Frikadel Djagoeng: recipe for Indonesian Corn Cookies from Just Gimme Fries

The Dutch Week Without Meat (& Dairy) is at the beginning of March, so here is this inspiration from me (Shannah) with a delicious vegetarian snack! Many of you may not have eaten this dish before, but – having Indonesian ancestors – I personally have fond memories of eating this as a child. Some of the ingredients may be unfamiliar to you, but you'll see that it's basically just crispy, fried corn with onions & herbs. You can't go wrong with that! 😉

Quantity: 6 – 8 cookies | preparation time: 5 min | cooking time: 10 min | total: 15 min

Supplies for cooking & kitchen: frying pan | grate | medium mixing bowl | paper towel

Ingredients

• 150g canned corn kernels
• 1 tsp ketoembar | ground coriander powder
• 1 tsp galangal | ground ginger powder (galangal)
• 15g santen | whipped coconut cream
• 3 kemiri nuts
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium egg
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• sunflower oil
• salt & pepper to taste

It had been so long since I had eaten Indonesian corn cakes that were still crispy and just out of the fryer! Every now and then I buy one at the store, but unfortunately they are almost always prepared in advance and only warmed up when ordered. I remember as a kid I really liked the fresh ones, so I grabbed my mom's Indonesian cookbooks and started frying some myself! I have a feeling it's not the same recipe my family used, but I really liked this recipe from the Indonesian Cooking ABC cookbook!

Preparation

1. Drain the canned corn kernels, making sure they are completely drained.
2. Finely chop the onion and crush the garlic cloves, then place them in your mixing bowl.
3. Grate the kemiri nuts and the whipped coconut cream and add them to the bowl.
4. Then add the ground coriander powder and the ginger powder. Mix everything well.
5. Finally, add the drained corn kernels, egg, flour, and salt & pepper to taste and mix again.
6. Heat a generous amount of sunflower oil in your frying pan. Deep fry your corn cakes in the oil. Personally, I used a large spoon to transfer the batter to the pan, but I think an ice cream scoop should work too. The original recipe tells you to shape the batter into flat cookies ahead of time, but mine wouldn't really stick together. They do, however, when you start frying, and the weight of the corn pushes everything down, still creating a nice, flat cake.
7. Fry the cookies on both sides until crispy and golden brown. Carefully turn them over as there isn't much batter holding them together.
8. Place the Indonesian corn cakes on a paper towel-lined plate to let the excess oil drain.
9. Enjoy it! Selamat makan!

💬 Tell me, are you going to try this too?

The author: Shannah van der Wal

Photographer & content creator Shannah combines her love for photography and food on her food blog Just Gimme Fries . Here she brings Asian & Western food together through easy, but delicious recipes. Furthermore, you always make her happy with fries, videos of cats & facts about Japan. Shannah's blog posts >