An Insurance Policy – Fritters

When I was a little girl I used to be worried that something would happen to my mum and with her would go her recipe for macaroni cheese.  In retrospect I find this rather odd,  as I love my mother very much and surely not having a mother would take precedence over food.  Besides which its not that hard to locate recipes when you need them.  There is also the fact that I’m fairly sure the macaroni cheese in question was made with Kraft blue block cheese (the colour may vary from country to country but if I tell you it didn’t require refrigeration you’ll probably get the picture….) and regardless of how carefully one makes the roux it surely can’t have tasted that much different from the packet variety anyway.

However it is with this particular fear in mind though I bring you, or rather my children if they ever need it, my recipe for fritters.   Fritters are a fabulous thing for kitchen gardener.  I’m of the firm belief that you can turn pretty much anything into a fritter but I think the sweeter vegetables work the best.   I have two favourites; Corn fritters are an old favourite and Carrot Fritters were the result of reading about Diana at Kebun Malay Kadazan Girls‘ carrot frittata.  I make fritters, with the kids help, as much as my mum used to make macaroni cheese.  Actually given the kids help they should pretty much know the recipe by now but just in case they haven’t been paying attention…

Corn Fritters

• 2 cups corn kernels
• 1/2 small capsicum – finely chopped
• a small onion – finely chopped
• a small bunch of parsley – finely chopped
• a small bunch of coriander – finely chopped
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Pepper
• 1 egg – lightly beaten
• 150 – 200ml milk
• Oil for cooking

Mix together the flour, baking powder, paprika, pepper and salt.  Add the egg and 150ml of the milk, mix together.  Now add as much of the rest of the milk as you need to form a thick batter (I usually use the full 200ml but if you are a bit under with the flour then less would be needed).  Add the vegetables and herbs to the batter and mix.

Coat the base of a large frying pan with oil.  Heat the oil and add spoonfuls of the fritter mixture.  Cook the fritters over a low – medium heat until you can see bubbles forming in the batter.  Flip the fritters over and cook the other side until golden brown.  Drain on kitchen paper.

If we are having them for lunch I often serve them with a mint yoghurt (about 20 finely chopped mint leaves, 1 cup of greek yoghurt and the juice of half a lemon) and roasted tomatoes (as pictured above).

To make Carrot Fritters:

Substitute carrot for the corn.  Replace the paprika with 1/4 tsp of cumin & 1/4 tsp coriander.  In all other respects the recipe remains the same.

The hand above is grabbing the grapefruit out of a grapefruit , fennel and avocado salad I served alongside the fritters.  He did eat the fritters later…..

PS:  Isn’t it aggravating when recipes say ” a bunch of parsley” leaving you no real idea as to how much that actually means.  Well guess what I have done exactly that here but I have also included this photo to show you what a small bunch of parsley and a small bunch of coriander look like.