Zucchini and Corn Fritters

I love fritters. Do you? The first fritters I ate was my late grandma's cucur udang (which she calls "genang udang") and subsequently I forgot all about fritters until an aunt's Indonesian maid served freshly fried vegetable fritters during a visit some years ago.

It was Kris' post on the Zucchini and Corn Fritters that she had at a restaurant that got me itching for these fritters hee..hee... Well, I don't have a chance to go to that place anytime soon, so I had to DIY my own fritters.

So. I went to Jaya Grocer to get two ears of corn and one medium sized zucchini.  That weekend I was all set and raring to go!

Removing corn kernels can be a messy affair. I once had corn kernels flying everywhere and landing on the kitchen counter, in the sink and on the floor. Bah! 

This time I wised up. I put the stainless steel tray that I saved from last year's Chinese New Year poon choy to good use. I also cut each ear of corn into half for easier handling. 

Then I grated the zucchini using a box grater. To remove excess moisture, I basically took small handfuls of the grated zucchini and squeezed by hand.

Then I made the batter. Now, I don't have an exact recipe as I just eyeballed it. I started off with 1.5 cups of self-raising flour and 0.5 cup of rice flour. To that I added 1 tablespoon each of onion and garlic powder and 1 heap teaspoon of sea salt and black pepper All these were whisked to evenly mix everything together.

Then I added water, bit by bit until I had a batter that was neither too watery nor too thick. I also added an egg. I added a bit more flour after that because the batter was too liquid. After that, I added the corn and grated zucchini.

I heated up my cast iron pan and added some oil. To test if the oil was hot enough, I simply took a bit of batter and dropped in into the oil. It sizzled and floated, which meant that my pan was ready.

I used a soup ladle to scoop the batter and dropped it gently into the hot oil. As you can see, my first batch were big ass fritters heh...heh...

These are the steps I observed which I am listing down here for my future reference and I hope that it will help if you are making fritters for the first time.

1. The batter must not be too watery or too thick (use your own judgement). You have to take into account that the zucchini will continue to release water as the batter stands while you are frying up a batch.

2. Make sure that the oil is very hot. 

3. Before scooping the batter, give it a stir first. Do this every time before you drop a fresh batch of batter into the hot oil.

Then scoop the batter and drop it gently into the oil. To get a nice even shape, drop the batter in such a way that it piles onto itself (I hope you understand what I mean).

4. Don't be in a hurry to flip the fritter. Let the bottom part form a crust and the fritter firm up first before flipping or else you will end up with a mess.

5. You can flip the fritter a few times to achieve the level of browning that you like. Remove from pan and drain on a wire rack or metal strainer.

I find that if you drain it on a plate lined with kitchen towels, it tends to get soggy. Let it cool on the rack first before draining on kitchen towels.

I tested one fritter when it was cool enough heh..heh... Whoah nice leh, so crispy and so tasty!

I love these with sweet chili sauce and these fritters stay crispy while they are warm.

I'm sorry I am not able to put a recipe because I agak-agak all my ingredients. There are many recipes you can google and many variations to what you can put into your fritter.