Last Wednesday marked the beginning of my favorite Madison summer activity, Concerts on the Square.
In reality, the concerts started the week prior, but we were out of town. Having come off 80 degree and sunny weather, I was still in the mood for Carribean treats, so I made these corn blinis with mango salsa.
The Madison weather, however, didn’t cooperate. It was 60 degrees and I was wearing jeans and a jacket. Not to say that the concert wasn’t enjoyable still, because it was, but it did make eating mango salsa feel a little bit silly. Oh well, I’m over it now, because silly doesn’t mean it wasn’t delicious.
These little corn blinis (or tiny pancakes) are quite an elegant summer appetizer dish. And other than figuring out how to dice mangoes, which is unintentionally tricky, it comes together with ease.
And then they get eaten with ease. I’ll just go ahead and pretend that Jason and I didn’t eat the entire batch and call it dinner.
- 3 tablespoons cornmeal
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg, beaten
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- ⅔ cup fresh corn kernels
- dash of cayenne pepper
- canola oil for frying
- ½ mango, finely diced
- ½ red onion, finely diced
- ½ red bell pepper, finely diced
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- sour cream and cilantro as garnish
- In a medium sized bowl, mix together cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, egg, milk, and butter. Whisk together until smooth batter forms. Stir in corn and cayenne pepper.
- Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a medium sized frying pan. Once oil is hot, scoop about 1 tablespoon sized dollops of batter on to pan, leaving about an inch between each (you will have to do several batches). Cook blinis for about 2-3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Flip and cook on other side for an additional 2 minutes. Transfer to plate and repeat until all batter is used, adding more oil inbetween batches if needed.
- Combine mango, red onion, red bell pepper, and lime juice in a medium sized bowl. Stir well and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Once blinis have cooled to room temperature, dollop a tablespoon or less of salsa on each and top with a little sour cream and cilantro.
Recipe adapted, just barely, from The Nutmeg Cookbook.
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