pork scraps combined with who knows what else, molded and cooled, then fried (I like mine crispy). I was able to imitate it a bit by partially cooking corn mush, adding raw sausage (like Jimmy Dean), mixed thoroughly, then fried. It's a similar taste, and it uses cornmeal! I missed an opportunity to learn how to make real scrapple when camping in Pennsylvania, the resulting mix molded in a standard loaf pan. And that's the shape it takes when sold in grocery stores. A very down-home product. We can buy cooked, molded polenta in the grocery in California, which is tasty fried in cakes (sturdier that pancakes) as the starch on a dinner plate.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of it, but not in a very long time. It didn't strike me as appetizing.
DeleteJust plain fried mush....
ReplyDeleteCornmeal with some salt and some sugar, a TINY bit of butter. boil and stir, let sit in a fridge overnight.
Roll it into a 3 or 4 inch roll, slice and press down onto a greased skillet or other hard pan (hotter is better when you do this).....
Heat until both sides are crispy, serve hot with butter and syrup or sprinkes with brown sugar.
I like mine pressed thin, but others like the cneter soft. YMMV.
Sounds like something to try out! Thank you.
DeleteI've added cornmeal to lots of recipes by simply replacing up to 1/2 flour with cornmeal - family especially likes cornmeal pancakes and dumplings. Here's a link to lots of recipes from Taste of Home https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/cornmeal-recipes/
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this!
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