Yesterday, while doing early morning yardwork, Wolf and I were talking about breakfast.
“You want me to go get doughnuts?” (An offer that’s hard to refuse.)
“Mmm, doughnuts. I’m surprised you want doughnuts.”
“I thought you might want doughnuts.”
After this many years of marriage, yep, we still have these conversations. I’m not usually one to be lukewarm on doughnuts, especially Top Pot, but after a relatively light dinner last night, I thought, we need some real breakfast.
About 30 minutes later, after wrestling a too big rosemary plant (that I bought over a month ago), into a new pot, I went into the house, showered up, and surveyed the fridge.
In any home cook’s repertoire, there are regulars, repeats, go-to’s. You might call them “classics.” For breakfast, I went to that go-to list and made only our second batch this summer (a crime!) of bill’s corn fritters — this time with Hatch chiles.
The ingredients are perfect — corn, red bell pepper, green onion, cilantro, parsley — and two or three roasted Hatch chiles. Once you have 25 lbs. of chiles in the house, you start looking for options. I did put away 10 or 12 bags in the freezer Saturday, but they’re definitely on the menu this week. And while I thought about doing a hash w/ some green chiles in the mix (potatoes were going to take too long!), I went w/ the corn fritters. I’m finding more and more that Hatch chiles added to almost anything make it tastier.
Hatch Chile Corn Fritters
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 t. salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from the cob (~2 ears)
- 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup green onions, sliced on the bias
- 3 Hatch chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded & chopped
- 1/4 cup cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- To serve
- 5-6 slices crisp bacon
- arugula
- Roasted tomatoes
Instructions
Whisk together flour, baking powder, paprika, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Create a well in the middle of the bowl. In a small bowl, beat together eggs and milk. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. The batter will be on the thick side.
In another bowl, mix together corn, peppers, green onions, cilantro and parsley. Mix in ¾ c. of batter – just enough to bind the veg together. You’ll think it’s not enough. Have faith!
Heat a griddle or large frying pan over medium heat. Add the vegetable oil.
Spoon 2 T. of batter into the pan for each fritter, cooking 3-4 at a time. Brown on the first side 3-4 minutes and turn to brown on the other side.
Serve with bacon, a few leaves of arugula and roasted tomato.
A note:
Cook the bacon first and use the drippings for the fritters — mmmm, bacon fat. 
Notes
Adapted from Bill's Sydney Food