After my initial Covid-19 lockdown panic about getting hold of certain foodstuffs, things have calmed down a bit here in North London. I managed to get a grocery delivery last Sunday and I have kind friends who have dropped off a couple of things I couldn’t get hold of before that momentous moment. My lovely neighbour Corinna, for example, dropped off some potatoes in week one, plus a surprise loan all 7 seasons of MAD MEN – hurrah! That’s me sorted for the duration!
The decision to make these fritters was sparked by a scene in Mad Men where Betty Draper puts a bowl of hot corn on the cob on the dinner table. This evoked a strong Pavlovian reaction. I wanted corn IMMEDIATELY and started panicking about whether I would EVER get corn on the cob again. Goodness the first week of lockdown was all about food panic here in the Palace of Solitude.
I decided to make these fritters even though I was like a tightly coiled spring, worrying myself silly about running out of flour. I decided to halve the recipe as it was just me, myself and I so making 1,000 corn fritters was not a good idea. Then I totally forgot, and used the whole amount of flour and mixed it with the baking powder and salt. Then I PANICKED about wasting it, so I now have a little freezer bag full of half of this flour/baking powder combo which I will no doubt forget about entirely until April 2021 when Covid-19 lockdown is but a distant memory.
I guess that if I was my chum Cathy, I would put something else in that flour for some other kind of fritter right now. Courgettes? What else can I put in a fritter? The more times I type fritter, the stranger the word seems. Fritter, fritter, fritter, fritter, fritter. Hmmm. Am I spending too much time alone? Probably! Without further ado, if you are craving corn, and can get your mitts on some, these might fill that corn sized gap in your life. You can use tinned corn! They freeze!
Half the recipe makes this many fritters…
By the way, Cathy is doing excellent 30 minute Instagram Live spots demonstrating “Lockdown Lunches” at the moment. They are super fun to watch and so inspirational – check them out on Tuesday and Friday lunchtimes at 1pm GMT, her moniker on the Insta is @battenburgbelle. I am stockpiling beetroot and celeriac so that I can make some of the dishes she has demonstrated, and I did her roasted cauliflower salad a couple of nights ago and it was DELICIOUS. The recipe is on her website and now I think about it, this salad would be really nice with Vincent’s fritters.
Ha, Google has provided me with this, so I am gonna fritter like crazy during lockdown!
