Chorreadas

Ingredients

• Fresh corn — on the cob6
• Sugar40 g
• Egg1
• Corn flour30 g
• Butter40 g
• Natilla or soured cream — to serve200 ml
• Fresh white cheese — to serve150 g
• Salt1 tsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Cut the kernels from the cobs with a knife, running the blade down the core.

   15 min

2. 2

   Grind the kernels in a blender in short pulses to a grainy mass.

   6 min

3. 3

   Work in the egg, sugar, salt and corn flour to the consistency of thick cream.

   5 min

4. 4

   Heat a pan with butter over medium until it just wisps.

   4 min

5. 5

   Pour in a ladle of batter and spread it into a fifteen-centimetre round.

   4 min

6. 6

   Fry three minutes a side, to golden patches and a springy centre.

   16 min

7. 7

   Serve them hot with natilla and a slice of fresh cheese.

   5 min

About the dish

The corn is fresh and milky, not tinned. The starch of young kernels binds the batter itself, and flour is barely needed.

The kernels are ground short of smooth. The grit gives the texture that separates a chorreada from an ordinary pancake.

The batter is fried straight after grinding. Within half an hour it separates into liquid and sediment and the pancake comes out flat.

Worth knowing

• — If the corn is old and dry, add a spoon of milk. Otherwise the batter will not spread in the pan.
• — Keep the heat medium. On a high one the pancake sets outside and stays raw within, and the sugar scorches.
• — The savoury serving with cheese is as ordinary in Costa Rica as the sweet. One does not replace the other; they are two different breakfasts.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

12 g

Fat

18 g

Carbs

44 g

More from Costa Rica

• Gallo pinto — Yesterday's rice fried with black beans and Salsa Lizano. The Costa Rican breakfast, every day.
• Casado — A lunch plate of rice, beans, salad, plantain and meat, each in its own sector.
• Olla de carne — The Costa Rican meat pot with cassava, squash, corn and plantain.