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

The Dutch Week Without Meat (& Dairy) is in early March, so here is some 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 it as a child. Some of the ingredients may be unfamiliar to you, but you will see that it is essentially just crispy, fried corn with onions & herbs. You can’t go wrong with that! 😉

Serves: 6 – 8 | Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 15 min

Cooking & kitchen essentials: frying pan | grater | medium mixing bowl | paper towels

Ingredients

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

It’s been so long since I had Indonesian corn cakes that were still crispy and fresh from the fryer! Every now and then I buy one at the Asian store, but unfortunately they are almost always pre-made and only reheated when ordered. I remember really loving the fresh ones as a kid, so I got 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 cookbook Indonesian Cooking ABC!

Preparation

1. Drain the canned corn kernels, making sure they are completely drained.
2. Finely chop the onion and crush the garlic cloves, and add them to your mixing bowl.
3. Grate the candlenuts and the whipped coconut cream and add them to the bowl.
4. Then add the ground coriander powder and 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. Fry your corn cakes in the oil. I personally used a large spoon to scoop the batter into the pan, but I think an ice cream scoop would work just as well. The original recipe says to shape the batter into flat cakes beforehand, but mine didn’t really stick together. They do when you start frying, though, and the weight of the corn pushes everything down, creating a nice, flat cake.
7. Fry the cookies on both sides until crispy and golden brown. Carefully flip them over, as there is not much batter holding them together.
8. Place the Indonesian corn cakes on a plate lined with paper towels to drain off any excess oil.
9. Enjoy! Good luck!

💬 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 can always make her happy with fries, videos of cats & facts about Japan. Shannah's blog posts >