Contest Entry Number One - Avocado & Green Onion Corn Cakes with Feta-ziki Sauce

As most of my "circle" of blogger buddies know, we have a wonderful opportunity to participate in a contest co-sponsored by Denise at http://quickiesonthedinnertable.yolasite.com/ and Lazaro at http://lazarocooks.blogspot.com/

Cover of Denise's lovely book which is one of the contest prizes.

First I'd like to say thanks to both Denise and Lazaro for inspiring us to culinary creativity (something at which both are infinately accomplished themselves).  I couldn't have asked for two better ingredients since BOTH are absolute favorites of mine. 

It was difficult to choose between a sweet or savory dish and ultimately, I couldn't.  So I made both. 
With this first entry my "southern roots" are definately showing!  My grandmother made the hands down BEST cornmeal cakes on this earth in her day.  We always called them "granny's hoe-cakes".  Before anyone gets excited...I said HOE...no HO!!  The unusual origins of this particular southern delicacy are said to have originated with slaves and field hands who mixed inexpensive coarse corn meal with water (and sometimes meat drippings if they were lucky enough to have any) and cooked the resulting "pancakes" on the blades of their hoes which were heated over the camp fire.  It was cheap, portable and filled an empty belly.

Cornmeal cakes are also referred to as "Johnny Cakes" (though I have no clue why on this one), "cornmeal fritters" and "fried cornbread."  There may be other names but those are the ones most commonly used where I grew up. 

By the way, I love fried bread!  What's not to love?  Of course, I don't fry often and I don't use bacon grease or lard as was my grandmother's fat of choice.  The recipe I've created takes the Hoe cake to a whole new height of fried bread delciousness.  I did use a white self-rising cornmeal blend (Three Rivers is the only brand our family EVER used) just because I find it easier and better than guessing or experimenting with meal/flour ratios.  This is NOT one of those "add water and stir" things though.  You can use any brand of self-rising cornmeal blend that you like.

Avocado and Green Onion Corn Cakes with Feta-ziki Sauce

A lovely, rustic pale green cornmeal cake served with a fresh spin on Tzatziki Sauce

For the Corn Cakes:

• 1 ripe Haas avocado, peeled and seeded
• 1 whole organic egg
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (organic preferred)
• 2 cups white self-rising cornmeal blend (any brand)
• 1 cup sliced green onion tops
• olive oil for frying

1. Place peeled avocado in the blender with the egg and buttermilk.  Blend until smooth.
2. Measure self rising cornmeal blend into a 2 quart bowl.  Pour avocado-buttermilk mixture into cornmeal all at once.  Stir until no dry spots can be seen.  Fold in green onion tops.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet (I prefer cast iron).  Use 1/4 cup scooop (or eyeball it) to measure batter into hot pan.  Flatten batter so that cakes are about 4 inches in circumference.  Space cakes about 2 inches apart to facilitate turning.  Cook until golden brown on first side; about 5 minutes over medium high heat.  Flip carefully and cook until second side is golden brown and crispy.  Cool on paper towel lined platter.

Makes 8 large cakes

For Feta-ziki:

• 1 cup Greek style plain yogurt (I used fat free but you can use what you like)
• 1/2 cup shredded English cucumber, peel on and squeezed dry
• 1 clove grated fresh garlic
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon fresh minced dill
• 3 ounces finely crumbled feta cheese
• black pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir well.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Top Avocado Green Onion Corn Cakes with generous dollops of Feta-ziki and enjoy!

Jill Anderson

The Homegrown Gourmet

I'M BAAAA-CCCK!!!

Well, wasn't that lovely?  Let me back up about a week and a half and tell you about my latest PC adventure!  As everyone who reads any of my work knows, I have zero patience for my computer anyway.  It is the bane of my existence really.  I write so unfortunately, I'm always sitting here..waiting impatiently for my computer to do what I want it to do immediately...which almost never happens.

So, here I sit last Wednesday morning, writing an article for the Cape Coral Daily Breeze and right in the middle of it I am rudely interupted by a flicker, a slow screen flash and then a DOS screen.  I KNEW that could not be a good sign!  I'm staring stupidly at line after line of computer gibberish and wondering what happened when suddenly...there it is...THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH! 

To say that I broke down and blubbered like a baby would be an understatement.  The blue screen of death is a writer's worst nightmare because the first thought that goes through your head is "when was the last time I backed up my files?"  In my case it had been (hanging head in abject shame) about six months.  I called the local computer fix it guy and he calmed me down, told me to bring my errant tower in to the shop and not make myself sick with worry. 

The short version...my computer was so full of viruses that it basically just shut down.  I erringly assumed that only people who surf porn get that many viruses.  Anyway, he explained to me that some smart worm or whatever it was insinuated itself in here and mimicked a windows screen asking me some question about my firewall in which "no" was actually the right answer to turn off my virus protection.  The good news is that he did indeed retrieve all my files, extracted and washed them, wiped my hard drive clean and then put my files back in.  I've just spent the last week putting back in all my programs and getting settings and auto fill stuff all back to the way I had it.  My computer is still the bane of my existence!

For those who follow my fan page on Facebook, you know that I am working on cooking my way through my vegan cookbook and taking pictures this time.  I actually MAY (keeping fingers crossed) have a publisher at long last and I'm not happy with the orignal files because I used little clip art renderings instead of real pictures.  Who knew right?  Anyway, I have also decided to make the book Vegetarian AND Vegan.  The recipes that use dairy and eggs will have a note about how to adapt them to a vegan diet.  I have been posting 5-7 pictures of each dish and asking my fan page friends to vote on which one should go into the book.  Its actually kind of fun!

Needless to say, I'm doing a lot of cooking/messing around in my kitchen which cuts into my writing time.  So I do apologize but I'm offering a sneak peak of one of the recipes in the book as a peace offering for being a bad blogger the last couple of weeks.

I had a couple of perfectly ripe avocados sitting on my counter just begging to put into a recipe today.  I love guacamole but its something that everybody and their brother makes.  My Sweet Avocado Butter is quite lovely but again...its old news.  Yesterday, I actually picked 6 strawberries off my OWN container garden vines so I decided to make Strawberry Avocado Salsa.  The twist is some freshly squeezed Florida orange juice and strips of zest.  I added a tiny squirt of raw agave and it was heavenly.  Here is the recipe.

Strawberry Avocado Salsa

• 6-8 fresh ripe organic strawberries
• 1 ripe haas avocado
• two tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2 teaspoons orange zest strips
• 1 teaspoon (or to taste) raw agave syrup

1. Cut strawberries into chunks.  Peel and dice avocado.  Place in a small bowl and toss gently with orange juice, lime juice, orange zest and agave.  Enjoy with easy baked corn chips.

I buy fresh corn tortillas, cut them into wedges and spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden and crisp.  You can spritz with a little olive oil if desired before baking.

I don't recommend making a big bowl of this salsa ahead of time.  Make just what you are going to eat for two reasons.  Number 1, oxidation makes the avocados turn brown no matter how much citrus you put on them.  Number 2, you get the maximum amount of nutrients from fresh fruits and veggies if you eat them as soon as they are cut. 

Here are a few more pictures. 

this stuff is addicting...it's so fresh and fabulous!

Doesn't that make your mouth water?

(c) copyright Jill Anderson

The Homegrown Gourmet