iowa summer dinner // summer sweet corn fritters

Sweet corn season in Iowa is here, and hopefully here to stay for a long time.

You can tell when the sweet corn is ready at the Washington Farmers Market when the east side of the square is overflowing with people elbowing their way to one, or maybe two tables, piled high with picked-that-morning sweet corn.

Young high school kids in t-shirts with the sleeves cut off, grubby baseball caps or maybe old seed hats, and biceps bigger than my thigh (presumably from hours of de-tasseling corn fields, picking rocks, or walking the beans), try to keep up with the throng of people practically throwing money at them in order to get their plastic bag of 13 years of corn for five bucks - or maybe it was four. When the pile of the table in fewer than 2 ears thick, they hop into the pickup truck that is backed up as close as possible and begin piling on more, continuing to catch the dollars thrown their way.




Arguably, there is no better way to eat sweet corn than hot of the grill, slathered in butter with a generous sprinkle of salt. Once in a while though, it is nice to highlight Iowa's best ingredient in another way - and these sweet corn fritters do a marvelous job of doing just that.

Adapted from Nigel Slater's Classic Sweet Corn Fritters, this dinner came together in under 30 minutes and comprised of mostly ingredients from the garden and Washington County.

Iowa Summer Sweet Corn Fritters
with yogurt chive sauce, sauteed swiss chard and garden tomato salad

Yogurt Chive Sauce //
1/2 cup organic cream-on-top plain yogurt (local ingredient!)
1.5 tablespoons chives, chopped (garden ingredient!)
1 small garlic clove, minced (garden ingredient!)

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Sauteed Swiss Chard //
1 tablespoon organic butter (local ingredient!)
1 pound swiss chard (garden ingredient!)
salt and pepper

Heat butter in a large pan. Clean chard, remove stems and chop into small pieces. Add stems into pan and sauté five minutes. Chop chard leaves into bite size pieces, add to pan and sauté five more minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Sweet Corn Fritters //
3 ears sweet corn, kernels removed (about 2 cups) (local ingredient!)
1 whole egg (local ingredient!)
2 egg whites (local ingredient!)
1.5 tablespoons self rising flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
pepper

Heat a griddle to 350*.
In a bowl, stir together sweet corn, one whole egg, flour, salt and pepper. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff and then gently fold into sweet corn mixture. Grease griddle with butter (sweet corn loves butter, not oil!) Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out generous portions of the batter onto the griddle and cook until golden brown, flip and cook until golden brown on the other side.

Serve on top of swiss chard, add a dollop of yogurt chive sauce and serve along side a simple summer tomato salad (4 small tomatoes, quartered, tossed with a bit of olive oil, apple cider vinegar and a bit of parsley).