Food: Savoury Courgette Cakes

Savoury Courgette Cakes

This recipe is yet another adaptation from Nigel Slater, his Zucchini Cakes with Dill and Feta from the first Kitchen Diaries.  For the sake of frugality I don't use feta but feel they are non the worse for that.  And. as with so many recipes, I swap around the flavourings from time to time, and may use coriander rather than dill, or sometimes (alright, quite often) chuck in a fresh hot red chilli.



For 2 of us

1 very large courgette with marrow tendencies, or two smaller ones.  You are looking for about 600g or so once grated.
Large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or crushed
Bunch dill, finely chopped
Olive oil for frying
1 egg
3-4 tablespoons self-raising flour
Salt and pepper

Grate the courgette - I use the grating blade on a food processor - and place in sieve over a bowl and sprinkle with a little salt.  If the vegetables are quite large, remove the central core and seeds before grating.  Leave to purge while you chop the onions and garlic and then sweat them off in a large frying pan with a little olive oil.

They should become soft and gooey, rather than dark and crunchy.  Unless you prefer dark and crunchy, in which case go for it!

By now the courgette should have exuded some evil-looking green water into the bowl; using your hands gently squeeze the shredded courgette to remove as much water as possible and then place in a clean bowl.  Add the dill, fried onions and garlic, a good scrunching of black pepper and the egg to the bowl with a couple of tablespoons of the flour.  Gently mix together and if the mixture is too soft and wet add a little more flour.  You want the mixture to be firm enough to spoon into the frying pan, but not so full of flour that it becomes doughy.

Check the seasoning for salt - it may well have enough from the purging phase.

Add a little more olive oil to the frying pan and dollop in the mixture .  I use a couple of metal spoons and shape the fritters once they are in the pan.  Leave them to cook gently until a good crust has formed on the base - if you tinker with them they may stick and fall apart.  Carefully turn over to allow them to cook on the other side.  They need to cook through or the flour will taste raw, but not so long that the courgette shreds lose all of their crunch and bite.

They are best eaten straight from the pan as they seem to go greasy and soggy if left for any time.  We seem to have got into a rut and always have them with couscous and a spicy fruity apple jelly.  Although yesterday we had some of the Yellow Tomato and Chilli Ketchup I made earlier in the summer.

A word of advice - clean the grating equipment as soon as possible as the residue from the courgettes is as sticky as a sticky thing.  It sneers at our dishwasher.