Fried Zucchini Patties

Here's What I Use For This Recipe:
* zucchini
* milk
* eggs
* flour
* sparkling mineral water (club soda)
* salt

As you see I didn't give you the exact quantities. That's because those depend on how thick you like your batter to be i.e. how soft or hard you like your patties to taste. It's pretty much the same as when you make pancakes and you adjust the amount of flour and/or milk according to how you want pancakes to turn out at the end. However, this time my daughter "ordered" some super soft patties with a bit more batter so zucchini weren't exactly in the spotlight:) If you prefer it the other way around like I do, then you simply have to change the ratio in favor of zucchini in order to get those full taste patties in which zucchini dominate. In other words - it's up to you.

Tip: sparkling water is great for batters because it gives that special softness and you need less milk too, so the patties turn out to be lighter.

For the patties to be nice and soft you need to grate zucchini. Now, as zucchini are gentle to begin with you don't need too fine grater. A coarse shredding one is the best. That way you'll taste mostly zucchini when eating patties and that's the point. Again, if you want to "camouflage" the veggies for your kids for example, the batter part of the recipe will help you do just that. In that case grate zucchini fine and kids will never know, but only if you peel zucchini first:)

This trick is mostly very well known among cooks and is used not only for zucchini, but egg plants and squashes too. The point is to use salt as a vegetable juice extractor. Why? Simply to mix the veggie you prepare with the batter without having too much watery mixture. For the patties here that's very important, because you wouldn't want them to be mashy inside as they're not fried enough. So, put a pinch of salt here and give it some 10 to 15 minutes to work. During that time you make the batter.

I used two eggs for two zucchini as you see, but the rest I just can't tell you precisely. Don't worry though, as I explained above you just have to play with flour and milk to get the batter you like best. On the next photo you'll see me putting it into the hot oil with the spoon and you'll see it was more liquid than tick. Again, your personal taste will decide.

See what I was talking about? This is the juice out of two medium sized zucchini I used.

When you finish the final mixture, make sure it's salty just the way you like it. It's usually not necessary to add any more salt, because zucchini were salted before draining. However there are many other spices you can add at this point if you like: some garlic powder, pepper, parsley, dill or even a pinch of nutmeg. My recipe is missing all these favorite spices of mine, again, because of my picky daughter:) Stir it well and start putting spoonfuls in the hot oil one by one.

Tip: Heat should be medium to high and you can use the spoon to shape the patties the way you like.

If you press harder with the spoon the patties will be more flat and fried quicker, but you can leave them thicker in which case you'll have to fry them a bit longer. All in all the frying takes some 3 to 4 minutes per each side.

Tip: The right moment to turn your zucchini patties over to the other side is when you see the edges getting drier i.e. not dripping anymore.

This is how it should look like when you turn them over, but you can fry them more if you like. However, be careful not to burn them, because we're talking about just a few minutes difference here.

As soon as the patties are done, put them on some well absorbent paper towel to remove that extra oil. If you like you can even take each pattie in your hands and squeeze it gently between the paper towel.

Voila! You did it! You made it to the end of the recipe and after some 30 minutes of your effort you get to taste this treat.

Congratulations and enjoy your meal :)

On February 24th 2012 this recipe got the purple star award.

Thank you Squidoo!