Zucchini Fritters

What do you do when your grand plans of picnics in the sun get foiled by mother nature? In my world, you go have a drink (or several) and cook up something good in your kitchen. This past fourth of July weekend, the normally incessantly sunny Texas weather would not push through the rain clouds, and my picnic companions and were forced to retreat to the great indoors of our living rooms. Luckily, we salvaged the evening my imbibing in many delicious drinks and foods – one of which was a quick little experiment in making zucchini fritters – and playing drinking jenga:

That ended up being a pretty hilarious time, and boy was I glad to have something good in my stomach to absorb all those shots that appeared when I pulled yet ANOTHER jenga block that said: “Turn around 3 times and take a shot if you are over 5 ft tall.”

As for the birth of the zucchini fritters amidst this debauchery, I happened to have a bunch of zucchini lying around, so I shredded them up, tossed them with some stuff to bind the shreds together, and fried those babies into crunchy, happy little zucchini fritters.

Key points to remember:

1. Squeeze out as much water as you can from the shredded zucchni – they drier the veggie, the crunchier your fritter

2. Season well – Lawry’s Garlic Salt in econo size is your friend here!

3. Sour cream + sriracha is an awesome sauce!

Check the video and try out the recipe!

Servings: 8-10 2 inch fritters

Ingredients:

• 2 zucchinis
• 1 egg
• about 1 cup of corn meal
• 1 TB garlic salt
• couple dashes of ground black pepper

Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 cup fat free sour cream
• 2 TB siracha sauce (or something else spicy)

Steps:

1. Shred the zucchini finely. A mandolin works great here. You could also use your food processor, or, if you are crazy, hand shred.
2. Wrap the shredded zucchini in paper towel and squeeze out as much water as you can. You may go through several paper towels. Cheesecloth would also work well here for a greener alternative. I didnt have cheese cloth. Forgive me, Captain Planet!
3. In a bowl, stir to combine zucchini, egg, garlic salt, pepper.
4. When you are ready to cook, heat up 2 TB oil in a pan. Once it’s just starting to smoke, grab about 2 TB zucchini mix, press into a pattie, slap each side into a bowl of corn meal, and drop in the hot pan. Repeat for as many patties as will fit in your pan. Cook each fritter about 2 min each side, or until you have a nice brown crust.
5. Remove from heat and place on towel lined plate to drain any excess oil.
6. In a sauce bowl, stir to combine sour cream & sriracha.
7. Serve while warm with a dollop of sour cream sauce!