Latin Corn Fritters ~ Sorullitos de Maiz

I am totally unprepared for this marathon and I have not even made a list of recipes I want to cook for my themes. I am taking one step at a time, searching recipes, cooking, clicking, eating and drafting the posts by midnight, to post it at 12:00 am. Well, I could not get today's post ready by midnight as husband had to use the laptop last night and I have not yet ordered mine.

Anyway, the other day when searching for international fritters, I stumbled upon Manjula's post, sorullitos de maiz from Puerto Rico when we did Around the World in 30 Days marathon last Fall.

When I did a further Google search for the recipes, I learnt that these are also called Latin or Spanish corn fritters. Sorullitos de Maiz is very popular in Puerto Rico and found on all the restaurant menus.

Sorullitos de Maiz is prepared by cooking cornmeal with water, salt, sugar and butter, shaping the cooked cornmeal into sticks like hot dogs and then deep fried. To put it simply, it is deep fried polenta sticks. These fritters looks like mozzarella sticks. There are many versions of these fritters; some add cheese to it, some add butter and some add a combination of both.

I used butter. These fritters are suppose to be hard on the outside and soft on the inside. I felt mine were not as soft as they are suppose to be but then I realized that I ate them when they were cooling. These tend to harden as they cool and recommend serving them hot. Also, next time will increase the water quantity a bit to see if that would make any difference.

I served these with ketchup but Mr.U preferred eating it as it is. These can also be served with a ketchup and mayo dip prepared with 1:2 ratio of ketchup & mayo.

Source: Honest Cooking
Total Time: 25 - 30 minutes
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Yields: 10

Ingredients:

1 cup (140-142 grms) Cornmeal
1 cup Water
½ tsp. Salt
1 ½ tbsp. Sugar
½ tbsp. Butter
Oil for deep frying

Preparation:

In small saucepan boil water, salt, sugar and butter.
Once the water boils, reduce the flame to low, add half the cornmeal and whisk until well mixed.
Add remaining cornmeal stirring the mixture with a spoon or spatula. Mix until the it is well incorporated. Mixture should be thick and will come together when mixing to form a lump. It will be dry and should be easily handled with hand. If it is too loose, add more cornmeal.
Turn off the heat, cover and let the mixture cool until it is easy handle, about 5 minutes.
Take about 2-3 tablespoon of mixture, form a smooth round ball, then roll it between the palms to shape into an oblong fritter, like a hotdog.
Shape the fritters and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Fry 5-6 fritters at a time until deep yellow color.
Drain on paper towels and serve hot with ketchup.

Note:

When making the fritters the mixture was perfect. After frying I felt they were not as soft as I had expected it to be. I might have either fried it for too long or added less water when cooking the cornmeal. You could try adding a bit more water. Again, I never tasted these and do not know how these are suppose to be. Nonetheless we finished all the fritters.
These fritters have slightly sweet but not very sweet that it can be served as a dessert. If one prefers, can add more sugar to get the fresh corn vada/garelu taste.

This day in 2008: Tomato Canapes