It’s almost corn season! This means summer is drawing to a close, so while I don’t eagerly look forward to corn season, I do appreciate a nice, sweet cob of corn. This also means that basil is in full abundance, so when I found a recipe for corn and basil pancakes, I thought it was a perfect summer recipe.

However, I was a little disappointed. I used fresh, sweet corn and basil from our balcony garden. What I ended up with was a little lackluster. I found these pancakes to be just all one note, a little corny and very basily, and not much else.

I ended up adding a dab of creme fraiche from les iles de la madeleine that we had brought back, and a healthy sprinkle of salt, and that helped up the flavour a bit, but not enough that I would make these again. They were definitely a bit boring.

Perhaps if I had them alongside some BBQ meats, it would’ve helped. I can imagine these to be a good side dish to serve at any BBQ, but as something that stand alone…not the ideal recipe.

Here it is though, if you think you could up the flavour a bit or if you’re looking for a good BBQ side dish.

Corn and Basil Pancakes
adapted from Eating Well

1/2 cup white whole-wheat flour or all-purpose flour
1/2 cup low-fat milk
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 2 large ears; see Tip) or frozen
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1. Whisk flour, milk, eggs, 1 tablespoon oil, baking powder, salt and pepper in a medium bowl until smooth. Stir in corn and basil.

2. Brush a large nonstick skillet lightly with some of the remaining 1 tablespoon oil; heat over medium heat until hot (but not smoking). Cook 4 cakes at a time, using about 1/4 cup batter for each, making them about 3 inches wide. Cook until the edges are dry, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook until golden brown on the other side, 1 to 3 minutes more. Repeat with the remaining oil and batter, making 10 cakes total. Reduce the heat as necessary to prevent burning.

We’re back from our Iles de la Madeleine vacation! We managed to miss the massive Montreal heatwave and instead enjoyed hot, windy weather and all the seafood we could possibly eat.

Soli did lots of cooking there. We had rented cottages with kitchens, so cooking up our own mussels and lobsters was easy. We only ate one small snack from one resto (a pretty pathetic lobster roll), and ate fresh, homecooked meals the rest of the time.

I’ll leave the cooking posts up to Soli…but until then, a small sampling of the things we got to eat that required no preparation or cooking.

Lobster Roll
While in Prince Edward Island, the urge for good seafood overcame us, and we ordered one sandwich with our beer. This was just way overdone with the Miracle Whip. We could barely taste the lobster, so we vowed never to eat at a resto during this trip again.

Snow Crab
We got these at a STEAL at one of the fish markets in Iles de la Madeleine. They were already cooked, so all we had to do was warm them up. We had them boiled, BBQ’d, and everything, and they were a staple in our island diet. Just heavenly.

Fresh Scallops
We made some friends while we were there (Hi William and Elodie!), who brought us down to the fishing harbour our cottage overlooked late one night to meet a boat that had just arrived with a massive haul of scallops. We bought about 3 kilos fresh off the boat and enjoyed them raw all that night and for breakfast the next morning (and then for a few days after). If you’ve never had a scallop fresh from the ocean, then you haven’t had a scallop!

We also bought some in their shells, which were also sooo amazing.

Pied de Vent Cheese
The islands have a fromagerie that produces some of the best cheese I’ve enjoyed. We bought curds that were still warm and enjoyed other cheeses with a chilled glass of wine.

After driving for about 20 hours, then getting tossed about on a 5-hour ferry ride, we got to spend a week on Iles de la Madeleine, eating and exploring to our hearts’ content. Food isn’t the only reason to go; this place is one of the most idyllic places we’ve had the opportunity to go to, and here’s a couple of photos to prove it:

Just wait until you hear about the food we actually had to work for!