Zucchini & Squash Recipes

Last post, I mentioned we've been eating squash and zucchini almost daily it seems.  This is still mostly true. So, I thought I'd start keeping track of how many ways we have found to eat these great summer veggies for posterity.   Last night, we modified a family favorite, corn fritters.  All of my kids eat, and frequently request these corn fritters that are in my Williams Sonoma Comfort Food cookbook that is one of the best and most used cookbooks in my arsenal.  If you have never made these, you should.  We dip them in maple syrup and everyone eats them like candy. So, since I have zucchini coming out of every orifice, seemingly, I decided to swap out some corn for zucchini. 

Here is the recipe:

Corn & Zucchini Fritters

1 cup shredded zucchini

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat just because I'm like that)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

salt & pepper to taste

1 tsp. honey

1 cup fresh corn cut off the cob (from about 1 or 2 ears)

1 cup kefir (or buttermilk, use what you have)

2 eggs

lard (or oil), for frying

So.  I waited too long to pick a couple of zucchini and they were like 3 lbs. each.  I took one of those, which are super watery at this point, and shredded it.  You can do this with smaller zucchini, but either way you should put the zucchini in a colander and salt it, to get some of the moisture out.  If you wait too long to pick like I did, you may need to wait a little longer.  10 minutes or so should work.  Then rinse, and squeeze as much water out as you can with your hands.  You can freeze whatever you don't use to make more of these later or put in bread or something.

While the zucchini is sweating, mix all your dry ingredients together in a bowl

Put the honey, corn, kefir, and eggs in a food processor and puree.  Then mix it with the dry ingredients, and stir in your shredded zucchini.

Heat your lard (or oil) until it's good and hot.  I don't have a thermometer to measure what temperature this is, but if you are using lard, then once it has all melted and then started to heat up you should be close.  You can test it by dropping some of the batter in, it should float up to the top fairly quickly and begin to fry. Drop about 1 Tablespoon in at a time and fry up all the batter.  You should get about 40 or so.  I lost count because several of us started eating them before I was finished frying.  We dip them in maple syrup but they are tasty without as well. None of my kids love zucchini, and they all eat this. Even the two little boys, who don't eat dinner unless it's pizza or hot dogs ate these.  Any that are leftover are usually eaten for breakfast the next day. 

Note about frying in lard: the stuff you buy in the store is bad for you.  I only cook with olive oil and coconut oil, neither of which I would deep fry in.  If you can find a reputable farmer and render this stuff yourself, it is worth the time and effort.  Plus you can fry in it several times, just strain the big pieces out and put it in the refrigerator.