Posted by kathryn in Eggs, Dinners, Spring, Summer, Vegetables and Recipes

Fritters are a great way to make vegetables a bit different. If you struggle to get your daily vegetable quota, or find it impossible to get your kids to eat vegies, then fritters are a good option. They don’t really look or taste like vegetables and don’t have an obvious vegetable texture. They can be “sold” to kids as burgers, something all kids recognise (certainly in Australia).

Fritters are also quick and easy to cook – grate some vegetables; mix together with eggs and a bit of flour; add in some herbs for extra flavour and then you just have to cook them. If you use a grill plate or a non-stick frying pan, you don’t even need to use a lot of oil, which keeps the fat content down.

I recently bought a new cookery book – Claudia Roden’s Arabesque. I love a new cookery book and am quite happy to spend hours poring over it staring intently at each recipe and photo. My mind is sent on a train of thought about what I’m going to cook and when. Plus there’s working out which recipes can be vegetarian-ised and reading the story behind the book. As per usual, I’ve been cooking obsessively from the new book. In the two weeks I’ve owned it, I’ve made three salads, one stew, one pie and these fritters.

I’ve made very few changes to Claudia’s recipe. I’ve reduced the onion and added in some garlic. Just as I was about to cook these fritters I noticed that I Love Milk & Cookies is hosting the latest round of the beautifully named food event – Hay, Hay, it’s Donna Hay and the theme is F for Fritters , so this also doubles as my entry.

Zucchini Fritters

Adapted from Arabesque by Claudia Roden. Serves 4.

• 1/2 red onion, chopped finely
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
• 500g zucchini (about 4), grated – I used the coarser blade on my grater
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 3 sprigs mint, chopped coarsely
• 3 sprigs dill, chopped coarsely
• 200g feta cheese, mashed with a fork
• Olive oil for cooking

Heat a large frying pan on a medium heat, add the onion and stir-fry gently for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and zucchini and continue cooking gently, until they are soft (about 7 – 8 minutes).

While this is cooking, beat together the eggs and flour, ensuring there are no lumps. Add the herbs, feta and season with black pepper (it won’t need any salt added, because of the feta).

Once the zucchini is cooked, add that to the egg and feta mixture and stir to combine. As you can see from the photo above (on the right), this forms quite a sloppy, wet mixture, don’t worry, it’s meant to be like that.

I cooked the fritters on the flat side of a grill-plate, but you could also use a non-stick frying pan. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into the pan and heat to a medium temperature. Cook on one side for 2 – 3 minutes, until browned and then turn over. They will still be quite wet at this stage, so take care when turning. Cook the other side for 2 – 3 minutes, again until browned. Drain on kitchen paper and then serve.

NB: I used about 2 dessertspoonfuls of batter to make each fritter and you can cook a few at a time. It’s important you don’t make them too big, otherwise they fall apart when turned over. At the end of each batch you’ll need to add another drizzle of oil to the pan.

• Roden, Claudia, Arabesque , Michael Joseph, 2005, London

13 October, 2006