Non-Carnivorous Corn Cakes with Tomato-Avocado Salsa

As most of you know, my hubby is quite the carnivore.  I love to dine on juicy, savory meat dishes myself, but I do not feel it is as critical to my daily diet as he does.  I feel just as blissful dining on a perfectly grilled filet of beef as I do when I roast a succulent piece of salmon or eat pancakes for dinner or enjoy a spinach salad with summer berries.  I think I just love food (obviously)- end of story.   

So, anyway, back to the carnivore.  I came up with the not-so-radical idea to enjoy one dinner a week sans meat.   I have heard of people opting for Meatless Mondays or other specific days without meat for religious purposes.  We are just trying "whatever day of the week we choose is a meatless day" kind of living. 

I swirled together the ingredients for these Corn Cakes one evening, and hubby was ALMOST fooled that they were sans meat. 

While frying up in the pan, these cakes smelled like a Southern summer field, full of fresh corn flavors and buttery goodness.  While cooking them, I literally almost felt the humidity on my face and the sweet swagger of summer in my soul.



We topped them with a perfect summer salsa of diced avocado, diced tomato, sliced basil, and lime juice. 

Non-Carnivorous Corn Cakes with Tomato-Avocado Salsa
Source:  Corn Cakes with Tomato-Avocado Relish -
http://annies-eats.com/2011/08/25/corn-cakes-with-tomato-avocado-relish/

Ingredients: (Makes 12 cakes, so adjust as needed.  We made about 8 big ones and had tons of leftovers)
For the Corn Cakes-
3 large ears of corn, shucked
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
1/4 cup basil leaves, thinly sliced
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 T buttermilk (I used just under 2 T regular milk with a squirt of fresh lemon juice)
2 T unsalted butter, melted
S & P to taste
vegetable oil (for frying)

For the Summer Salsa-
1 large tomato, cored and diced
1 avocado, pitted and diced
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 T fresh basil, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp-ish of olive oil
1 tsp-ish of white wine vinegar
S & P to taste

The Process:
Cut the corn kernels off of the cobs, and place them in a large bowl. 

Place two-thirds of the corn (about 2 cups) in a food processor and blend until softly pureed/slightly chunky.  Add the pureed corn to the rest of the corn already in the bowl.  Add the flour, cornmeal, onion, basil, baking powder, and baking soda to the bowl.  Mix all of these ingredients together lightly.  Add S & P for seasoning.

Add in the eggs, butter, and buttermilk, and stir gently to combine.

For the Tomato-Avocado relish/salsa, simply mix all ingredients together.  You can make this ahead of time (reserve the avocado until just before serving to prevent browning).  It will refrigerate for up to 2-3 days. 

Heat a skillet on medium-high.  Coat the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil (just enough to cover the bottom in a shallow pool).  Your corn cake mixture will look like a batter, and this is how it is supposed to look.  I was worried, too, when I made them the first time, thinking that the batter would be more firm, but this is right, I promise.

Drop dollops of the corn cake batter into the oil, limiting the pan to about 4 cakes at a time.  Fry about 2 minutes per side until cooked through and golden-brown.  Transfer to a wire rack for cooling. 

Serve 2 cakes per person with the Tomato-Avocado Salsa on top.  We enjoyed these Corn Cakes as a main course, but we also savored leftovers as a sidekick to BBQ chicken later on in the week.  They are even incredible at room temperature as a snack.  Actually, I think I was addicted to them all week long.

Bon Appetit!