Courgette and Halloumi Fritters
On fritters and why they are hard
I like fritters. I really do but they are deceptively difficult. The interplay between ingredients, the wetness of your mix, the pan and cooking temperature means I don’t have a method that I can consider the grand unifying theory of fritters.
In an example of this complexity, this recipe made 3 batches of 6. The first one I used quite a lot of oil going for a very crispy exterior but there were a bit greasy in the final eating. So, then I just used the residual oil for the second batch resulting in something more like a welsh cake. Acceptable, but not really a fritter. Finally, hoping a third way was possible I used about a tablespoon of sunflower oil and have the result above, nice but not as crispy as they could be. I think this batter mix could stand going on the big burner on high as they did not seem keen to burn. Maybe its because there’s no egg in the mix, just plain and rice flour. Maybe its because there’s no R in the month. Maybe one day I will know all there is to know about fritters.
Until that day comes make these because they are quite nice and the rice flour sets quickly meaning they are relatively easy to flip. As long as you don’t crowd your pan, which I invariably do.
Courgette and Halloumi Fritters; a little adapted from One by Anna Jones
Courgette and Halloumi Fritters
Ingredients
- 2 or 3 Courgettes
- 200 g Halloumi grated or chopped finely
- 100 g Plain Flour
- 100 g Rice Flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp Dried Mint
- Water or Milk as needed
- Oil for frying
Instructions
- Grate the courgettes into a bowl, squeeze out some of their liquid but leave this in the bowl to form the batter.
- Add the halloumi salt and both flours and stir to mix.
- Add a little water or milk to form a spoonable batter. Its difficult to describe what this is exactly but you are looking for a consistency that's thick, maybe like yogurt.
- Heat oil in a pan over a fairly high heat. Spoon the batter into the pan, you can fit about 6 spoons in a 30 cm pan. Spread the fritter out flatter in the oil so that they will cook through more quickly.
- When they are brown, see above for a clue, turn over and cook on the other side. Drain on kitchen roll.
- Cook more batches the same way, or use several pans. Serve as soon as possible.