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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Hello, my name is Janet and I am an addict.

I am addicted to magazines. All kinds. Mostly cooking. House and Garden too. As addictions go - it could be much worse...
This pile is a selection of February and March issues of some of my favourite cooking magazines. I want to cook with the seasons, and I also want to find recipes that are good for me. So, I decided to look through my magazines and put post-its on each recipe that I wanted to try.... can you see them all? I have my work cut out for me, but I'm up for it :-)
There is something comforting about the word 'fritters'. It sounds no-fuss, no-frills. I like that kind of food. I'm not a chef, just a home cook. I like cooking things that can be done ahead. I'm a one-pot kind of girl - and not just because I get to do the washing up too. I love using spices, I love curries and stews and casseroles. These fritters are a little bit special - with prawns in - but they have the advantage of using up some of the zucchini that just keep coming

Prawn and Zucchini Fritters

2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
250g green prawn meat - roughly chopped
1 zucchini (about 100g - obviously whoever wrote this recipe doesn't grow zucchini the way we grow zucchini)


uhoh - this is what happens if you miss picking one...
2/3 cup of flour. (the original recipe called for tempura flour. I can't use regular flour, but I made a batch of muffins the other day using ratios that Shauna and The Chef worked out at www.glutenfreegirl. I used some of that left-over flour - my mix had ground almonds and buckwheat and cornflour in it. Tempura flour would probably make a crisper finish to the batter, but we had no complaints)
Oil to deep-fry
Sweet chilli sauce - to serve.

Toast the seeds in a dry fry pan until fragrant (they didn't do this in the original recipe, but it doesn't take long at all, and it makes a huge difference to the flavour in other recipes - so I did it this way).
Grind the toasted spices in a coffee grinder that you use just for spices - or use a mortar and pestle.
(If you don't want to do any of this - use half the quantity of each spice ground)
Put the spices into a bowl with the chopped prawn meat and the coarsely grated zucchini.
Add flour and mix well.
Make a well in the centre and mix in about 1/4 cup of iced water. You should have a thick batter - add a little more water if you need to.
Heat oil in a deep fryer to 190c (or until a cube of bread turns golden in 30 seconds - if you can get gluten-free bread to go golden - you are a better man than I am)
Carefully put heaped tablespoons of  the batter into the pan and cook for about 3 minutes until golden and cooked through.
Drain on a paper towel

We ate them splodged with the Chilli Jam I made the other day.
The recipe says it serves 4 as a starter, but I forgot to count them all... this is not them all :-)


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh My Gosh. All my friends laugh at me for having post-it notes in my recipe books. Mine are colour coded!

clevelandkat said...

Love the kitty/zucchini picture!

Janet NZ said...

Hi sleepinghorse - mine are colour coded too! I REALLY need to get out more :-)

Hi Kathryn - thanks! :-)