Corn Fritters with Hatch Green Chile

If at first you don’t succeed; try, try again. Boy, were we ever trying with these. I was so determined to make corn fritters that I was driving everyone nuts with the whole project. I don’t know why it became such a mission for me, except for the fact that I just plain love corn. There are many cultures that look down on corn as something only fit for animals and others that use it as a base for everything. We fall into the second category, much to our detriment. Because you can’t find very much out there in the processed food world that our culture reigns over, that doesn’t have some form of corn in it. Usually, it’s high fructose corn syrup.

The Problem with Corn…

High fructose corn syrup is made by adding enzymes to cornstarch to convert a percentage of the glucose in it into fructose. Because it’s not a naturally occurring sugar, many believe it’s worse than real sugar and it has been linked to numerous health problems including type 2 diabetes and heart disease. However, the reality is that almost every processed food contains some form of sugar. It’s not just high fructose corn syrup that is the culprit of increasingly poor health and disease; if we’re eating processed foods, we are loading up on too much sugar and it’s liable to bite us in the butt.

On the other hand fresh corn is actually great for cardiovascular health and it has the highest antioxidant levels of all grains! As a source of soluble and insoluble fiber, corn can be great for the digestive system and colon.

We have a lot of corn growing in the garden right now and I want to use it to its full potential. For me, that means corn fritters!

It literally took three tries to come up with these wonderful little fritters. I promised everyone that if they weren’t good this time, I’d give up, Of course, I didn’t really intend to do that but figured I have to do further experimentation in secret. Giving up was really never in the cards.

The Problem with Flax…

Luckily, the third time really was a charm. We had started with an older recipe that used flax. This was so bad, we couldn’t believe anyone had allowed it to be published. You wouldn’t even have thought it had any corn in it, it was so overpowered by flax seed. The second time, we removed half the flax and introduced cornmeal. This was 100 percent better at first bite. Unfortunately, at the end of that bite, that remaining flax meal came back to haunt us with this nasty aftertaste and just would not go away. Superman had Lex Luther, Professor X had Magneto; Batman had the Joker, the Penguin and a multitude of others; my nemesis, apparently, is flax seed.

So, for my final stab at corn fritters, I eradicated all flax, substituting ground sunflower seeds where flax seed had once been. And I added peppers and the hatch green chile that we smell being smoked all over New Mexico at this time of year. Only in our case, it’s raw. Fresh out of the dehydrator, we stared at the fritters suspiciously. We took the tiniest nibbles then stared at each other, smiling ear to ear. It was like a miracle. You could taste the sweet corn. You could taste the chiles. And we weren’t walking around wanting to brush our teeth for hours afterwards.

Some things just take time and determination… And a lot of corn.

RAW VEGAN RECIPE: Corn Fritters with Hatch Green Chile

Batter

1 1/3 cups corn kernels from 1-2 cobs fresh corn

1/3 cup sunflower seeds, ground fine

4 Tbsp. corn meal

1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp. minced cilantro

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon Himalayan salt

A few grounds of black pepper

Filling

1 medium hatch chile, minced ( you can also substitute jalapeno, if desired)

1/4 red bell pepper, minced

2 scallions, chopped fine

1/2 cup whole corn kernels

In food processor, place all batter ingredients. Pulse to mix. Corn kernels should be slightly chunky.

Add filling ingredients and pulse lightly just to mix. ( you can also mix by hand at this point).

Scoop heaping tablespoon portions onto Teflex lined dehydrator trays. Press down to shape into thick, round ‘patties’.

Dehydrate corn fritters for 5 to 6 hours at 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Flip over and dehydrate another 5 to 6 hours to desired consistency.

Serve corn fritters with Raw Tomatillo and Chile Salsa. These are also very good with honey but that’s your choice; honey is not a vegan option.