Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Pan-fried Squash Fritters

In my eternal quest to turn our healthy CSA bounty into something less healthy, I set out to make some squash fritters recently with some Magda squash and Benning's patty pan squash we got from our fabulous CSA farm, Tecolote.

I used this recipe as a base, but since I had no idea how large the original recipe author's squash were, I sort of winged it on the proportions. I just love a forgiving recipe, don't you?

I started with this much squash:

Photo May 26, 12 56 51 PM*.jpg


Shredded it up in my brand new food processor (yay!), along with a small spring onion, also from Tecolote:

Photo May 26, 1 08 15 PM*.jpg


Added in two eggs, a cup of shredded cheddar cheese, and a whole cup of flour. The recipe calls for only 1/4 c of flour and suggests that the batter will be "almost a dry mix" at this point. But even after a full cup of flour, it wasn't even close to being dry. So I did what most home cooks would do; I cheerfully ignored the recipe and started frying flattened spoonfuls in a skillet with a little peanut oil.

It worked.

Photo May 26, 1 32 05 PM*.jpg
If When I make these again, I'll probably try draining the squash or squeezing it out with paper towels before mixing in the other ingredients to see if I can dry out the batter a bit. I liked them as they were, though - ever so slightly crunchy on the outside, but soft and squash-y (that's "squash-y," not squishy) on the inside. My friend Jackie described them as being sort of like squash crepes, which I think is a good description.

Photo May 27, 4 38 57 PM.jpg

You can top these with all manner of condiments depending on your tastes - a little sour cream or creme fraiche and a light sprinkle of sea salt is wonderful, or you can even eat them with a few drops of soy sauce and Asian hot oil to mimic a potsticker flavor. They make for a nice, light summer meal, or could be served as a side dish.

Mission un-healthify squash, complete.

9 comments:

  1. My boss told me something I'll never forget. "If deep frying vegetables is the only way you'll eat vegetables, then you deep fry your vegetables!" That is now my take on unhealthifying veggies. ;)

    P.S. That was me from Dishcrawl following you on twitter!

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  2. Those look so good-- I can't wait to get squash from my dad's garden this summer so I can try them!

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  3. A good way to get a bunch of the moisture out of the squash is to put the grated squash on a sturdy plate, place a matching plate on top, hold upright them over the sink, and squeeze the plates together as hard as you can. I suspect if you salted the grated squash a bit and let it sit for a half an hour before you squeeze it, you could get most of the liquid out. But, as optimista says, even if you don't get most of the moisture out, the result is still eminently edible.

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  4. Grated summer squash hold an amazing quantity of liquid. My first time, I didn't know this either, and kept adding flour, ending up with flour fritters with bits of summer squash. The outcome becomes predictable, as I found, when the squash are dried first. I squeeze them in paper towels and add some moisture back with buttermilk.

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  5. Mmm looks so good! I never think about eating squash this way. I'm inspired!

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  6. Wow, Michelle, those look delicious. I've never been a squash fan, but I think I may give these a try.

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  7. I forgot to put in my first post that, in my experience, there is a big difference in the water content of green and yellow squash, yellow having much more liquid. My results with yellow squash are inconsistent, because it's hard to squeeze all the water out. So, for fritters that are just as good and require little or no squeezing, I recommend zucchini. You can dress it up with a chicken broth/milk gravy with shredded chicken.

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