Do you have an abundance of zucchinni in your garden? I don’t but friends do and they are generous about sharing. Aside from making zoodles I’ve been using the following recipe to use up the lovely garden goodness. Since I hate when bloggers give you nineteen paragraphs of a story before getting to the recipe, here’s the recipe, which is imprecise because I just generally throw this together. Don’t worry, it’s forgiving.
I used five zucchini because they were short and stumpy. Three long ones would suffice. Grate them. I used my food processor but a competent child with a box grater in a bowl can easily be occupied for twenty minutes with this.
Throw them in a cheesecloth lined colander. A thin, linen or cotton tea towel works as well. Liberally salt the zucchini and walk away for about 15 minutes. This is important, you want to draw the moisture out.
This is important. Do not skip this step or you will have mushy sad fritters and the angels will weep for you. Squeeze all of the water out of that zucchini. Put all your muscle into it and when you get tired grab that competent child and ask them to give a squeeze.
Lightly beat three eggs and toss with the zucchini. This is where I eyeball. You want all the zucchini coated but not too wet. It’s supposed to barely bind it together. Start with few eggs and add if you think it’s too dry. A good ratio is two less eggs than vegetable.
Now add about a half cup of bread crumbs. I am a low carb person so I use almond meal which works beautifully. Almond flour works as well but the texture is a little less meaty, so I prefer the meal. Coconut flour is not a good idea for this recipe. I know some people pulse their pork rinds as use them in place of bread crumbs and I feel like these people must be stopped but if that’s your jam try it and let me know.
I tossed in about one-third of a cup of grated Pecorino Romano. Parmesan works well too.
This is the time to add some flavor. Onion powder (or actual minced onions), garlic (powdered or minced), seasoning salt, whatever you like. Toss it all well.
Carefully, using your hands, take some of the mixture in a small portion, roll it and them gently, gently pat it flat and lay it in a pan of hot oil. I used vegetable oil with half a stick of butter for flavor (I never said this was healthy). Fry until the edges start to brown and then, using a wide spatula, gently flip over. I was using my cast iron pan and my non stick, both fried up the fritters really well. Don’t crowd the pan and keep an eye on the how hot the oil gets, you may need to adjust the temp so your second or third batch don’t burn.
Drain on a paper towel lined rack over a baking sheet. This is important because of the sad mushy thing I spoke of before. I serve these with sour cream. I wish I had a picture of them on a pretty serving dish with the accompanying small bow of sour cream but these never made it to a dish. People kept walking past them and snitching them off the rack. They are that good.
Non-recipe Recipe
I encourage adjustments for flavor and amounts
5 stubby zucchini or 3 lengthy ones
3 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs or almond meal
1/3 cup grated hard cheese of your choice
onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper to taste
Pat zucchini mixture into small patties and fry in hot oil for about 3 minutes on each side. Drain and enjoy. Equally good hot or room temp.
Leave a Reply