Southwestern Fritters

I've discovered another way to squeeze some of your seemingly endless summer squash into a few more dishes.  I made these fritters fairly quickly and wanna know the best part?  I was able to freeze a whole batch of them, take out a few for dinner a day or two later, put them in the toaster oven to bake for 10min or so and Ta-Da! Just as tasty as when they were fresh out of the frying pan!

Soooo.... this post will be the test as to whether or not Boyfriend actually reads my blog.  See, he hates zucchini.  Hates.  The problem is that I get tons of squash in my CSA box every week and I'm sorry, but I personally can't manage to consume it all alone.  So I attempted to sneak it into a meal and see if he could taste it.  Tricky, I know.  To be completely honest, I'm feeling pretty confident after the Incognito Beets adventure.

Ingredients

1 large or 2 medium zucchini
1 medium-large potato
1 small onion, diced finely
3/4-1C flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsps milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp lime zest
2 tbsps fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper

First, grate the zucchini and the potato and place into a colander with some salt to pull out some of the moisture.  I wish I had a box-grater because using my hand-held grater got pretty old, pretty quick.

Let the veggies sit and drain in the colander for about 10min or so while you prepare the other ingredients.

Dice up the onion and cook it for about 5min in an oiled and heated skillet.  Once the onions are done, add them to a medium mixing bowl.

Grabbing small amounts of the potato/zucchini mixture in your hands, squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can and add this mess to the onion and mix.  Add the remaining ingredients (flour, egg, etc) and stir to combine.  Be careful with the flour, you'll need more or less depending on how much liquid you were able to remove from the squash and potato.  Basically, you want a smooth, almost pancake batter-like dough - but slightly thicker in consistency.

Let the batter sit for about 30min to rest and mingle.

Heat 1/4" of vegetable oil to "shimmering" for frying your fritters.  Drop large spoonfuls (2 tbsps?) of the batter into the hot oil, without crowding, and fry for approximately 4 min per side until golden brown and delicious.

I drained these on paper towels and once cool, placed them in a single layer on a cookie sheet in the freezer for 2-3 hours.  Into a freezer bag they went, and now I can have them anytime the mood strikes me.

Oh, and I'm sure you're curious... but I told Boyfriend that the green "flecks" were cilantro :)  He ate them right up, and so did I.  They were very tasty, similar in texture and taste to hush puppies.  Next time I might try to add some corn or black beans to the batter to boost the nutritional value.

Stay tuned, I'll be posting the rest of our dinner soon.