Friday Faves – elly says opa! makes Corn Fritters with Feta and Dill

Happy Friday everybody! Hope everyone had a great week. The weather here in Boston is finally feeling like summer and we’ve been enjoying it to the max. Today’s Friday Favs post comes from Elly who blogs over at elly says opa! I “met” Elly on an online food forum, which is where I have “met” a majority of my non-Boston blogger friends. Elly also recently turned 30 and did a 30-by-30 list as well. I enjoy her mostly savory recipes and the photos in her blog. And it doesn’t hurt that her son is adorable too!

Greetings! My name is Elly, the…umm, “Elly”…in elly says opa! I live in Chicago with my husband, Tom, and our 15 month old son, Zachary. I’ve been blogging since 2006. Other things I can tell you about myself: I love the band Wilco, I am in fake-love with Jon Hamm (but it would be real love if we met in person, I swear), I wear a size 6 shoe, and I am in real-love with Pinot Noir. Oh, and I am forever on a quest to read all Pulitzer Prize winning books and see all Best Picture Academy Award winners. (I’ll never get to either.)

Although the name of my blog is obviously very Greek, I most definitely don’t serve up ONLY Greek recipes (in fact, if you visit, you will see I have a possibly unhealthy obsession with Mexican food). That said, I do love putting Greek twists on foods, and that’s how I ended up with these corn fritters.

Originally, I wanted to make bobota, which is a regional Greek cornbread. My grandma (yiayia) made hers with feta. I called her to get the recipe and she only rattled off a few things–cottage cheese, milk, olive oil, feta. Well, as you can see from that list, there are clearly no cornbread-type ingredients. That’s when I realized that she used a good ol’ box of Jiffy. This actually really surprised me because, growing up, we never ate any processed foods (I actually didn’t even have bobota till later in life, but that may be because my grandma didn’t make it all that often, anyway). In fact, I didn’t have a Spaghettio until I was in college. And that is all I’ve had to date, actually–a single Spaghettio. (One was enough.)

At first, I was going to just take my favorite cornbread recipe and doctor it up a bit, but decided on something much quicker–corn fritters. Since my son has entered my life (and since he’s also started eating the same things we eat), I have a lot less time to make dinners. Cornbread is easy enough to whip up, but then there is oven preheating and of course baking. Fritters can be mixed together in less than 5 minutes and pan-fried for about the same amount of time.

I used Greek yogurt in these instead of milk, and I added feta and dill to further that whole Greek twist thing. I was so happy with the way these turned out! With the feta, dill, and corn, these were reminiscent of one of my favorite Greek pies, plasto. I’ll definitely be using this spin on corn fritters in the future and I hope you will, too.

Corn Fritters with Feta and Dill

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp flour
3 Tbsp cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
2 tsp chopped dill
1 cup corn
1 Tbsp thinly sliced green onions
2 oz feta cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper
olive oil, for pan frying

Directions:

Combine flour, cornmeal, and baking powder. Add the beaten egg and yogurt, and then lightly fold in the dill, corn, onions, and feta. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Heat a pan with olive oil (I use nonstick, so it won't stick...duh, but also so I can use less oil, just enough to make a thin layer on the bottom of the pan) over medium-high heat.

Drop large spoonfuls of the batter onto the hot pan (smooth slightly) and cook about 2 minutes per side, or until golden brown.