Fast Food : Courgette Fritters

Some call them zucchini, we call them courgettes and I absolutely love them.  You can stuff and bake them, turn them into a silky-smooth soup, fry them with lemon and garlic or do what I did on Wednesday night and turn them into crispy, pillowy delicious fritters.

There's a couple of tricks to turn them into fritters.  Firstly, you need to grate them.  If you have a food processor with a grating disc, then use it. It reduces the courgettes into teeny tiny shreds in mere seconds and saves you heaps of time.  But if you don't, it will only take a few minutes using a hand grater.

When you have a pile of green shreds, get a white tea towel & dump the courgettes into the middle,  Gather it into a bundle, bring it over to the sink & squeeze.  Repeat until floods of green water have come through the towel & the remaining courgettes feel solid & dry.  This is great for toning your arms too... see, cooking is good for you!

Now on with the recipe...

Courgette Fritters

2 medium Courgettes, grated & squeezed dry
1 tbsp Plain Flour
2 Eggs, beaten
1 tbsp Herbs, finely chopped - try mint, parsley, chives or thyme
Zest of 1 lemon
1 clove of Garlic, minced
2 Spring Onions, shredded
Salt & pepper
Oil for frying

Once your courgettes have been grated & squeezed dry to remove all of the liquid, put them into a large bowl.

Add the flour, eggs, herbs, lemon zest, garlic, spring onions and seasoning & mix well.

Heat the oil (I use Rapeseed) in a large frying pan & place tablespoons of the mixture into the pan,  Gently flatten down with the back of the spoon and cook for a few minutes until the bottom is golden brown.  Leave them alone until you can see the golden edges - they're a bit fragile and need to be undisturbed or they'll just disintegrate.  Flip them over with a spatula or palette knife & give them another few minutes until cooked.

Remove from the pan & serve with a wedge of the zest-less lemon.  Eat immediately.