One good thing about California is the food, something you don’t really notice until you order California-style food in other states. On a recent trip to Nebraska with my family, my mother and I ordered California-style sandwiches, I because I like avocado and my mother because she dislikes it but thinks it’s good for her.
When the sandwiches arrived, there was no avocado to be seen. My mother complained to the befuddled-looking teenage sandwich artiste, who insisted that there was, indeed, avocado on the sandwich. We examined the sandwiches carefully and did have to admit that they contained hints of avocado green, but whether or not this counted as containing avocado would depend on your system of measurement. There was enough that the law would require a notice to allergic customers that the sandwiches may have contained traces of avocado, but I’m not sure there was enough that one could have actually advertised their avocado content. This is a great example of the Sorites paradox: there’s a point at which you can be sure the sandwich contains no avocado, and there’s a point at which you can definitely say it has avocado on it, but there’s a faintly yellow-green area in between.
The recipe I am about to provide definitely does not contain avocado.
Before I got sidetracked by the vagaries of avocado, I had intended to write a story that would illustrate the fact that although California has few other merits, it has great food. During a visit to Berkeley several years ago, I learned that no one in this city knows what day it is, can keep an appointment, or even has the slightest idea how to do his or her job. Nevertheless, during that same vacation I learned something that made it all ok: the cachapa exists.
Cachapas are corn pancakes, but more than corn pancakes. If you were to imagine them as pancakes made of corn, you would be technically correct and yet wrong in spirit. You can only understand cachapas by tasting them.
Unlike certain political wives, I admit it when I get a recipe off the internet. However, I found this recipe so long ago that I can no longer locate its source, and I’ve adjusted it so many times that I’m not entirely sure it shouldn’t count as original material. I guess I’ll have to credit the internet itself. Which, in turn, means I should thank the internet’s inventor, Al Gore. So, without further ado:
Al Gore’s Cachapas
- 4 cups sweet corn kernels (about 6 ears), lightly boiled and well drained
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- optional: chopped cilantro, grated cheese, and/or sour cream
1. Combine all ingredients except 1/2 cup corn kernels in a blender or food processor.
2. Blend. The resulting mixture should have the approximate consistency of normal pancake batter. If it’s too runny, add a little flour and blend again.
3. Stir in remaining corn kernels.
4. Heat oil over medium heat in a frying pan. Drop in batter by the tablespoonful, leaving enough space between pancakes to flip them with a spatula.
5. You’ll have to watch these carefully, since cooking times will vary widely according to heat–they’ll change even in the same batch, since the pan gets gradually hotter. When batter bubbles in the middle or when the bottom of the pancake is brown, flip.
6. When other side of the pancake is brown, remove from heat.
7. Serve with toppings of your choice, or eat plain.
The Exploited suggested a variation that turned out well:
The Dessert Cachapa
Follow the above recipe, but remove the garlic and pepper. Serve with powdered sugar, chocolate sauce, and fresh fruit.
Tags: avocado, cachapas, california, corn, dessert, pancakes
