Campfire Griddle Romanian Corn Cakes with Farmers-Market Tomatoes and Telemea

Build your campfire early and let it burn down to a bed of glowing coals — you want steady, even heat under the griddle rather than leaping flames. Set a cast-iron griddle or heavy skillet directly on the coals to preheat for about 5 minutes.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups fine yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, plus more as needed
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for the griddle
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 3 large ripe farmers-market tomatoes, thickly sliced
• 6 ounces telemea or feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons cold-pressed sunflower oil
• Flaky salt and coarsely ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Build your campfire early and let it burn down to a bed of glowing coals — you want steady, even heat under the griddle rather than leaping flames. Set a cast-iron griddle or heavy skillet directly on the coals to preheat for about 5 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt until evenly combined.
3. In a second bowl, beat the eggs with the buttermilk and melted butter, then pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just until no dry pockets remain. Fold in the chopped dill. The batter should mound softly on a spoon; loosen it with a splash more buttermilk if it feels stiff.
4. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes while the griddle comes up to temperature — this hydrates the cornmeal and gives the cakes a tender, custardy centre.
5. Butter the hot griddle generously and drop the batter in 1/4-cup mounds, spacing them well apart. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the edges look dry and bubbles break across the surface.
6. Flip and cook another 2 to 3 minutes, until deeply golden and springy in the middle. Slide the finished cakes to the cooler edge of the griddle to keep warm while you cook the rest.
7. Season the sliced tomatoes with flaky salt and let them sit for a few minutes so they release their juices, then drizzle with the sunflower oil.
8. Pile the warm corn cakes onto plates, top with the tomato slices and a heavy scatter of crumbled telemea, and finish with black pepper and any tomato juices left in the bowl.
9. Romanian cooks have relied on cornmeal since maize arrived in the Danube basin in the seventeenth century, and mamaliga — the soft polenta these cakes descend from — became the everyday bread of the countryside. Turning that same batter into griddle cakes is a camp-cook's shortcut: no long stirring, no heavy pot, just a hot pan over embers. Paired with August tomatoes at their absolute peak and the salty tang of telemea, a sheep's-milk cheese cured in brine, it is a breakfast that tastes like a Carpathian smallholding in high summer.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 520 kcal
• Protein: 19g
• Fat: 26g
• Carbohydrates: 52g
• Fiber: 4g
• Sugar: 8g
• Sodium: 890mg