Courgette Fritters

These fritters make a nice light lunch or impressive starter and are also great as a snack or canapé with drinks. If you are serving them as a snack, make them slightly smaller – 1 heaped teaspoon rather than the 1 heaped tablespoon needed for the larger portion.

Yield:
makes about 12 fritters
Category:
Lunch and Sandwiches
Cuisine:
Isreali

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 medium courgettes,(zucchini) trimmed and coarsely grated (580g)
  • 2 small shallots, finely chopped (50g)
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • Finely grated zest of 2 limes
  • 60g (1/2 cup) AP flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 21/2 tsp ground coriander
  • 11/2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 150g halloumi or feta, roughly broken into 1-2 cm chunks
  • About 150ml sunflower oil, for frying
  • Coarse sea salt and black pepper
  • Lime and cardamom sour cream:
  • 200 ml sour cream
  • 5g coriander, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Mix together all the ingredients for the soured cream sauce in a small bowl, along with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a grind of black pepper. Set aside in the fridge until ready to serve.
  2. Place the grated courgettes in a colander and sprinkle over 1 teaspoon salt. Set aside for 10 minutes, then squeeze them to remove most of the liquid: you want the courgettes to keep a little bit of moisture, so don’t squeeze them completely dry. Transfer to a large bowl and add the shallots, garlic, lime zest, flour, eggs, ground coriander, cardamom and a grind of black pepper. Mix well to form a uniform batter, then fold in the cheese gently so it doesn’t break up much.
  3. Pour enough oil into a large frying pan so it rises 2-3mm up the sides and place on a medium heat. Once hot, add 4 separate heaped tablespoons of the mixture to the pan, spacing them well apart and flattening each fritter slightly with the flat side of a slotted spoon as they cook. Cook for 6 minutes turning once, halfway through until golden and crisp. Serve with the sauce in a bowl to the side.

Print